Love and Death in Rawlins

Well, this was quite the day.

We started out in buttery sunny weather with birdies chirping. And look--lilacs are out!

We drove from the KOA to go to Shoshone Falls but dropped our respective jaws as we drove over this bridge that turns out to be the only bridge from which you can legally parachute down to the Snake River. Drat--and I forgot mine!

Down below was a whole 'nother world within a world, very eerie and cool. I liked the walls too--don't these look like little stone age (literally) people dancing along?

The chamber of commerce types there were great--they had an old dog, so T-Lou could come in and they could have a snifffest. (Ooo, three "f"s in a row!)

Shoshone Falls was just overwhelming with negative ions singing in our ears. Scott and I had done a Valentine's waterfall hike/tour around the Olympics, but this made those things look like trickles. Check it out!

 

So, we got on the road kind of late, but we buzzed along through Idaho:

 Our ritzy potty vs. T-Lou's interesting potty.

It's all about scale.

then Utah, 

 

 At last! I knew I'd find it! Actually, this is Idaho still.

then Wyoming. 

Yeah, it was pretty at first...

We saw signs for Little America and I suddenly remembered that I had been on this highway back in 1964 (yeah, 48 years, ack!) and that there had been penguins and ice cream involved. Their penguin logo was barely there now, but the red brick buildings with faux colonial roofs were still going, along with the 50 cent ice cream cones! We also found a nice little neck pillow. Turns out we didn't get a chance to use it.

Cruising along, we passed a nasty fracking kinda place where the smell knocked you out, other nasty places of utter barreness, and were happy we'd make Rawlins soon.

Only...40 miles or so west of Rawlins, Vanita started going "clack clack clack" and scott pulled over and tried to go a little ways, and that was it. She gave up her oily (or lack thereof) ghost. Probably threw a rod or some other unintelligble thing. I always think "head gasket" myself.

The next hour or so was terrifying. We were barely off the road, and big semis were roaring past us like dinosaurs swimming on a thunderous current. Vanita shuddered (a little after death experience) while we called the police and tried to get a tow. The first place was going to take two to three hours, and it was getting dark. The second place couldn't come because their truck had broken. Finally, we got Jack's with Dave Keller, who jammed right out. (Kim, is this a relative you didn't tell us about? Scott says he was nice in the same way Floyd is.)

Finally, he came with a monster truck, winched Vanita's sad corpse up, attached Scampi, and off we went.

 

T-Lou had a bit of a job hopping up into the cab, but it was roomy in there. Our host was taciturn but in a friendly way and did manage to let us know that he had been totaled just where we were last winter and that four other people had died in various accidents around the area. But he gave us names of people, instantly hooked us up with the local car dealers, shops, etc.

He brought us into the KOA as neatly as you please, and we gave him a CD. It was about 9 p.m. and we spent the next few hours sorting ourselves. Basically, I didn't sleep, but Scott got some. We were both thankful, though, to be alive, to be together, and to be tucked cozily in Scampi, drinking tea and surfing the InterWeb.