Evanston - August 31, 2015

I drove today from Rawlins to Evanston - about a three hour drive. The speed limit on  almost all sections of I-80 is 75 miles per hour; on some sections  it is 80 miles per hour, so one zips along. Evanston is in  the extreme southwest corner of Wyoming. The first 50 miles of the drive from Rawlins were, I will admit, barren. Flat prairie, with no visible cattle or anything else. Just thousands of trucks on the highway. I didn't mind using the time to listen to my CD lectures on Mindfulness (truly). But after 50 miles, the landscape became very interesting again, with enormous sand butes and red rock hills. I learned later that this is called the red desert of Wyoming. Now I am really in the rockies, although not the dramatic part. Directly north of me, about 100 miles, are the Grand Tetons and  Yellowstone, which I will soon be visiting. But for now, I am on the Mormon trail, headed through the south pass of the  rockies, downward into Utah. The Mormons are very good about preserving their recent history, and the saga of their handcart pilgrimage from Missouri to Utah in 1845-48 is amazing. That was only the first wave. Others followed, until the intercontinental railroad was completed in 1868.

The western part of Wyoming is heavily Mormon, by some measures. However, my experience indicates that the cowboy thirst for alcohol has not yet been assuaged. Bar and grills constitute the available fare is most of these small towns. Since Mormons do not drink alcohol, I wonder where these establishments get so many customers.  The Presbyterians are certainly too few to support them. And the amount I've spent on alcohol on this trip so far is, zero. The bartenders are kindly enough to provide me a big glass of water. In that respect, I am more Mormon than Presbyterian.

No great picture today, But, so as not to disappoint, here's the motel I left behind in Rawlins.