Kevin Standlee: Fandom Is My Way of Life

Today's planned journey was only about 250 miles, but we seriously took our time doing it, because there was so much to see. When we checked in to the Cheyenne Holiday Inn Express last night, I told the front desk agent that we'd be driving to North Platte, Nebraska today and he said, "Well, you'll be very bored." Boy, was he wrong.

As with the other entries in this series, click through to Flickr to see more photos. I hope some of you are doing so. I've been cataloging and tagging them all.

( Wyoming Transportation Museum )

We had budgeted two hours for the museum. It wasn't enough. At least three would have been better. As it was, I felt I was rushing, because I like to read displays and look at things.

In the gift shop, Lisa bought me a big thick two-volume history of the Union Pacific railroad as a birthday present. (My birthday is August 27.) We then set off to leave Cheyenne and pick up a couple of "targets of opportunity" on the way out of town.

( Cheyenne's Big Boy and the Merci Train )

After refueling (wow, gasoline for less than $2/gallon!) on the outskirts of Cheyenne, we got onto I-80 and sped east toward Nebraska. We pulled off at the Welcome Center at Kimball, collected maps, and got away from the freeway, as it was our plan to try and stay on US-30 and follow the railroad today.

( Museums We Couldn't Visit, and a Detour into Colorado )

Thanks to our circuitous route and moving into the Central Time Zone after Paxton, we did not get to the Holiday Inn Express in North Platte until nearly 10 PM local time. Tomorrow we backtrack slightly to go over to the Golden Spike Tower overlooking UP's Bailey Yard. Lisa has been studying maps of the yard to get an idea of what we'll be looking at tomorrow.

Today's travel mostly repeated an equivalent day on our 2008 trip to Denver for Worldcon, although we didn't have the unwanted auto repair adventure in Wells. (We hope the difficulty with the blower motor earlier this week was sufficient sacrifice to the minivan.)

Last night, while unpacking at the Rainbow Hotel in Wendover, I realized that I'd left my electric razor back home in Fernley. This is particularly galling because I specifically remember getting the razor (a second one that I'd bought so I'd have one in the Rolling Stone all the time) packed and ready to go. Apparently, I set the bag aside and forgot to actually put it in my luggage. I made do with my backup blade razor, but this was not going to be a viable long-term solution because I have really sensitive skin. Still, there was nothing to be done about it immediately, so we got breakfast, packed the van, and set out east. Lisa continued to drive us, leaving me free to take photos from time to time.

There are many photos behind the cuts here. There are even more on my Flickr account; click through any photo to go see the others if you are interested.

( Across the Salt Flats to SLC )

In Salt Lake City, we stopped at a Target store to look for an electric razor for me. I feared that I was going to have to buy a model that had more bells and whistles than I wanted just to get the features that I did want. Fortunately, we found a model that was almost perfect, other than not being the same as my current two razors (so the parts can't be shared between them). On the other hand, this one might become my new preferred model for road trips, because it doesn't require a drop-in charger; the charger just plugs directly into the base of the razor. In any event, Worldcon is spared my "fashionable stubble" look this year.

( Salt Lake City to Echo Canyon )

Not far beyond Echo Canyon, I-80 enters Wyoming. I was amused that the Wyoming port of entry (truck inspection station) is so close to the border that the exit is numbered using the Utah sequence.

( Western Wyoming )

We had been getting steadily farther behind schedule as the day wore on, but that's okay, as we had lots of time to spare. Passing through Green River, Lisa decided to go look at the railroad there, and that turned out to be a really good decision.

( Green River Yard )

We continued on to Rock Springs, where tonight we are staying in the Holiday Inn, where we stayed on August 3, 2008. Today's trip was under far more pleasant circumstances than eight years ago, although we still had to do a room shuffle to find a room with a bathtub (not just a shower stall) in it.

( Bus Tag )

We're very happy to have given ourselves time today to stop and sightsee. Tomorrow is similarly planned so that if we find stuff we want to look at, we don't have to skip it due to an iron timetable.