As we headed westward from Minneapolis for the second half of our road trip, everything stood in stark contrast to the first section. Instead of damp and chilly evergreen forests we traveled through dry plains and mountains. The winding Northwoods two-lane highways where the trees press in on all sides were replaced by straight as an arrow, 80 mph highways through wide open spaces. Time spent with just Nellie Davis Ross (Alias number 6 and first female governor of Wyoming, which apparently allowed women to vote long before the whole country did. Yeehaw Wyoming!) and the two dogs, our social circle expanded into lots of friends and family groups.
Out first major stop was a wedding in Denver, but we spent one night in Nebraska along the way that encompassed the joy of the American road trip. We drove for almost ten hours, rolling across Minnesota, Iowa, and Nebraska, before finding a city park to camp at in North Platte. This park had it all; a snack stand where six bucks got you two soft serve cups and cheese curds, river trails along the meandering Platte, and wildlife enclosures that included everything from elk to peacocks. It’s a place that would only be an unknown speck below if I was flying from Minneapolis to Denver.
The wedding in Denver was a blast and a wonderful injection of humanity to my extroverted self. I got to meet and re-meet lots of Nellie’s friends from college in Colorado and some new faces as well. I whipped out all my 31-year-old, straight, white guy dance moves which only seem decent in the light of a couple of drinks on a wedding dance floor.
We also got to go on a hike with my aunt and cousin north of Denver that weekend. The hike was a wonderful jaunt up to our first mountain lake of the trip and was a true test of Sasha’s progress. As we pulled up to what I thought was the trailhead, my aunt said “Time to get on the shuttle.” “What shuttle?”, I thought. “Surely it couldn’t be that one with all the strangers crammed into every nook and cranny with my dog who may kill them.” It was indeed that shuttle and Sasha rose to the occasion, panting between my legs with the fear of God in her eyes but never barking or snapping. Sometimes it’s better to not know a challenge lies ahead of you until you have no option but to face it.
After Colorado, we headed up to Wyoming to meet our friends Bonnie and Clyde (aliases of course) who were also on a cross country road trip. We met up in Pinedale, Wyoming and went on a three-day backpacking trip in the Wind Rivers. We only saw two other human souls the whole time (see Sasha sidenote for how that went) and had an incredible time hiking to campsites perched above lakes backdropped with towering snow-dressed mountains. It had been a long time since I’d carried all I need on my back taking in the world around me, and I had missed it.
We rounded out the section with Bonnie and Clyde with a night to rest up in a hotel bed in Pinedale. We stopped in the two cowboy bars in town playing shuffleboard, dancing to jukebox tunes, and catching up on our separate travels before we had met up. I also felt inspired to check off a bucket list item of mine, buying the entire bar a round. In Pinedale, that runs you a cool 51 dollars and earns you a few calloused handshakes and thanks. Not a bad tradeoff.
Sasha sidenote: Avid readers of the blog may be thinking at this point that Sasha is angelic and Airbud-like, conquering all the challenges put in her way. That is not always the case. One of the mornings in the Winds, we let Sasha run muzzle free in the water of the lake we camped on. We hadn’t seen anyone on the trip, it was 6:30 AM, and we were camped away from the main trail. However, we didn’t pay attention to the camping rules, and two park rangers appeared to inform us that camping was not allowed within 200 feet of the water.
I was in the tent and heard Sasha start barking, praying she wouldn’t bite them. While I held Ranger back from joining in the fray, I heard Nellie yelling for Sasha to come back. She eventually did and limited herself to just barking and snapping at the air instead of contacting any skin. When I finally heard the rangers say they were okay and unharmed, I could let out a breath despite my heart still racing.
With Sasha it’s an incredibly fine and dangerous line of giving her space to be exposed and grow while making sure she doesn’t do something that puts someone else or her in danger. We learned lessons from this incident as we have from all the others over the years and will continue to hopefully be on the right side of that line going forward.
Out first major stop was a wedding in Denver, but we spent one night in Nebraska along the way that encompassed the joy of the American road trip. We drove for almost ten hours, rolling across Minnesota, Iowa, and Nebraska, before finding a city park to camp at in North Platte. This park had it all; a snack stand where six bucks got you two soft serve cups and cheese curds, river trails along the meandering Platte, and wildlife enclosures that included everything from elk to peacocks. It’s a place that would only be an unknown speck below if I was flying from Minneapolis to Denver.
The wedding in Denver was a blast and a wonderful injection of humanity to my extroverted self. I got to meet and re-meet lots of Nellie’s friends from college in Colorado and some new faces as well. I whipped out all my 31-year-old, straight, white guy dance moves which only seem decent in the light of a couple of drinks on a wedding dance floor.
We also got to go on a hike with my aunt and cousin north of Denver that weekend. The hike was a wonderful jaunt up to our first mountain lake of the trip and was a true test of Sasha’s progress. As we pulled up to what I thought was the trailhead, my aunt said “Time to get on the shuttle.” “What shuttle?”, I thought. “Surely it couldn’t be that one with all the strangers crammed into every nook and cranny with my dog who may kill them.” It was indeed that shuttle and Sasha rose to the occasion, panting between my legs with the fear of God in her eyes but never barking or snapping. Sometimes it’s better to not know a challenge lies ahead of you until you have no option but to face it.
After Colorado, we headed up to Wyoming to meet our friends Bonnie and Clyde (aliases of course) who were also on a cross country road trip. We met up in Pinedale, Wyoming and went on a three-day backpacking trip in the Wind Rivers. We only saw two other human souls the whole time (see Sasha sidenote for how that went) and had an incredible time hiking to campsites perched above lakes backdropped with towering snow-dressed mountains. It had been a long time since I’d carried all I need on my back taking in the world around me, and I had missed it.
We rounded out the section with Bonnie and Clyde with a night to rest up in a hotel bed in Pinedale. We stopped in the two cowboy bars in town playing shuffleboard, dancing to jukebox tunes, and catching up on our separate travels before we had met up. I also felt inspired to check off a bucket list item of mine, buying the entire bar a round. In Pinedale, that runs you a cool 51 dollars and earns you a few calloused handshakes and thanks. Not a bad tradeoff.
Sasha sidenote: Avid readers of the blog may be thinking at this point that Sasha is angelic and Airbud-like, conquering all the challenges put in her way. That is not always the case. One of the mornings in the Winds, we let Sasha run muzzle free in the water of the lake we camped on. We hadn’t seen anyone on the trip, it was 6:30 AM, and we were camped away from the main trail. However, we didn’t pay attention to the camping rules, and two park rangers appeared to inform us that camping was not allowed within 200 feet of the water.
I was in the tent and heard Sasha start barking, praying she wouldn’t bite them. While I held Ranger back from joining in the fray, I heard Nellie yelling for Sasha to come back. She eventually did and limited herself to just barking and snapping at the air instead of contacting any skin. When I finally heard the rangers say they were okay and unharmed, I could let out a breath despite my heart still racing.
With Sasha it’s an incredibly fine and dangerous line of giving her space to be exposed and grow while making sure she doesn’t do something that puts someone else or her in danger. We learned lessons from this incident as we have from all the others over the years and will continue to hopefully be on the right side of that line going forward.