Day 1

Driving stats~

Time: 5 hours, 45 minutes

Miles: 390

PT Cruisers laughed at: 1

Cars stopped by/off road spotted: 4

Weather: Overcast but fair

Surprisingly, I actually got the house fairly clean before leaving. I did not, however, finish Christmas for people back home in the box I need to ship. Instead I have supplies to finish making the two I need to and somewhere along the way I'll find a post office. Ah, who am I kidding...When I get home, I'll be able to send out the box for a January Christmas!

We finished packing the car and set out in the early afternoon for a fairly uneventful drive. The road was either tediously straight or curving through the mountains, and it was mostly us and trucks traveling, but The Phantom of the Opera, Next to Normal, Wicked, Avril Lavigne, and random local religious/news talk shows got us through. I have a feeling they will be our new best friends these next few days...

And now, here we are: Laramie, Wyoming. Yes, I know, such a hoppin' place, how could we not be excited! And though finding our way through these roads in the dark was not a fun experience at all (even the GPS was no help. After dinner it led us to a field in the middle of nowhere), we've actually enjoyed it. We're staying at the Ramada Inn, and it's quite nice--especially for such a cheap room. We ate dinner at the local college hangout called The Library, Brewery and Grill and had truly spectacular hamburgers. I stole some pictures on my camera phone which I will attempt to upload on here/facebook--they were so wrong. So, so deliciously wrong...

We started off with an appetizer sampler of buffalo wings, mozzarella sticks, mini corndog bites, and deep fried mac-n-cheese bites--all mouthwateringly unhealthy. Then came our burgers! He got the Paul Bunyan burger, one full pound of hamburger with hickory smoked bacon, provolone and cheddar cheese, barbecue sauce and all the fixin's. And I ordered an amazing

invention called the nacho cheese burger. Yes, that's right, a burger with bacon, jalapenos, and nacho cheese. Lots. Of nacho cheese.

I don't know who invented that, but they deserve a trophy. Made out of bacon and nacho cheese.

We finished off with a turtle brownie and ice cream. All in all, a very satisfying experience. If we lived here, we would most definitely go back quite often, I would say about three thumbs up.*

And now if you'll excuse us, we're going to sleep asap. Tomorrow we leave quite early for our longest day of driving...

Next stop, Kansas!

*There are two of us. It works, trust me.