aeblog

Ucross #2 - crossing state lines

Today I headed north. North, away from the sunny 70 degree weekend that overtook Denver and into the great plains of Wyoming. It is still relatively warm up here, but not quite the same. This morning I got some groceries for the road and procured a map to try to prevent some of the lost-ness that still might happen. I like maps, but more to peruse all of the areas that I have never explored rather than to help extract me from one of the same. I love seeing all the possibility laid out in front of me and imagining how it might feel to actually be in the different locations.

But before I hopped into the Cobalt, I went to the Denver Art Museum so that I could check out the new wing designed by Daniel Libeskind that just opened recently. It's pretty crazy, as you can see.

The art inside was really great as well. There was a huge variety and lots of modern/contemporary stuff which is what I tend to get more excited about. The building looks like a huge beached ship with a bow and lots of interesting angles which are carried inside in a cool way, but it leaves a whole bunch of walls that are not vertical. Despite this unusual aspect of a building intended to have art hanging on its walls, the whole thing came together very nicely and felt surprisingly efficient and purposeful, unlike, say, Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Bilbao which felt like a building designed to be a huge sculpture, not to house art.

The drive north was beautiful for the most part, but I will admit that after three hours of more or less the same scenery, it got a bit old. The most exciting thing was that I discovered that tumbleweed is not a myth! It was blowing all over the place, and I even ran into a few bunches, splitting it into smaller versions and sending it along (kind of like Atari Asteroids for the geeks out there...). I broke the trip up with a visit to Glendo State Park where I went for a run and checked out the amazing scenery:

I like to sometimes force myself to broaden things and listen to radio rather than just sticking with my (albeit vast) music collection, and travel is a perfect opportunity for this. Sadly, the radio in Wyoming isn't all that good! With the exception of a few trips back to the eighties (Tears For Fears among others!) and a great Jack Johnson song from his (only) good album, it was pretty bleak and made me want to drive even faster.

But I made it to my intended destination of Buffalo, Wyoming, and am right now lounging at the Occidental Hotel which feels like it is straight out of some western film. You can get a lot for your money out here, it seems, and I try to avoid the Best Westerns whenever possible in favor of some local flair. I've been told that the breakfast at the attached Occidental Saloon is quite tasty...

Tomorrow I hope to go for a hike in the Bighorn foothills and then head northeast to Big Red Lane where Ucross is located...