I went to Gillette, Wyo., and Belle Fourche, S.D. on Monday and Tuesday. You know, Wyoming has some pretty cool scenery. Especially on I-25 between Gillette and Douglas. I took this picture from my rental car, so it's not too great. But I think you get the idea. The drive back was pretty rough because of all the snow. I made the mistake of thinking I could cut off some time by going through the Black Hills. Wow, big error. The road was extremely curvy. I was going up and down mountains. Mind you, this was all during blizzard-like conditions. The snow was literally blowing sideways. With 60 mph gusts. A couple times I had no visibility and thought I was going to be engulfed in a white cloud. It was pretty scary. I hit Lead, S.D., and got out to ask someone if the road was going to continue being curvy. She took one look at my rental car and said, "turn around." I guess the road ahead was even worse, so I turned around and headed back to Gillette. Good move. That drive was much better -- even if it took longer.
During the trip I interviewed these guys who just moved to Wyoming from Michigan because the economy stinks in Michigan (with all the auto layoffs and such...) I kind of felt bad for them, but most of them actually seemed to have wanted to move to Wyoming. They had different reasons -- always wanted to go west, wanted to get away from people (especially the Flint guys), etc. That's got to be a pretty tough transition though. They tried to act all tough, but I could tell the younger guys were homesick. Just like me. You live in one state your entire life and then you pack it all up and move someplace completely new. You know, this may sound conceited, but I'm really glad I went to school and have a college degree. Doing the type of work those guys do -- laying pipe, construction, working in the coal mines -- really does not sound like much fun. But they're making a good living and taking care of themselves. It's all about survival, one guy said. How true that is.
Over the weekend I went back to Springfield for Easter. It was a really short trip. I flew out of Denver on Saturday and was back Sunday. Springfield was so green. You really do start to miss trees out here. My uncle showed my brother and I all the tornado damage to his house. It was pretty bad, but did not even compare to some of the other houses. One looked completely normal from the front, but the entire back had been ripped off. It was sad because these were new, big, beautiful houses -- dream homes really -- that were just torn to shreds.
On a lighter note, Mike and I went camera shopping on Saturday and I got a new Canon SD600 elph. My old camera has been starting to die and since I was taking the trip to Gillette on Monday, I figured a new camera might be a good thing to have. The AP has no photographers for the entire state of Wyoming. So I need to take my own. A story usually does much better if it has some graphical/multimedia elements. I like the new camera. It's super quick and takes pretty good pictures for a point and click. I'm excited because I'm going to get to use it at Madinah's wedding this weekend. I can't wait. It's going to be a blast. It's really weird because I went on their first date. It was kind of double date, but things didn't work out between me and the guy I went with. But now Madinah and Dan are getting married. Amazing.
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