Rawlins, WY

It's the old get up, get on I-80, get off, spend the night, get up, repeat, etc.  Made it from Des Moines, IA to Rawlins, WY.  One of the interesting facets of the trip was that we started at 817' elevation at Des Moines and then crossed the highest elevation on I-80 at 8160' just west of Cheyenne.  The weird part was that we never really climbed any high points, it was all just a gradual, kind of level, climb over ten hours.  Always amazes me that the highest point on I-80 is in Wyoming, you would think it would be either in Utah (Wasatch Mountains) or California (Sierra Nevada).  There is a statue of Lincoln at the rest area at the highest point - kind of highlights the fact that I-80 sort of follows the Lincoln Highway from the East Coast to the West Coast.

As we crossed Nebraska, we followed the North Platte River and it was really high.  Brown in color, it reminded me of the old saying about the Platte that "It's too thick to drink and too thin to plow".  As we followed I-80, there were constant reminders that it generally followed the route of the pioneers going west.  Some stopped along the way and settled in Iowa (Des Moines) and others went all the way to California.

One sight the pioneers would not have seen was the proliferation of the windmills - huge towers with three blades turning lazily in the wind.  The wind farms have unique names like Prairie Breeze or Solar Wind. 

Tomorrow I think we get back on I-80 and get off in Reno - well, we might get off for gas and/or food along the way, but it's homeward bound tomorrow.