Posts Tagged ‘Wyoming’

Wyoming is the first place I’ve lived where the heat index is usually below the air temperature. Example: Right now it’s 79 degrees, feels like 78. The sun shines and a small breeze blows 90% of the time. The average temperature for the summer was likely between 70 and 80 degrees. At night it dips down into the 50s and 60s. If I had a porch, it’d always be perfect porch-sitting weather.

90 degrees, perfect day for tubing on the North Platte River. (Photo by Dan Cepeda)

There have been 95-degree days. I avoid them by running in the mornings and evenings and soaking up the way-too-cold AC at work. The hottest temp I ran in this summer was 70 degrees. 70 degrees!! You bet I was dying from the heat. Even when it’s 90 degrees, I’ll still walk down to the library or to the corner store instead of hopping in my car. Usually I leave the pool or beach because it gets too hot. This year, I left because I got bored.

The warm weather we’ve had (I refuse to say, “It’s hot” after living in New Orleans) hasn’t been fun for people without AC. I understand that because the AC in my Corolla is no better than those personal mini fans.

My apartment doesn’t have air conditioning. Or fans. Actually, my electric bill is about $2 cheaper in the summer because I’m not running a space heater.

Even on those 90-degree days, I routinely change into sweats after work because I’m — gasp — cold. Basement apartments have their disadvantages: little light, spiders, stuffy without a way to circulate air throughout. Those same disadvantages (except maybe the spiders) make my place a perfect summer hideout.

A porch would be nice.

If this post made you pine for Wyoming and want move west. Don’t… it will be snowing by the time you get here.

Salt Creek Country Club is a nine-hole “pasture golf” course in Midwest, Wyo. (Pop: 400ish), about 40 minutes north of Casper.  Pasture golf pretty much explains it — brown grass, brown dirt and brown sand “greens.”

Tee-ing off from the ladies’ tee. Yes, the sky was this blue in real life.

And prairie dog holes.

Lots of holes. Between the four of us, we only lost ONE ball!

Josh, Will, Josh and I played in the Salt Creek Days golf scramble Saturday. Being nerdy journalists, we named our team the Nut Graphs. For $25, we got all we got breakfast, lunch, all the beer/water/soda/Gatorade we wanted and a door prize. Oh, and nine amazing holes in the middle of oil fields.

ATVs and four-wheelers are better equipped for the course than golf carts.

Just picking up my ball in the rough. Josh said rattlesnakes had been spotted in this area.

This woman was forcing everyone to take a shot before hole No. 1.
We started at hole No. 3, so by this point, she’d had a few herself.

Sand greens require raking.

I won a mini cooler and a denim shirt with an oil company logo. The cooler felt heavy, so I opened it and found melted ice and cold Budweiser. Bonus!

Josh won a sand wedge, which he couldn’t take on the plane back to Missouri. We scouted possible trades. I wanted binoculars or a mini DVD player, but those people clearly weren’t letting go of their new possessions. Then the guy next to us won a 10×10 ft gazebo. He didn’t know what he’d do with it, so he traded Josh for the club.

And now I have a 10×10 ft gazebo in my trunk.

Last week was fair week in Natrona County. The city desk split up the week’s events and I volunteered to do Monday and also the parade because I knew I would be gone later in the week. And because I love the fair.

Monday was a slow day at the fair, but I got a crash course in rabbit showing. I now know about fur types and colors, average weights for breeds and how to check ears for ear mites. I could also tell the difference between kids who raised rabbits to compete and kids who competed with rabbits they raised.

Tuesday was Parade Day. The city shuts down for a parade. People get the day off work and bars set up tents for day-long parties. I, like everyone else at the paper, had to work.

The day started with the Casper Chase 5K. The race began two blocks from my house and I figured I wouldn’t be able to get in and out of my apartment before the parade. (I was right.) After the race, I ran home, showered and walked downtown to the parade. Another reporter drove his antique car in the parade and invited me to ride along and get a different perspective.

We rode behind Miss Rodeo Wyoming.

I gathered a couple other perspectives and wrote my parade story as four short scenes. It was nothing groundbreaking, but I thought it more fun than a summary of events with a handful of soundbites thrown in. And I didn’t use the word “Casperites” once. That’s an accomplishment.

Tattoo parlor float

Tuesday was also my only chance to go to the fair, so we went after 10. Fair food was enjoyed — funnel cake, curly fries, lemonade. Sadly, the fair lacked cheese curds and the corn stand didn’t dip the cobs in melted butter. I did add a new item to my “tried it” list — a cartwheel. A hamburger patty is topped with cheese, battered and deep fried. It tasted like a cheeseburger topped with chicken finger breading. Delicious.

We didn’t ride any rides but walked up and down the midway — easily the brightest spot besides July 4 fireworks.

(cell phone Polaroid shot)

I can put a new (and my only) notch on my rodeo belt.

The College National Finals Rodeo took place in Casper last week. I wrote a feature story and helped cover three of the night performances for our live blog. On my second night, I took some video with our new handheld camera and posted them to YouTube and in the live chat. People loved the video and I did more on Saturday night. They’re all still up on my YouTube page with the nickname I chose back in high school. (YouTube, if you’re reading this, please allow people to change their user names!)
Clint, our high school sports coordinator, did most of the play-by-play and I covered when he looked up stats. I also tried to pepper the blog with as much color as an amateur rodeo announcer could. Goats were our favorite, hands down.

Steer wrestling

The rodeo blog wasn’t the most popular of the sporting events in terms of hits, but on the last night we had more than 100 comments from people listening to the live audiocast and following our blog. Two of the comments were from the mother and grandparents of one of the contestants who we posted video of. They were in Texas and couldn’t make it to Wyoming.

That, I told Clint, made all the scrambling worthwhile.

Casper isn’t the most convenient place to visit. We have an airport, but tickets can be very expensive, especially around the holidays. Casper isn’t world-famous for anything, but I live here, and that was enough reason for two of my best friends to visit me for a long weekend.

Monica and Iman moved to New York City after graduating college and I moved to Missouri and New Orleans and now here. I’ve visited New York a few times and met up with Iman in Missouri and Monica in New Orleans. So they had to visit Wyoming at some point.

They couldn’t have picked a better time. The weather was fantastic and there was enough happening to feel like there’s stuff to do around here. I showed them the best of Wyoming: hot springs in Thermopolis, antelope, cheap booze, lighters shaped like rifles, steaks, dudes singing karaoke, trucks with dogs in the back, movie theaters that smell like candied nuts and lots of pretty views.

Me and Iman checking out the buffalo in Thermopolis

Wyoming is like Roseanne/Roswell/Twilight, according to Monica, a pop-culture fanatic. Iman ran out of room for pictures on her camera on Saturday. If I had a dollar for every time she said “That’s so pretty” I could fly them back here next week.

They seemed to have a good time. I’d also like to think I’m a decent tour guide. My next scheduled visitor is my mom in July, but if you happen to be passing through, let me know.