June 6
Not much to say today... The morning brought some sunshine but the same insane winds. As planned I headed towards the Snowy Range, where it was even more insanely windy, freezing cold and overall uncomfortable. The scenery had quite some potential, if it weren't for the wind: an image stabilizer that would help with this sort of weather hasn't been invented yet, and setting up a tripod would be impossible.
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With that I headed to Laramie for a packing session. Laramie actually lives up to its reputation on the map: with 25,000-ish people it's an actual city with real houses - you know, houses that were actually built in place and not brought there on a truck. Not only that, but it even has a university that has everything what makes an American university great, like a huge stadium that could seat the whole town.
Looking for food was much easier than ever on the trip. Part of me wanted to be ballsy and visit one of the two local Chinese restaurants. Just for kicks, because we never do that when on the road, at least not since we visited a Chinese restaurant on Sanibel Island, FL, in 1999, after which Essan swore that she'll never do something that silly again. My alternative was a classic diner or one of these drive-in restaurants which are about the most mind boggling things to me as an European: I understand drive-in movie theaters, I really do. I understand drive-thru restaurants, they do fulfill a need. Heck, I'll even admit to sometimes eating while driving. But what about a drive-in restaurant? Who in their mind would drive somewhere, have food brought to their car window, then sit behind the wheel (while standing still), eat, put the leftovers out of the window again and drive away? Why not simply get your ass out of the car, walk a few feet, sit on a real chair at a real table, and eat the same stuff in the same amount of time? Weird.
I decided for the diner, hoping for the traditional on-the-road meatloaf, but I was sadly disappointed as no such option was given. I am sure that either the drive-in or one of the two Chinese joints would have made better travelogue material.
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Then it was time to pack. I hate packing, especially in a TSA safe manner. The screw on the brand new Giottos tripod that holds the ball head in place broke off as I was removing the ball head. As Essan would say, crappy Taiwanese quality. Good thing it happened at the end of the trip, and the camera wasn't on the tripod. Then I'd be cursing louder. But this is really insanely poor quality, and design.