Wyoming

I was wrong about there being nothing in western Nebraska. I didn't understand the meaning of the word 'nothing' until I drove through 250 miles of south-western Wyoming. There is nothing in that stretch of Wyoming. I mean, really, nothing. Bare hills, little vegetation, no trees. On the bright side, the people are friendly. Both of them. :)

Actually, it's a fascinating landscape. SO different from all I've known. A desolate, lonely, but starkly beautiful landscape. Mark and I were curious about the population, and made guesses before looking it up in the atlas. Anyone wanna guess? I guessed 5 million at first; Mark guessed about 2 million.

It's actually only 500,000 people. In ALL of Wyoming. It ranks #50 in state population, though it's the 10th largest state in size. Your geography trivia of the day.

I'm giving poor Wyoming a hard time, but it will have a chance to redeem itself when we go to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons a week from now. In the comments for my last post, Jaye assures me the Tetons will satisfy my inner Heidi.

We're in Salt Lake City, and looking forward to seeing the Temple tomorrow, though the travel advisories online warn us that the young Mormon guides that latch onto you there spend more time evangelizing you than they do showing you the sights.

Off to sleep! We'll post pics tomorrow.

P.S. Mark wants to point out that in Wyoming's defense, the wildflowers were great. Masses of small flowers, in muted colors. Not big and showy, but beautiful and hardy. When traveling, I tend to lift up my eyes to the hills, to long for the big, dramatic views. Mark looks down, and spots the little things -- the flowers, the magpie, the interesting little creatures. We're a good combo.