Waypoints and Wyoming

Chimney Rock in Bayard, NE

One week and 1, 730 miles into this journey, I came upon the most iconic landmark of the Oregon Trail. As a native Nebraskan, it took me 47 years to see Chimney Rock with my own eyes and to drive through Mitchell Pass with Scotts Bluff towering over me like an ancient sentinel. I have reconfirmed my birthright.

Like a runner or cyclist passing through a waypoint, you can feel a visceral sense of progress when viewing these milestones. Chimney Rock is the landmark referenced the most in diaries of those who made the Oregon Trail trek. Arduous journeys require emotional rewards and Chimney Rock doesn’t disappoint.

Casper Connection

Thanks to my friend, Amanda Thompson, I deviated from my planned route to continue along the Oregon Trail instead of going back to the Transcontinental Route. She’s a native of Casper, Wyoming and suggested I talk with the couple who live across the street from her family home.

If you’re scoring from home, you might have wondered why map pins on the Data Dive paged started to show up way off the advertised route. Opportunity plain and simple. The chance to talk with a trauma program manager and paramedic was reason enough Throw in an introduction to their friend who owns a beauty salon and it was a slam dunk.

They recommended I drive up to a lookout point on Casper Mountain for a view of the stunning vista. By the time I shot some local b-roll footage, I set up just in time for sunset. With a blue sky and knife edge cloud bank, I couldn’t have scripted it any better.

Wide Open Sky

I grabbed some road food from Taco John’s (turns out it was started in Wyoming) and headed south in the dark to Laramie. I got about 20 miles outside of town when I realized I did not have enough gas to cross the sparsely populated route, which commemorated the path taken by the Cheyenne and Arapaho people following the Sand Creek Massacre carried out by the US Army in 1864 in what is now Colorado.

By the time I returned to Casper and filled my tank, I was treated to a very dark, clear sky journey. I stopped along the way and experimented with the iPhone 11 Pro’s longer exposure time option. It felt like my own personal Hubble telescope, which happens to also serve as my Audible player of Lewis & Clark’s edited journals (to help prep for my return trip).

Major and Minor Ursula taken north of Laramie, WY

Reflecting on the Wyoming Way

The spirit of the cowboy is alive and well in Wyoming, which has the official moniker of “The Cowboy State”. My two interviews in Casper attested to that. I can’t wait for you to hear what they shared. The gist is that people in Wyoming are fiercely independent and sometimes recklessly so. For example, they don’t have a primary seat belt law here.

You can’t break horses, ride bulls, and create wildcat oil empires without self-determined people. Casper is an oil and gas town and has the largest hospital system in the state. Cari and Milton Hacking see the Wyoming Way first hand, since she is the trauma program manager and he a paramedic. They’ve see how this cowboy spirit comes out in tragic consequences, while also seeing how it comes out in beautiful expressions of humanity.

Tiffannie Piaia owns her own beauty salon and teaches part-time at the adjacent beauty school. Originally from Utah, she has lived in Casper for 12 years and until the pandemic broke out loved traveling the world. She shared with me some insights about the important role rodeos play in Wyoming.

Want to Help Me Out?

If you want to help support Project Tumbleweed, you can contribute to the Compass Club with whatever you want to kick in. You can buy me a coffee, help fill my gas tank, or cover a night in a hotel room. Big thanks to Lisa Wilson, Jessica Kennedy Matthews, and the Hacking Family who contributed without me even asking.

Another great way to help is to share and promote our social media content. You can help us grow the audience and keep the tumbleweed moving down the highway. However you can help, I’m very grateful to you.

How would you describe the mindset of your home state?