Itchin

We got to Rawlings. EM is itching to get home – Pinedale, Jackson, and the Tetons.

We tour the New Wyoming State Penitentiary (it was closed in 1981, ‘New’ is in reference to its “New” in opening in 1901.) Sorry. No pics. Jails all look the same to me and they are depressing and inhumane. I am for  punishment – isolation from society until you learn to behave, in the form of self supporting penal colonies or penal farms – both of which people wiser (?) than I have decided are inappropriate. Note: same wiser (?) folks are apt to approve just letting them run free in the streets now days – Cali, Portland, NYC, etc. 

We decide to hyperdrive across the South Pass and get EM home to Pinedale. Along the way we will cross several traditional migratory routes – the Oregon Trail being one of them. We can see wear and tear from the wagon wheels and campsites along the way. Lots of open, dry, high, plain.

Took almost a full tank of gas to zig-zag north, then south, then north again to use the wagon pass. As the low gas light comes on, I think of our prior adventure on the road to Custer, South Dakota. 

We are now deep in the west. Roads are guided by mountain passes and gas can be few and far between – and thanks to the wisdom of our current lords – close to $6.00 a gallon.

As isolated at it is – it sure beats the hell out of driving on Interstate 80! We wouldn’t have seen Red Canyon – scar of a fault line exposing the red clay of the Appalachians eroded to what was the ancient sea of the west – until the great lift!