TrailerQuest 2010 - Day 1

Laramie, WY to the beaches of Brighton

Today marks the official start of TQ2010.  I left work this afternoon following a nice send-off by Laura and Anya, who drove over to give me one last goodbye and a large iced tea from Crown Burger.

As anyone who has driven from Salt Lake City to Evanston, WY can attest - the drive essentially takes you through one continuous oil/gas drilling site.  Alas the view of the modern American West is that of pump jacks and gas valves.

My first stop was a visit to the Jubilee Food store in Evanston to pick up some road snacks and come to terms with the aforementioned large iced tea from Crown Burger.

As I was leaving Jubilee a tragically obese and tremendously unattractive woman directly in front of me stopped, turned to look me straight in the face and said commandingly "Oh shee-ut!  I forgot the gray-vee!".  Not expecting to be addressed I responded with a non-committal but nonetheless heartfelt "Whoops....".  I continued through the automatic doors and made my way to the truck - all the while thinking of some disappointed husband, seated in his home at the Sky Vista Mobile Home Park & Adult Novelty Store asking himself why he must face yet another dinner of creamed corn and unnecessarily dry squirrel.

I pushed onward through Rock Springs and on to Rawlins where it was time to step out, grab some food and come to terms with the aforementioned large iced tea from Crown Burger.  I settled on a Travel Centers of America Truck Stop as I figured it was likely to be more entertaining than the McDonalds down the road.  It did not disappoint.

Initially my intent was to grab a quick sandwich from the Subway tucked inside, but something about the one gallon can of what appeared to be chocolate chip cream of mushroom gravy with a large and crusty ladle in it sitting next to all of the meat changed my mind.  (Wyoming, thus far, has been disproportionately gravy-oriented).

I wandered over to the trucker diner, sat down in the sort-of "trucker divan/conversation pit" and asked my waitress Sierra for some coffee and a BLT.  Most of the truckers opted for the all-you-can-eat hot buffet for the apparently express purpose of obtaining a very large pile of fried shrimp and mashed potatoes, which they summarily crammed in their cram holes.

After listening to a discussion on the pros and cons of transported livestock abuse, I paid my ticket and picked out a Wyoming window sticker (for the camper) and made my way back out onto the open road.

The last hourlong stretch of the drive proved to be tedious.  With the pitch darkness of rural Wyoming (redundant) out my windows, I decided to plug in the iPhone and turn up some music.  It was to be "Quadrophenia" by The Who.  The epic story of a misguided British youth who turns to violence and scooters and fighting on the beaches of southern England showed itself once again to be my favorite album of all time.  I turned the stereo up as loud as I could tolerate and sang each word with outright gusto.  Well at least it kept me awake.

Tomorrow brings the excitement of western Nebraska and Kansas.  Lets hope for less gravy....

Mileage Ticker:  379 miles traveled so far