So I set out in March of 2006 to see what I could see, to drive all the way up to Crook County and shake a few hands. It was cold, still winter, and I was making the trip in my 1984 Chevrolet Caprice Classic. The car is 23 years old, and it hadn?t treated me too well the year before. Mechanical trust issues aside, I love my car, and affectionately call it the DTOMobile.?
About five miles or so north of Cheyenne, I had a ?Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring? ?Sam? moment, a kind of ?Wow, this is as far as I?ve ever gone this way, what am I getting myself into?? It was just that the plains stretched out as far as the eye could see, and I really, really, felt the expanse of Wyoming bearing upon me. I felt as though I was driving off into nowhere in car I didn?t quite trust; and it was getting dark.
I was, frankly, a tad bit scared. I thought a little bit about heading back, but mostly about whether or not this was such a good idea. Would I wind up stranded? Would I wind back at home, haunted by defeat and surrender? Or, would I forge on, ?Damn the Torpedoes!? and make a giant leap in self-history? Could there be
any other choice? So I sped on, bound and determined. Break-down? Not at all. More like
break-out. The DTOMobile seems to like Wyoming more than I do, and performs fabulously throughout the state, and somehow, always starts better the next day than when in Denver.
Later, quite pleased to have made it to Crook County, I was disappointed that it was well after dark, and I wasn?t going to be able to see Devil?s Tower. Wrong again. The first time I ever saw Devil?s Tower was as a massive and imposing silhouette; stark against the starry sky. Now THAT was cool. I really think that?s the only way to see it for the first time; it?s more fearsome, and builds the suspense of seeing it the next day.? ?
I had been invited to spend the night at Richard Hodge?s in Hulett. (Thanks again so very much Richard!) When I woke up the next day; I couldn?t believe my eyes. For some reason, I had expected dull, lifeless plains, but was shocked to see that Crook County was beautiful beyond belief! It had just the right amount of trees and grasses, hills and fields, to be a place that I could spend years at and never regret a moment. Preparing to leave, I worried that my car might not start up at all. Ha! The DTOMobile started up more easily and quickly than it ever had before. Richard opined that I had given it an ?Italian Tune-Up? by driving it all to heck the night before, something about burning all the gunk out of the system. The last thing I got from Richard before I left was a jar of Crook?s unique red soil. I wanted to bring a chunk of free land back to Colorado with me. I still have that jar; and am looking at it as I type this.? ?
The rest of the trip went off without a hitch, and of course, I met more wonderful Free-Staters, beginning relationships that will last a lifetime.
Having traveled to parts of Wyoming unknown to me, and having heard even louder the calls of wilderness, magic, paradise and freedom; I kept coming back. Throughout 2006, I journeyed through Wyoming a half dozen times. Of course, I discovered more and more beautiful parts of Wyoming, and oftentimes even felt as though I was driving through a postcard. But what impressed me more than Wyoming itself, were the Free-Staters already there.
Initially expecting a bunch of angry militant types such as myself, I was surprised to find a wide array of folks, young and old, and from every slice of life you can think of. Smart people too. People who spoke of history and philosophy, and let me see the rings of Saturn with my own eye for the first time in my life. They were all so different from one another. Some gun nuts whose collections rival most gun stores, and some who don?t even own a gun. Some who are ex- and current military, to those who might have called themselves a ?Hippy? some yesteryear ago. The FSW is, wonderfully, an ideologically diverse group that could surely disagree about something with everybody else, but a group that does all agree on one thing: ?Live and Let Live.? And really, that?s just about all that needs to be agreed upon!
Many of them did, however, make me feel that my efforts were a bit trivial. After all, I was
only moving from the Denver metro area of Colorado; a weenie?s two-hour drive south of Wyoming. These people dropped everything, and in the same spirit of Pioneers and Pilgrims past, said
?Wyoming or Bust!? and moved here from all over the nation. California. Texas. Washington. New Jersey. Mississippi. Nevada. Everywhere. Hmmph. And here I come, from just next door. Needless to say, these moves of vast distance have been incredibly inspiring and motivating to me.
Well, I guess I should have seen it coming. After all, an old car can only go on many long trips. On one of my last 2006 Wyoming adventures, something finally fell off of the DTOMobile and needed to be replaced. You see, it?s Colorado license plate was getting a little old, and it had to replaced. The new part was functionally the same, but a little different. The new one had a cowboy on it.