Day 36 - Jackson to Lusk

Cross state drive

Today I was supposed to drive the 500 miles from Jackson to Rapid City, basically all across the state of  Wyoming. Instead, I drove 10 hours and only got three quarters of the way there. This is why:

It was like skiing in my car!

I saw trucks in ditches and antelopes trying to kill themselves (by running across the motorway) I also saw snow drifting across the road in a way that made it look like driving on a cloud. V. odd.

Some of the animals I avoided running over today

Weird seeing snow in what would otherwise have looked like a desert

When I stopped for gas I realised my car was completely caked in snow and ice, to the point where my tires were struggling to turn because they were stuffed with snow. I spent ten minutes kicking my car and poking it with a stick, til I got most of it off. Then two hours later I had to do it all again!

Things that have made me laugh recently:

Quoting Mark Twain, on a radio program about the predicted end of the world on 21 Dec: "When the end of the world comes, I want to be in Cincinnati because it's always twenty years behind the times"

On an advert for tailored suits aimed at young missionary Mormons: "Because how you look is the first message you deliver"

On the same advert: "Tabernacle" Just this one word made me laugh hysterically. I laughed til I cried because I had heard what must be the correct pronounciation of this word i.e. "TAbernacle". Not, as I had been saying the whole time I spent with the Mormons in Temple Square, when referring to one of their prized buildings: "taBERnacle" which sounds like something that might grow under a boat! They were kind enough not to correct me. Bless.

As you know, I am doing a lot of driving. In order to stay active (and partly because it's FUN) I've taken to dancing while driving. Drancing, if you will. Yesterday I was stopped for ages at a man holding a stop sign. While I was there, a particularly upbeat song came on so, making the most of my driving downtime, I decided to really go for it. I turned it right up, I was waving my arms, I was bopping up and down and I was singing at the top of my voice. Sadly, I must have taken it a touch too far because all the excitement made me vom a little in the back of my throat . Eeeew! Obviously I stop the drancing, take a swig of water and make the mistake of looking up into the car ahead. I see the driver is looking at me, really concerned, probably worried that I'm having some sort of fit. So is the guy holding the stop sign. In fact, I begin to wonder whether this is why we're still stuck here! Needless to say, I styled it out, though in retrospect I do wish the song had not been "Loser like me" by the Glee cast.

I managed to see some of the Tetons as I left Jackson this morning