"Lewis & Clark Expedition" - Pacific Northwest
	Day 6:  Thursday, May 16, 2002

The sun rose, as did we.  After a brief event with going to the wrong of two gas stations ("wrong" is apparently defined as not having one of those credit card sliding things at the pump), we were on the road and plowing toward Buffalo, Wyoming.  This was possible, of course, when we found the snow gates allowing traffic onto the highway were open... it's a $100 fine for entering the road if the highway is closed.

We found that this town had little to offer us in a cursory photo opportunity, however, Kaycee was more friendly to the tour.  It had the saloon and a historic marker where a couple of locals died 100 years ago.  There's even a quaint little hotel (not open for business) and the to-be-expected downtown shot.  We soon hit Casper, and found that towns that are bigger than 5,000 people tend to often hide the city limits signs.  Perhaps that's understandable, considering there are flagrant copyright violations everywhere; here again, there is the use of the M&M name and appearance.

From there, we continued the adventure down I-25 toward Cheyenne and the state line.  But not before we passed Chugwater, another teeny little town.  We visited the veterans' memorial, local library, and the town hall.  As with Casper, we had a heck of a time of finding much to photograph in Cheyenne, a big 'ol town of 90,000 people.  We settled for a train station, and moved on as the rain began to threaten the success of our forward momentum. 

We passed into Colorado just before 1pm, and with that came the rain... apparently the first day in a long while.  (There are some Colorado communities with water restriction enforcement that ranges from fines of up to $1,000 and/or a misdemeanor criminal charge... and we thought it was steep back home.)  The first stop was Fort Collins, but after searching for 15 minutes for another more interesting than a college campus, we settled for a couple of tree-lined streets, and of course, we're back in Waffle House country.

Shortly after 2pm, we passed through the downtown Denver area on the way to find a theater and some stuff to stare at.  We stopped in Denver after making an illegal turn here, watched Star Wars:  Episode II.  The movie, as reviewed by exiting patrons, was generally, "not as bad as I'd expected."  This translates into a dazzled thumbs up, apparently.  Or something; I don't know... I couldn't see from where I was sitting, but there was excellent audio and sound effects. As we were heading back under a moderate downpour, was amused to find a Dodge Caravan with a whole lot of puppies on the dashboard.

We were stuck in traffic for over an hour due to a truck roll-over on Santa Fe, and got to watch two ambulances pass by.  My favorite of the two was the one who was driving the wrong way at a reasonable speed; the dude (pale, balding guy, slightly portly, it appeared) had what the Spanish call, "huevos," in my view... and this isn't a culinary observation.  For several minutes, we sat, waiting behind an apparent local who was not familiar with the American model of stop-and-go traffic; there was 1-2 car lengths between him and the ugly white van in front of him.  Of course, it would be wrong to publicly mock him on the web.  Except, well, where there's no consequence, there's no concern.  So go nuts.

There was some wandering around Littleton and other communities, but little of what we sought, we found.  We eventually made it to the hotel, and then headed up to Hooters to check out the night owls there.  I'm never disappointed by the fine chicks within, although I wasn't there long enough to truly appreciate all of the finer elements of that establishment.  It seems the Bald One was getting to be quite bitchy, so after the primary objective, food was acquired elsewhere, without the delay in ordering, cooking, bringing, and paying.  Even if there is always needless leaning involved... whatever that does for him, anyway.

I've also formed a theory.  There seems to be a relationship between elevation and population.  Kaycee has 249 people at 4660; Chugwater has 244 people at 5288 feet.  This is in comparison to Gillette's 17,634 people at 4544 feet.  While the theory support is continuing, it seems that once you hit 4,500 feet, it seems the ability to sustain a substantial population decreases dramatically.  Of course, there's nothing more than my own meandering voyages to support this theory, but if you have a canary or pigeon nearby, you can see what opinion they've formed.  Or if you're near your local owl bar, you could ask them.