Well, we salted the curve, and I came back to riding shotgun. How do we do that? I drive the car and Nolemana sits on the tailgate and tosses out the salt. It’s not easy for him as I go uphill and I have be really careful not to dump him out!

When I got back to the computer, Suzette had sent me these photos:

Laramie, Wyoming, is in the distance.

There are antelope in the distance, Suzette said, but I couldn’t really see them. “Where the deer and antelope play”, yeah? ♪ ♫

Pretty sky.  I was surprised at the lack of snow, and Suzette told me that it had a been a very cold but dry winter in Wyoming.

It was a beautiful time of day, and Suzette wished she could really capture it.

And then they were coming into Laramie.

I wrote back: “We just finished salting the driveway up and down. The snow is coming down hard but the flakes are tiny; but if we don’t salt the driveway we will never be able to get up and down. With the freezing weather that’s coming I’m not sure we can get down regardless.”  As I wrote, Nolemana was using the Shop-Vac to clean out my car. And I never did catch them on a Laramie webcam. Shoots.

I asked if they were at Telephone Canyon yet, still waiting to catch them on the webcam. Suzette wasn’t sure if they were there yet; it didn’t show on the map. But she sent this photo.  See the Wyoming State Trooper’s car on the left?  The sign says, “Trucks-campers Trailers-Buses must use right two lanes only.”

Suzette took another video for me:

I excitedly texted back, “These are fabulous!  I’m on a road trip!” I think they were in Telephone Canyon, and I checked the nearest webcam and told Suzette that there was a pretty sunset behind them.

They stopped at a rest stop, and I got to see these gorgeous sunset photos.

How I loved seeing the wide open sky!

We weren’t sure exactly where they were, maybe near Buford? But we both knew that with dark coming, my chances of getting a webcam phone were diminishing fast.

They were on the road again…♫ ♪ ♫ and I thought I heard Willie Nelson singing…

What a sky!!!

Suzette thought this might be one of her last photos as it was getting so dark. How would I ever get a screenshot now??

I told Suzette how much I was enjoying the trip, but I bet her lemu was a lot more sore than mine! She’d bought some lumbar pillows for them, which were great, but her neck was really sore…poor thing. They were heading straight for their new house.

And now they were in Buford…and since it was getting really dark, our conversation turned to fiber. Of course.

Me: “Are you going to get any of Ginny’s fiber?”

Suzette: “Not sure but I’ll try to take a look after we unpack…will probably be Tuesday or Wednesday before I have time. Are you?”

Me: “Not sure. Probably not, but I am looking.”

Suzette: “Oh, the temptation!”

We then began discussing the different colorways that we liked. This one or that one. Like we really needed more fiber to spin. In the end, neither one of us got any. And did I mention that Suzette’s spinning wheel was in the back seat of the car they were towing? Yep!

I texted: “I have never spent so much time on my phone since I’ve had a cell phone. This is so much fun!”

She texted back: “LOL, me either. Good thing we have unlimited texts!”

Uh-oh. Do I? Oops. I’d better check sometime. But even if we don’t, this woulda been worth it.

Suzette wondered if Nolemana thought I was nuts. Actually, I told her, I hadn’t told him. “Sly woman!” she wrote, “men just don’t get it”. “Yeah,” I texted back, “like not driving past the Missoula webcam on your way to Colorado!”

We agreed that we’d spent more time texting in the past two days than we have seen each other in the last whole year! (Because they’d moved to the Eugene, Oregon, area.) That it was ridiculous, but wonderful.

Then suddenly they were in Cheyenne.  We began talking about places we could meet when Suzette makes trips back here occasionally.

I sent her a video link:

Suzette and Owen had first moved to Colorado in 1975 and the song has special meaning for them, so I was glad I’d sent it.

Funny thing…we started talking about Ginny’s fiber again. And pretty soon, they were almost at their new home! Suzette was going to pick up Mexican food at Owen’s favorite restaurant (Fuzzy Tacos) in town; they’d unload the car in a large parking lot. Suzette would run get dinner, and Owen would take the truck to the house and get everything unlocked. So from now on, she wouldn’t have time to text me, though I asked her to let me know when they got home.

Our last texts were:

Suzette: “I’ll try to text your more later tonight and send a couple of photos so you will know where we are. Thank you for sharing our trip with us…It’s been so much fun!”

Me: “Okay. I hope Owen didn’t mind me tagging along. I have absolutely loved it and I got to see parts of the country I had never seen before!”

Suzette: “I think he got a kick out of it.”

The very last photo she sent was of their car tucked safely in the garage. “Filthy, but in!”

So. From my house to Suzette’s house via the route they took is 1169 miles. And you’re asking, “So all that way and you didn’t get even one screenshot of that big yellow truck? Not even one? You mean you tracked them through Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado and never got one single screenshot? You mean, Mokihana, that you spent a day and a half in front of the computer monitor and you couldn’t manage to get one? How is that even possible?”

Try wait! Did I ever say I never got even one? Did I say I failed? Did I say that it was all in vain? Did I say that try as I might, I missed every single photo op that I had? Nope. I neva. Cuz guess wat?

Wolcott Junction! I was right! Anybody see one big yellow truck towing a car? OMG!!! I got it!! I got it!!!!! I was so excited I was bouncing in my chair, and I immediately took a phone photo of the screenshot and sent it to Suzette. Talk about a Rocky Mountain High! I was on it!!

(Both photos used with the kind permission of WYDOT.)

Wat?  U no can seeyum? Now try look. Dat’s dem!!!!

Okay, so try look da first screenshot again.  See where it says “copyright © 2016 State of Wyoming. All rights reserved”? That meant I couldn’t use that screenshot on my blog! The perfect photo and I couldn’t use it after all that? Not without permission, I couldn’t. Sure, I could chance it, but I’m not that kind of a person.

But the screenshot! It was the the epitome of this long, rambling, road trip!! What was I gonna do?

Well, I’ll tell you what I did. I made a phone call to the State of Wyoming’s Department of Transportation. And talked to a really nice man named Doug. I explained why I wanted to use the screenshot (yeah, I told him all about how I’d tracked Suzette and Owen from Oregon to Colorado trying to get a screenshot), but also wanted to be respectful of WYDOT’s copyright. He wanted to know what my blog was about and I gave him the URL, and he checked it out and then told me I had his permission to use the photo so long as I credited WYDOT in my blog post, which was only fair. I was so grateful! Thank you, Doug!!

So thus ends this virtual road trip with two good friends. It was amazing, funny, interesting, educational, and fun. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

And guess wat? Suzette flew back here two weeks ago to take care of her daughter and son-in-law’s dogs  while they (the kids, not the dogs) were gone on vacation, and also to drive their second car back to Colorado along with their own two doggies. Yep, they’re doing it again. They left here today, but I was gone a good part of the day and couldn’t track them.

But they’ll be on the road again tomorrow…will I do it again? It’d be a lot harder to see a small red Saab on a webcam, but will I? Only time will tell.

Mahalo nui for riding shotgun with me riding shotgun. What a ride!!