As you may know (if you're Wikipedia), Wyoming is the least populous state in the US, and also the second least densely populated state! With only about 6 residents per square mile, you might be wondering how a scene like this could result.
Simple: have a gear swap! People here have really nice outdoor gear, so when they're selling for cheap, you'd line up, too!
Unfortunately, since we were newbies, it was a little chaotic for us. The cross-country skis sold out in a matter of minutes (no joke!), and the whole thing resembled a grunion run (minus the spawning and also minus the beach). Next spring, we'll be prepared!
Yesterday, I had the great pleasure of helping Charlotte care for 5 friendly Laramie chickens while their owners were away. As you can imagine, Charlotte did not particularly mind doing this! In case you've never dealt with chickens before, I'll briefly summarize the conversation.
Chicken (death stare): "Hey! Human overlords! It's nearly 9 in the morning! Why haven't I been fed yet?!?"
Charlotte (cheerful as usual): "Hold your horses! We're working on it! You have plenty of food left anyway."
Chicken (death stare softens): "True. Well, I'm kind of stupid, so I didn't know what else to say. I'm just going to go fluff around in the dirt for a bit, and see if I can make a huge mess."
Chicken (casually): "I guess I'll go lay an egg now."
There you go-it's that simple. Multiply that routine by 5 hens, and that's how you get 5 yummy eggs a day! Charlotte and I are very eager to have our own flock, but in the meantime, we enjoyed our day in the life (and our free eggs-mmm!).
Yeah, yeah, it's true...in the past 3 months, we've started 2 new PhD programs, logged at least 10,000 miles between the two of us, experienced temperatures ranging from well over 90 degrees to 13 degrees, and enjoyed Nepali, Indian, Thai, Western and many other cuisines. We've descended through clouds in our car, nodded at cowboys passing on the sidewalk, and witnessed no fewer than 5 simulated gun battles. Still, we know what you really want to know: how was Manitou Springs?!?
In a word: awesome!
The New York Times article that led us to exit the highway on our way back to Laramie from New Mexico says that "Mysterious forces draw people to Manitou Springs, Colo.; a little jewel box of a village at the foot of Pikes Peak." It was certainly true for us, right from the beginning. For some random reason, we walked into the store below, and promptly ran into an old friend from Hartwick. He lives in NH, we live in Laramie, yet somehow we all ended up in this store at same exact time.
We shared amazing (and free!) Turkish coffee with the shop owner, and by chance met a friend of our Hartwick friend, who happens to be an amazing paralympic athlete who we have long-admired via Facebook.
In all, we were only in Manitou Springs for a brief couple hours, but as you can see we had a charmed existence, and managed to sample lots of spring water...
...admire many sights...
...and even receive an impromptu concert from the brother of the owner of a mountain dulcimer shop! We didn't even know what a mountain dulcimer was beforehand!
Anyway, what would our advice be to you if you happened to be near Manitou Springs? GO TO MANITOU SPRINGS!!!
