Finally! Six: Cheyenne, Wyoming July 20, 2014

It has been a long time between posts, but I haven't really gone anywhere in the last few months either. A planned trip across the center of the country fell apart in the spring and since then I haven't had the chance to roam. We also got a dog, which has changed everything. I have always had cats. All you needed to was make sure someone showed up to give them food and water and you could go pretty much wherever you wanted and stay as long as you like. One friend of mine used to joke all you needed to do was buy a 10-pound bag of cat food, cut a hole in the side of it and leave the faucet dripping and a pan in the sink. The cats would take care of themselves.

You can't do any of that with a dog. A dog wants to come with you. A new experience. The dog's name is Nibbles. My Little Helper, now six, decided on the name because it fits. She's a puppy and apparently that is what puppies do. Anyway, she is settling down into a fine member of the family and I am sure she will be accompanying me on many trips in the future.

But now back to the trains. I got sent to the Colorado-Wyoming area on business and my first day there was a Sunday. I took a drive up to Cheyenne, but unfortunately I didn't have much time to hang around. I did get this east-bound intermodal just west of the city. It was, as you can tell, a hot and humid day. The overpass I shot this from headed down to an energy company and was the home to quite a few swallows. A red-tail hawk sauntered over and the swallows paid him no mind but when the train came through they were quite annoyed. Give the amount of traffic on that line ... I imagine the swallows spend their lives annoyed.

Of course, many of you may have caught the foreshadowing I just did... time for state Seven too!