The Lincoln Highway
US Highway 30. Another road from my past. The first trans-continental road, the Lincoln Highway runs from New York City to San Francisco and directly through Grand Island, Nebraska, near where I grew up. It was the main artery across the nation before the interstate system and inspired the plan for the interstate system. Much of Highway 30 has been overtaken by I-80 but we found a stretch between McCammon, ID and Granger, WY that seemed to cut the corner and save a few miles between I-15 and I-80. It ended up being a fairly busy road with a good bit of truck traffic. Apparently others found it to be a “short-cut” also.
We took our one “on-the-road” sight seeing stop at Fossil Butte National Monument. (It was less than a mile off the road we were traveling - not too far out of the way.) That was interesting and I learned something new. In that area, which is an ancient lake bed, there are fossils layered between the rocks. When the rock layers are separated, incredible fossil portraits of plants or animals are revealed.
We watched through the day as powerful white clouds billowed up behind us. The clouds were beautiful against the colors of the Wyoming prairie/desert but we knew they threatened rain if we allowed them to catch us.
The clouds did catch up with us as we neared Elk Mountain, Wyoming and they delivered everything they had promised. The sky ahead of us darkened and we watched as lightening struck the mountain top repeatedly. We were around 8,000 feet as rain started falling. The temperature dropped and the rain came down in frozen pellets that stung through our rain gear. This rain mandated a stop. We were still some 50 miles out of Laramie where we had planned to spend the night as we pulled off at a rest area to get shelter. On the bulletin board there was a brochure for the Historic Elk Mountain Hotel, only three miles from where we were. We called the number and were assured that there was an available room in this remote Bed and Breakfast where we could spend the night - a shelter from the storm.