Wyoming is Home

I've decided I was crazy in college. Not crazy in a "the stories my friends could tell would make my parents cry" kind of way. My most embarrassing college moment involves me getting pulled over by a police officer on foot while I was sober and driving friends home from the bar. But that's a story for another day. No, I was crazy in a full of myself, must have lost my mind kind of way.

I grew up in Cheyenne, went to the University of Wyoming in Laramie and then took my first job out of college in Indianapolis, Indiana. I absolutely, positively, could not wait to get out of this state. I was going to move to Indiana, become fabulous and famous and never, EVER, look back.

What was I thinking?

It took me exactly four days in a place where I did not know another person for a thousand miles to get homesick. I missed my friends, my family, my horse, my dogs and Mountain Dew that tasted right (I swear it tastes different if it's not bottled in Worland, it really does.) I missed the prairie and the mountains and the antelope. Heck, I missed the wind.

"I've been to Wyoming. What's there to miss?" I remember my supervisor asking at the time.

How do you answer that? It's Wyoming. It's windy and cold and sometimes a little close-minded. But it's also beautiful and expansive and full of some of the most genuine, friendly, hard-working folks in the country.

My travels over the last few months only cemented my love of this place and our way of life. In the course of a two-hour drive up the North Fork of the Shoshone, I saw bighorn sheep, mountain blue birds, hawks, turkeys, a lone moose and more dang deer than I could count.

At the gas station in Shoshoni, I ran into two friends from college. We visited for a bit, discussing where life had taken us and how we thought the Pokes, our beloved University of Wyoming football team, might do in the upcoming season. None of us live within 250 miles of Shoshoni.

Two nights ago, I watched the sun set over Hells Half Acre, the sky an indescribable mixture of blue, purple, yellow and orange. From my perch on the hood of my car, I watched the moon come out, and with it more deer, antelope and critters of the night.

The only traffic jam I've dealt with in the last twelve months was caused by some cowboys moving cattle off their summer pasture in the Big Horn National Forest. The traffic, all seven or eight cars, backed up behind the herd as they headed toward town.

A few weeks ago, a friend circulated an e-mail with the subject line entitled "You Know You're from Wyoming When..." I've seen some derivative of this list a few times over the years, but it never fails to make me smile. Maybe you'll recognize your favorite part about Wyoming in it and smile with me.

YOU KNOW YOU'RE FROM WYOMING WHEN...

1. Your idea of a traffic jam is ten cars waiting to pass a tractor on the highway.

2. "Vacation" means going to Cheyenne or Casper for the weekend.

3. You measure distance in hours.

4. You know several people who have hit deer more than once.

5. You often switch from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day.

6. You use a down comforter in the summer.

7. Your grandparents drive at 65 mph through 13 feet of snow during a raging blizzard, without flinching.

8. You see people wearing hunting clothes at social events.

9. You install security lights on your house and garage and leave both unlocked.

10. You think of the major food groups as deer meat, fish, and berries.

11. You carry jumper cables in your car and your girlfriend knows how to use them.

12. There are 7 empty cars running in the parking lot at the Wal-Mart store at any given time.

13. You design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit.

14. Driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow.

15. You think lingerie is tube socks and flannel pajamas.

16. You know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter, and construction.

17. It takes you 3 hours to go to the store for one item even when you're in a rush because you have to stop and talk to everyone in town.

18. You have ever uttered the term "Greenie!"

Why in the world did I ever want to leave? Oh sure, places like San Francisco, Denver, Indianapolis and New York City offer better shopping, more restaurants and oodles of cultural experiences that you just can't get in Ten Sleep. And every city, big or small, has its own unique culture and history that make it an interesting place. I can't wait to get back to Washington, D.C. to see the monuments I missed the last time. I'd like to take in a Broadway show in the Big Apple. And I could probably make more money living in a more populated locale and climb the corporate ladder to a corner office with a view. But that view likely wouldn't include my beloved Rocky Mountains.

I can live without Starbucks, P.F. Chang's awesome Orange Chicken, regular trips to Eddie Bauer or season tickets to the Indianapolis Colts. But I don't want to live without the mountains as the backdrop for my daily commute, wide open vistas, spring snowstorms so big and wet you swear your roof might collapse, antelope, or hearing about my trip to Cody from a friend in Sundance before I even make it to my front door in Cheyenne. I want space, abundant wildlife, close-knit communities and low humidity.

About three months after I'd moved to Indiana, a friend sent me a poster to hang in my office. The photo was pretty cool, a typical shot of the Tetons with brightly colored flowers blanketing the foreground. But it was the three words at the bottom that brought tears to my eyes the day the poster arrived at my Indianapolis condo a decade ago. They are my past, my present and God willing, my future...

Wyoming is home.