Nook on the Road: Wyoming

Well, our experience of the great state of Wyoming can pretty much be summed up by this:

...That being said, we did get a few minutes of this.

Also, in case you were wondering, when we stopped in Sheridan I did indeed get my beer.

When we stopped in Sheridan we pulled into the Rib & Chop House, which was jam packed with people and a relatively enjoyable experience. The atmosphere seemed a bit confused, like they were going for a more upscale steakhouse vibe - the host was wearing a tie and a dress shirt, the lighting was somewhat dim, and many of the patrons were dressed nicely - but they put paper over the tablecloths (our server wrote her name on ours in crayon, much to Max's delight) and the servers were wearing sports T-shirts. Of course, that didn't matter any, but it was somewhat comical. Probably had to do with the fact that the restaurant was, in fact, located in Wyoming - now, I've never been to Wyoming before and I don't claim to be an expert on the state in any form, but if my experience growing up in Idaho and Montana is anything to go by (especially Montana), country folks in country states can try as hard as they can to be urban, but it's just never going to be 100%. That's the appealing thing about this part of the country, though. Life is plainer and simpler here, even when it's trying hard not to be. A part of us country mice, no matter how small, is irreversibly country. And so forth.

In case anyone was wondering, I had chicken fried chicken, Todd had chicken fried steak, Max had all of his fries and none of his chicken strips, and Baby C had nursies and a nap.

And yes, they had beer - we tried a porter and a brown ale from a Wyoming brewery. I think it was called Beartooth, though I can't seem to remember now for sure. The beers were listed as "Beartooth Porter" and "Beartooth Brown" (I think) but a Google search for such a brewery only turns up a Colorado based brewer who doesn't have a porter and whose brown goes by "Beartooth Ale", so I have no idea. Regardless, the beers were entirely underwhelming. The Porter was pretty standard but the coffee notes were waaaay too forward and didn't let much of the maltiness through. The Brown was particularly dark in color, almost as dark as the Porter, but astonishingly low in both texture and flavor. It was like someone had put brown food coloring in a session lager and removed all traces of hops. That being said, beer is beer (I read a quote recently, I think in Beer Advocate magazine, that went something like "No beer is bad. Some beers are better, but no beer is bad" - fair enough!), and I enjoyed it thoroughly after a long day on the road.

...And then we drove. A lot.

...And then we entered South Dakota.

There you have it, my friends. The Complete Life and Times of the Nook in Wyoming. Before you run away and never read my blog again, please let me assure you that you need to hang around because our day today in South Dakota was MARVELLOUS BEYOND REASONING and will captivate and interest you to tears. Tears! I love South Dakota. And I will love blogging about loving South Dakota. And you will love READING about me blogging about loving South Dakota! So please, stay with me here and check in tomorrow.

Hugs and kisses!

"Forever West." How romantic. I'm going to start saying that all the time, maybe as a farewell or something. "Bye guys, see you tomorrow. Forever West." ...It will be neat-o.

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