into the wild, wild, West

We are deep into cowboy country, somewhere in the middle of Wyoming. I've never seen landscape like this in real life - only in Westerns. At times we've driven through large hills scattered with pine trees and looked off at dry, brown land that stretches off and meets the horizon. For Peter and I, as we drive, our thoughts have been about Cowboys, herding cattle, sleeping out under the stars by a campfire and drinking thick, black coffee. We drove past Split Rock and talked about the pioneers going west on the Oregon Trail and what it would be like to be walking there and seeing the looming mountains off in the distance.
We stopped at the smallest town in the US, Buford Wyoming, population 1, and we had to meet him. The one resident, Don, owned a little gas station/c-store that we bought gas at. Who would have thought that there could be such a small town as that? It was about 20 minutes outside of the very large college town of Laramie, so he couldn't have been too lonely there.
Being in this open country makes me really want to see buffalo and even taste it. So far we've seen deer and antelope on the hills, a buzzard on the side of the road, a glimpse of a large bull moose in the back of a pick up, and lots of steer. Last night we found a camp site next to the Wind River. It was beautiful. We finished setting up camp by the light of the stars and the full moon, which bathed everything in light. We stood by the river and talked again about the cowboys who slept out under the stars here at one time and felt similar to them. And then we heard the coyotes start to howl. As fun as it is to think about the old days, we were glad to have sleeping bags to crawl into. And even with wool socks and a hat and fleece on, I have to say that it was hard to sleep because it was so cold. Those cowboys were tough! And their campsite never offered them a full, complimentary breakfast. yum.