Welcome to Gillette.

My day began at 4:30am this morning and is just now wrapping up. For some reason whenever I post on this blog the correct time doesn't show up. Well it's 11pm here in Wyoming, but my body thinks it's 1am.... oh boy.

I first flew from ATL to Houston Texas then from Houston to Denver. When I looked at my ticket for the first leg of the trip I saw something wonderful... 2D. I just knew I was getting bumped to first class which is something that I've always wanted to experience. I was on cloud nine practically skipping to the gate, but not really. Sadly when I saw the plane I realized that I was sitting in row 2 of about 10 rows total and that each row was the same... no first class. Maybe on the way back to Ga......

I had a quick layover in Houston before flying to Denver. I talked to a very interesting woman for much of the flight. She was on a business trip and has lived all over  ( Mexico, Texas, Canada, California ). She was great, but I think I found someone who talks more than I do on planes. It began with me asking her if she was from Denver and ended with me knowing most of her medical history, that she was married at age 15 for her first marriage, and that she has 22 grandkids and 10 great grandkids.

I met my sister at the Denver airport and we began the drive up to Wyoming. My first thoughts about the West- it's cold. It was in the 30s in Colorado and the 40s in Wyoming. The drive to Gillette took much longer than we'd planned, we stopped for coffee a lot and got lost several times. I have stories about these.

While at Starbucks I ordered a coffee with room for cream. The coffee guy wrote my name on the cup so when it was ready and given to me the lady read it as " Iced coffee with room for Grace. " It didn't come out like she'd planned but turned into something that Joy and I laughed about for the next couple of hours. And the reason why we got lost.... well while looking for the starbucks we took a detour from the highway and the further out West you go the less signs you'll find. I'm not kidding it's like everyone here must have an internal gps in them and just know where everything is.

But fear not we made it to Gillette, Wyoming safe and sound. Made it all the way to Joy's front door before she remembered she left her key with her boyfriend. Fail. While we waited for the key to come, we went over to her neighbor's apartment and I met her neighbor/co-worker Steve. Steve was about to do P90X yoga so we joined in. I mean why not.

And the conclusion to day 1. Oh and my best quote from Joy so far. I learned about the helpful bits of info she's picked up over the winter. Turns out "everyone around here keeps a sleeping bag and food in their car at all times in the winter because if the road gets shut down you're stuck and..... well....you might die. " My sister is like a pioneer woman now.