Balloon Fiesta '09!

Melissa and I spent the weekend in Albuquerque with Bob and Emily, and we went to the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta! We had a blast (thanks Bobily for hosting), and we want to share a few of the photos we took at the Fiesta. Here they are, starting with the Dawn Patrol - the team of balloons that ascends first to check air conditions - and the beautiful New Mexico sunrise. (There's a reason they call it The Land of Enchantment.)



















Thank you Bobily and Albuquerque for showing us a great time!

Wyoming Rendezvous

A View of Devil's Tower National Monument

Over the past four days, Melissa and I had the excellent opportunity to tour part of the state of Wyoming. Each September, a member of the University of Wyoming's media relations staff organizes the Wyoming Rendezvous for new UW faculty and staff. It's a way for new employees of the university to get to know more about Wyoming and its people, and it's a great public relations campaign for the university.

The first stop on our tour was Cheyenne where we ate lunch at the old train depot (pictured below) and heard presentations about some of the major research initiatives at the University of Wyoming. The initiatives include a new supercomputer being built just outside Cheyenne and energy research including coal gasification and carbon sequestration. Coal gasification is a process in which coal is turned into a gas, and the gas is used to produce energy. This is more energy efficient than burning coal the old-fashioned way. Carbon sequestration is the process of capturing the carbon dioxide emitted by burning coal and injecting it into the ground in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

After our stop in Cheyenne, we drove up to Gillette, Wyoming, which is up in the northeast corner of the state. It took us all afternoon to make it to Gillette, so our only activity once we arrived was dinner.

The next morning just after 7:00 a.m., we were off to the high school in Gillette where we met with school administrators and a few students and teachers for breakfast. The president of the University of Wyoming, Tom Buchanan, had flown up to Gillette that morning and met us at the high school. After breakfast, our group hopped in the van and drove to Hulett, Wyoming (about an hour away from Gillette) while President Buchanan and other UW administrators stayed in Gillette for an assembly with students.

On arriving in Hulett, a tiny town of about 400 residents in a beautiful valley near Devil's Tower National Monument, we met a UW trustee and Hulett's school principal. The school is K-12 since the town is so small, but the school is really nice. (Wyoming has excellent education funding because of all the energy revenue the state receives.) We met with students and answered their questions about going to college and the University of Wyoming. After a while, President Buchanan arrived, and the students had time to ask him questions. This was one of my favorite parts of the trip because the students were very interested in President Buchanan. They asked him great questions, and he related to them extremely well. One of my favorite moments was when a student asked, "What's the best major you guys offer?" President Buchanan said, "The best major is whatever you like. If you don't like one major, then that major is no good for you." Another student asked where she could house her horses while she went to college. Anyway, they were really great, and the UW president was extremely personable. I thought it was an excellent way for the university to reach out to high school students.

Next on the agenda was lunch at the country club in Hulett, followed by a tour of UW trustee Jim Neiman's sawmill.
This is a photo of the view from the country club where we had lunch. Just below the overlook is the sawmill we toured. In the distance, you can see Devil's Tower (on the left) and a couple of buttes.
Here's our group putting on hardhats and inserting earplugs before going into the sawmill.




After our tour, we all loaded back into the van for a visit of Devil's Tower, a very exciting moment for our group.

In this photo, you can see a climber on the cliff face. Melissa and I spotted three climbers, but others in our group said they saw four. We learned that it usually takes an experienced climber about three hours to scale Devil's Tower and one hour to get down.

The trail around the base of the Tower is a little over a mile and doesn't take too long to walk (depending on how often you stop to look at the Tower). Once you get close to Devil's Tower, there's kind of a hushed feeling. Many Native American tribes regard the site as sacred, and Melissa and I certainly felt the urge to be reverent while we were there.

This deer we saw on the trail was not at all afraid of people.

After our walk around Devil's Tower, we went to our hotel to get cleaned up for dinner. We were served a delicious catered dinner at the school where we ate with Mr. Neiman, the trustee who was hosting us, and school officials and community members. I sat next to a representative from the state legislature, and Melissa and I met a state senator that evening as well. Rubbing shoulders with politicians and high-level university administrators was a new experience for both Melissa and me, and we had a blast! What made is so great is that everyone was completely down to earth and friendly. We absolutely loved our day in Hulett.

The next morning, Saturday, we were up early and on the road again. Our destination was the Black Thunder coal mine about an hour south of Gillette. Greg Schaefer, the mine's spokesman and a former UW trustee, gave us a tour of the mine.

This is not the same kind of coal mining operation your hear about in places like West Virginia where coal miners get stuck inside deep shafts. The kind of coal that is mined in Wyoming is fairly close to the surface, so the miners blast down so that they can drive huge machinery up to the coal seams and haul it out in trucks.


This machine is called the dragline. It's kind of like a huge crane that drags away the earth on top of the coal after the miners have blasted away what they can. To put the size of this machine in perspective, look at the bottom left corner of the dragline. You can see one of the huge trucks that haul out the coal, and to the right of the truck, there's a bulldozer. I don't think you can even see the bulldozer without enlarging the picture, but you can see how massive the dragline is.

After our tour of the mine, we grabbed lunch and drove to Casper, Wyoming. When we arrived in Casper, we got a tour of the University of Wyoming's Casper outreach center, which has an important partnership with Casper Community College. UW-CC is also an important hub for UW's Outreach programs, which provide distance learning opportunities for students all over the state.

That evening, we had a very nice dinner at the Petroleum Club in Casper. Once again, we had the opportunity to rub shoulders with UW administrators, who were very gracious hosts, as well as another state senator, and professors and community members. Melissa and I sat with, among other fascinating people, a UW-CC English professor who also chairs the Wyoming Arts Council. He's also on a first-name basis with Wyoming's governor Dave Freudenthal.

The next morning, Sunday, we got to sleep in a little bit, then we were off to the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center in Casper. It's sort of like a museum that tells the story historic trails that all passed through what is today Casper. They include Native American trails, the Oregon trail, the Mormon trail, the California gold rush trail, and the Pony Express.

The view of Casper from the Trails Center.

A diorama of some pioneers.

In this exhibit, you get to try pushing a Mormon handcart.

We thought this was a funny ad for the Pony Express.

After spending some time at the Trails Center, we piled into the tour bus for the last time and drove back to Laramie. Whew! It was quite a trip! The Rendezvous was an amazing way to get to know a few places in the great state of Wyoming. Melissa and I had a great time. We feel like we gained quite an education in industry, and we experienced firsthand just how warm and friendly the people of Wyoming are. We love it here!

The New Apartment

Melissa and I thought that some of our readers may be interested in a virtual tour of our apartment in Laramie. Here's a brief slideshow:

Living Room

Kitchen/Dining Room

Office

Guest Room

Master Bedroom

We also have two bathrooms, but if you want to see them, you'll have to come to Laramie!

Weekend Fun

It's been a while since we've written about some of the fun things we've been doing on the weekends. I decided to post some of the great photos we've taken recently. Most of the photos on this post were taken at a place called Vedauwoo, which is a group of rock formations in the mountains about 15 miles east of Laramie. Vedauwoo is known for rock climbing, and we saw a show recently called "Vertical Dance at Vedauwoo," in which climbers performed dance moves while hanging from vertical cliffs. Here are some photos.




Melissa and I enjoyed Vedauwoo so much that we came back the following week to do some hiking. Here are some photos from our hike.










As you can see, the rock formations are surreal and fantastic. We enjoy them immensely!


The farmers market is a mainstay for our weekend fun. The above picture shows how the city of Laramie has blocked off a downtown street for the Friday-afternoon market. Our favorite things to buy at the market are peaches and corn on the cob!

We also made it to the Denver Temple recently on a sunny day! Melissa has some magical way of not squinting in a sunny picture. Amazing.

Cheney in Laramie

Photo from the Laramie Boomerang.

Yesterday Melissa and I witnessed a fascinating moment in the history of Laramie and the University of Wyoming. Dick and Lynne Cheney were on campus for the dedication of the Cheney Center for International Studies at the University of Wyoming. The Cheneys donated over $3 million to the University, so the University named the new center in their honor.


Both supporters and protesters attended the dedication ceremony. I'm afraid the photos I took aren't very good, and my camera batteries died after two photos. But we saw people holding signs that say things like "Dick Cheney is a war criminal." The ceremony featured several speakers, including Dick and Lynne Cheney, former senator Alan Simpson, and a UW student who had traveled to Liberia through a university program funded in part by the Cheneys' donation. For much of the time, the protesters booed loudly. I could hear them shout things like "you're a fascist!" and Melissa heard someone yell something about Nazis. The protesters were against the new International Center being named for the Cheneys because they fear that the Cheney name will reflect poorly on the University of Wyoming, in large part because of the questionable policies such as "enhanced interrogation techniques" that Mr. Cheney advocated as vice president.

The Cheneys' remarks were in no way political. Mr. and Mrs. Cheney stood at the podium side-by-side and took turns speaking. They mostly reminisced about their time at the University of Wyoming and their fondness for the state of Wyoming, and they discussed the importance of study abroad opportunities for students. As an observer, I was torn by my own disagreement with Mr. Cheney's politics and my support for study abroad programs. I believe that international travel is a vitally important part of a person's education, and as a resident of Wyoming, I appreciate Mr. and Mrs. Cheney's generous gift to the university. I couldn't help feeling that the boos, jeers, and taunts from the crowd yesterday were inappropriate for the occasion.