Day 1

As airpot security scanned my business, I noticed that Billy made a few new friends over by the x-ray carry-on scanner. He was in rare form this morning, to be sure. He spent the preboarding time period in educating me about the aircraft we were preparing to board and once in-flight, woke me up at one point to point out the best Bonanza buffet in Nebraska. At 38000 feet. I proceeded to pull out my notebook to jot that down.

The rest of the flight went very smoothly; at the Denver airport we had a brush with celebrity...we saw Joey and Rory as we were heading to baggage claim. Billy had no idea who they were, as I figure is the same with most people. They are country music singers who got their break on a reality show called "Can You Duet", with a 3rd place finish. You may know them from Overstock.com commercials and a song called "Cheater Cheater."

Waiting for the rental car bus, we found ourselves suddenly surrounded by Texas Longhorns fans. It was like slowly being surrounded by a flock of Canadian geese...one portly gentleman with a cowboy hat waddled up...then a couple...then an entire family. We avoided meeting their gaze, and edged our way toward the nearest exit. Billy's Wyoming sweatshirt encited some playful, jabbing behavior from the Texans, as one fan told us as we were leaving to "be careful," with a side eyed glance.

we picked up the rental car and headed on our way. It took us 2 wrong exits and a few more detours to find something quick for breakfast. I apologize for that in advance, Eric, as you are map plotting our progress probably as I type this.

We stopped at the University of Wyoming bookstore for a bit and then hit the road again.

Destination: Independence Rock.