...more Wyoming...

...we did quite the whirlwind tour of Wyoming...leaving Casper...

...heading east...past the Medicine Bow National Forest...

...this was near Teapot Dome...read about the scandal here...

...the terrain continues to change every few miles...

...into the grassland...

...somewhere in Wyoming...

...a pretty overlook...in the Black Hills...

...I wonder if it's salty...the sign doesn't say...

...the famous Red Butte...

...and a pretty sunset...

~Have a lovely day!

...Wyoming...

...a beautiful day dawned...

...and we headed up the road to Casper to collect our luggage...we're all kinda tired of wearing the same clothes...although we did all buy Brown and Gold gear to wear to the game...HA!

...you can see the roads are much clearer...still patches of ice...but nothing like the wild ride we had Wednesday...

...and Wyoming is so beautiful...

...it seems like the terrain completely changes every few miles...wind turbines and mountains...

...incredibly long trains...carrying either hundreds of cars of coal...or crude as here...a testament to the gas and oil boom...

...we're going to tour around Wyoming a little bit before we head home...

~Have a lovely day!

...the Big Game...

...in the evening after our tour...

...we headed over to the stadium...

...to watch the game...

...our seats were right next to the band...

...introducing the players...

...the mascot "Pistol Pete"...

...and in true Band-Mom fashion...I didn't take any photos of the team...but I have lots of pictures of the band...

 ...we were all impressed with the band...

~Have a lovely St. Valentine's Day!

...another University Tour...

...so we finally make it safely to the University...

...Scout has a day scheduled full of appointments...the first one is with the Fisheries and Wildlife Mangement department...

...then there's a campus tour...

...including the dorms...and the caf...we all ate there...the food was impressive...and there were lots of vegan options...

...in the afternoon we met with the Band representative...then on to Admissions and Financial aid...

...it was a good, fun and informative day...

...no luggage yet...I washed everyone's socks and undies in the sink and dried them with the hair dryer...we'll go to Casper tomorrow and collect our luggage...

~Have a lovely day!

...Day 2...the travel saga continues...

...so Tuesday night about 11 PM we get to Salt Lake City...we've now been awake for about 20 hours...but we rent a car to drive to Laramie...we'll bypass Casper for now (although that's where our luggage went)...as Scout has meetings scheduled at the University at 9 AM...

...we (and by we...I mean the Man) drive for a few hours...getting more and more tired...then it starts snowing...a heavy wet snow...so we pull off the interstate at a little town called Rock Springs...and get a room to sleep for a few hours...thinking that we can just get up and drive the remaining 3 hours to Laramie this morning...

...but you know what they say about the best laid plans...

...we got toothbrushes from the hotel desk...and we're still dressed...remember we don't have any luggage yet...

...and we get back in our rental car and head to Laramie...

...this is our first glimpse of Wyoming...in the cold clear light of dawn...

...brightening up...

...but...this is the Interstate Highway...a solid sheet of ice...we couldn't go over 40 mph...so we slowed down and called the University to reschedule Scout's orientation and tour...

...we kept seeing these structures along the highway...

...they are apparently used to create snow drifts away from the highway... ...I just looked it up and they are called "Snow Fences"...here's an article about how they work...

...very interesting...there are lots of them...we never saw anything like this in North Dakota...

...so what should have been a 3 hour drive took us 6 hours...and there was a double tractor/trailer wreck too...

...the people at the University were super nice and rescheduled all of Scout's appointments...

...y'all have a lovely day!...the adventure continues...

...the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad TRAVEL Day...

...so...

...that's an ominous title isn't it?...

...we had scheduled another campus visit for Scout at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, Wyoming...so...

...we got up early...like 4 AM early to leave West Virginia, Tuesday...

...all was well...they de-iced the plane for Chicago and we left within an hour of our departure time...which put us late getting to Chicago...and we RAN to catch our flight to Denver...

...which also left an hour late...

...which would have meant another mad dash in Denver to catch our flight for Casper, Wyoming...but we were ok with that...it is February after all...and you can't expect everything to be on time during stormy winter weather...

...BUT...a few minutes into our Denver flight we knew things were not quite right...I was sitting in our row of three...flanked by the Man aisle-side and Scout window-side...when it started to get very warm...I mean like sauna warm...and everyone's ears started popping in a MAJOR way...people were screaming and crying...and I don't mean children...

...but the pilot was calm and cool when he spoke to us over the PA system...stating that there were problems with the cabin pressure...and we weren't going to be able to climb above 14,000 feet...or the oxygen masks would deploy...

...so we descended to 10,000 feet and made a swooping arc to return to Chicago...we knew then that all hope of getting to Casper was lost...

...it was kinda weird to fly at such a low altitude in such a big jet...

...and even weirder (word?)...to land as an EMERGENCY...with fire trucks and paramedics waiting...I really should have gotten a photo...but it was kinda hectic and chaotic at the moment...so I didn't...

...when we first landed we all yawned repeatedly trying to get our ears back to normal...but some people on the plane were taken by paramedics to the hospital...and we had to sign a waiver that we were refusing medical treatment...

...so here we are back on the ground in Chicago...and the line to customer service now has 400 people in it...so the Man called our airline...and guess what...all flights to Denver are full...surprise...surprise...NOT...

...but believe it or not they offered to switch us to another airline...who knew they did that...

...but instead of going to Denver we are now going to Salt Lake City...close...right...???

...so we spent 5 hours in the Chicago airport watching the snow fall...

...and finally got on our new flight to Salt Lake City...

~Y'all have a lovely day!...travel update tomorrow...

...Storing Bagged Food...

...I thought I'd show you what I did with all that tapioca starch left after I made the Stretchy Vegan Mozzarella Cheeze yesterday...

...it comes in a plastic bag...but I don't like to store foodstuff in plastic for long periods of time...

...so I re-use the glass jars that things like pickles and salsa and peanut butter still sometimes (but definitely not always) come in...

...and then I just cut out the label and tape it on the outside of the jar...

...how do you store leftover packaged items?

~Have a lovely day!

...Stretchy Vegan Mozzarella Cheeze...

...when I saw this recipe over at It Doesn't Taste Like Chicken...

...I thought...I've got to try that...it looked so easy and good...

...so I got out my cashews...I had not pre-soaked them...

...but that was ok...because Sam said that she doesn't always soak hers in advance...so she just boils them for a few minutes...

...a few simple ingredients...Tapioca starch is what makes the cheeze stretchy...

...a few other simple ingredients that you probably already have on hand...

...just put everything in the blender...

...and blend it all up..until it's nice and smooth...

...then put it in a saucepan and start cooking it...

...until it gets all gooey and stretchy...a few minutes...

...perfect gloopy...gloppy...stretchy...cheezey goodness...

...just served wtih some tortilla chips...

...so delicious and fun...we'll definitely be making this again...I think it would be super with some salsa and hot sauce mixed in too...

...and the FINAL nākd Bar flavor is...

...Cocoa Crunch...

...a few ingredients...I really liked the crunchies...

...and only 106 calories...

...it was so much fun trying all of these bars...we all have our favorites and we'll definitely be ordering them again...

...go to Natural Balance Foods for more info...

~Have a lovely day!