Commuting Options from Sheridan to Buffalo. (Cheyenne, Laramie: fit in, sales, 2014)

[ElkHunter]

You can tell you are in Wyoming this morning.

I90, closed. Hwy 14 16, No unecessary travel.

Yet, our school buses chained up and got all the kids to school.

Like I told my daughter on the phone this morning. "If our kids can make it to school, there is no reason you can't drag your lazy butt to work." hahahaha She txt'd me a bit later and said, "I'm at work, so far 3 people haven't showed up."

[eiafjam]

I have driven I90 every weekday for four years from Sheridan to exit 88 since moving back home. It amazes me that in the stretch of highway at Piney, people will still drive 75 MPH on that hill in the winter. This winter especially.......Almost every morning that it is snowy and icy, I come upon an accident. When I stop to ask if they are ok most say it was the icy highway that got them. My reply is that it is not the icy highway, but that they were driving too fast for conditions. No matter the conditions, winter/spring/summer/fall, I always slow down before I crest the hill so that I have some control in case of ice, snow, or deer. Have yet to have any "horror" story to tell. This morning we had freezing fog and people still drove like it was high noon and 70*. Slow down people and enjoy the drive.

EIAFJAM

[WyoNewk]

My first summer in Gillette, in 1971, a work associate and I were to meet our boss, who was vacationing in Story, at the Piney Creek exit at 6 a.m. to take him to a meeting we had at the Billings Gazette. I went to pick up my associate at his house at the agreed upon time that would get us to the Piney Creek exit at 6, but he was still sleeping. So we were running late. Nobody was on the highway at that hour (unlike these days), so I was trying to make up some lost time. I had a new car, what they now call a "muscle car", and the further we travelled the later we got and the heavier my foot got on the gas pedal.

Neither of us had ever been that way before, so we didn't know where the exit was, but we went past it at somewhere north of 100 mph. Another mile or two up the interstate I saw headlights behind us. At the speed we were traveling, I was sure nobody would be catching up to us, so I figured it either had to be a patrolman or my boss and slowed down considerably, then pulled over. It was my new boss, being driven by his wife. (She was a middle-aged gal then, who never drove the speed limit and never let anyone she was riding with drive over the speed limit.)

Suffice it to say, when they caught up with us she was white as a ghost, stammering about how we went past them like a streak and how they tried to catch up. 40+ years later I still remember her words pretty well. "I got up to 75, and Jack said you were still pulling away, so I sped up to 85. You were STILL pulling away! Jack said go faster, so I sped up to 90 and you were STILL pulling away! I've never been so scared in my life! Are you crazy?!"

I don't speed these days, and I didn't a lot then, but I had to share my story about the Piney Creek exit.

[ScottStielow]

Really all good points about that stretch of I90 heading south to piney Creek. I'll be sure to keep it in mind. I do not speed myself now days. I know i will Eventually i will get to where i am going.
Scott

[ElkHunter]

Originally Posted by ScottStielow

Really all good points about that stretch of I90 heading south to piney Creek. I'll be sure to keep it in mind. I do not speed myself now days. I know i will Eventually i will get to where i am going.
Scott

I had a friend visit from Iowa. We went for a ride to take in the sites. Came up to two pickups stopped and they were blocking the road. Tony says, "now what?" I said, " we wait, they'll finish and move in a few, and if you touch that horn, ill shoot you." He laughed and said, I'm from Iowa, not California, back home we give em 5 minutes, and then we get out and go join the conversation."

Kind of how it is. There is no reason to be in that much of a hurry. At least for me. I had a doctors appointment one day. About half way to town my radiator split right down the side. I called a buddy who come out and threw a chain on me and pulled me home. I got on my 4 wheeler and headed for town. I got to the doctors office 20 minutes early for my appointment.

I understand a busy day and commitments and appointments, but for most folks they create their own panic for no reason. This is Wyoming, plan ahead, leave early and take your time.

[jody_wy]

but my area getting less ag friendly all the time heaven forbid you go down the highway with a tractor or even worse move livestock on the hoof.

[ScottStielow]

Originally Posted by jody_wy

but my area getting less ag friendly all the time heaven forbid you go down the highway with a tractor or even worse move livestock on the hoof.

Jody, I saw a tractor on the WYODOT camera at US89 at Thayne one day when i was looking on line at the weather. Didn't seem to be much traffic behind him. Do you have to get permission from the Sherriff to move livestock?

[jody_wy]

Originally Posted by ScottStielow

Jody, I saw a tractor on the WYODOT camera at US89 at Thayne one day when i was looking on line at the weather. Didn't seem to be much traffic behind him. Do you have to get permission from the Sherriff to move livestock?

Nope , some guys will call highway department if they doing a long drive . We used to trail for 3 days every spring from Auburn to Alpine and Greys River and 3 day home every fall.

[ScottStielow]

Well Jody. I guess i am A little naive in this question. Is the build up of Star Valley the cause of all the change. People coming who are seasonal residents for the good weather, and then take off for the winter. I kinda like the old ways, seems you should be able to move your livestock when and where you need too, or your tractor. Maybe a bygone era, sadly.
Scott

[sunsprit]

here in SE WY, it's not uncommon to see farming equipment on the county roads. Most folk are savvy enough to not overdrive their line of sight during those times of the year when equipment is on the move ... especially during planting or harvest times ... so that you can slow down to allow the equipment to move over (and stop, if needed) so there's room to pass each other.

I had one neighbor who couldn't get the concept through his head, used to drive 60-80 mph here on these little county dirt roads. I had one afternoon where I was running a JD 4890 self-propelled 16' swather from a neighbor's field to my place, and the road has some deep enough draws where you can't see this machine. Due to the limited line of sight in that stretch, the posted speed limit is only 30 mph. With me heading north at 12 mph and him heading south at a much faster speed, it was a wake-up call for him as he crested a hill to discover the road completely blocked; I had all the flashers and headlights on for the slow moving vehicle warning. I stopped as quickly as I could, but there was no place to go except on the road for the swather ... and watched him drop his pick-up truck into the barrow pit. So I kept on going to pass him, got flipped off and the guy was screaming at me. (This was the same AF Master Sergeant that had been tresspassing on my property with his hunting dog training (I've written the story up on C-D several times); we were extremely happy to see him move out of the area after I complained to his First Sergeant about the guy's behavior). I don't know if he damaged the truck or not during that sudden off-road excursion, but I saw him with a new truck a week later.

As far as livestock movement goes ... we have several neighbors who rotate their cattle or sheep through several sections of land in the area. It's not uncommon to see them move them 4-5-6 miles down the county roads several times through the grazing season. Usually with horses and an ATV or two, most times they don't have a vehicle with warning flashers with the move. I've had their herd head into my driveway and over to my closest pasture land a couple of times. Gets kinda' comical watching the boys move the herd back to the county road and on their way; usually only a couple of minutes. But those critters can smell my haystacks and that alfalfa is a powerful attractant.

I've tried to help a few times with my ATV, but I think I was a help only once when a herd of cows got onto another neighbor's dryland wheat field and needed to be herded back to the section where they'd come through a fence. We got awakened by the brand inspector that AM to see if we could help ... he couldn't reach the herd owner. I got the cows moving in the right direction and they went quietly ... albeit not in a straight line ... headed a couple miles back down the county road to where they'd come through the fence. Other neighbors on the roads nearby saw what was going on and came over to help, which kept the cows moving towards where they needed to go. And one had his fencing tools in his truck, so once the cows were back in the pasture, he restrung the broken strands and we were all on our way ... no big deal, really. But a few anxious moments for the brand inspector seeing 100+ head herd heading down a county road with the potential of causing an accident.

We don't need to call any authorities to move livestock within our county, but are supposed to get brand inspections if they are moved further than that. It gets more complicated for some of our neighbors with land in CO and feedlots here in WY; crossing a state line requires a brand inspection. One neighbor trails some of his livestock from a few grazing sections 3 miles south of the CO-WY border to a feedlot 1 mile in WY due north of his place.