Wow... what a week. I haven't had such a good time in a long time! Life was good chilling in Wyoming with the McCoys, Casey, Nikki, Karissa, and everyone else. Actually, I probably shouldn't use the word "chilling" since it was up in the 60's (even 70's) the whole time there. I hear it was twenties and snowing here in Ithaca. Bummer I missed it.

Where to start... well, shortly after I composed that blog post in Philly, my flight to Denver was delayed. We only boarded half an hour late, but one of the overhead compartment bins wouldn't stay closed and we had to wait another half an hour for the maintenance guy to show up and slap a piece of duct tape on it. I hope they get paid well to do such things. Anyhow, I only had a 40 minute window to catch the shuttle from Denver to Cheyenne, which was now completely gone, So Cameron ended up driving down to Denver to pick me up and we had a nice 2.5 hour drive back to catch up. It was about midnight (mountain time) when we finally got to Lagrange, making it a full 20 hour day for me.

Friday I woke up to nice weather and being reunited with some more very good friends. I went to morning classes and chapel with everyone, then I got a chance to walk around town in the afternoon with Casey. And when I say walk "around town", we walked "around" town, if you get my gist. According to the signs, Lagrange (Here - the school is the blue roofs in the middle and the McCoys live just off the main highway near the railroad tracks in the SE corner of town) has a booming population of 332, presumably not counting the 200 or so students at the school. It had it all... a general store/restaurant, a bar, a church, a post office, and rodeo grounds (apparently a necessity in the cowboy state).

Lagrange: (clockwise from upper left) Welcome sign with granary in background; rodeo grounds; The longhorn, (Lagrange's general store/eatery); The school; Old spur tracks; the Lagrange gas station.

Friday night was a school-wide social, which consisted of a nicer-than-normal dinner followed by a Clue-based skit and murder-mystery. Then Saturday, all us folk originally from Washington spent the afternoon in Cheyenne, which is the closest city-at about an hour drive away. For those of you not familiar, Cheyenne is the capital of Wyoming, and not much else. And its the biggest city in the state. (There are so few people in Wyoming that they only have 5 digits on their license plates!) We had a great time walking around the "downtown" and the capital building area (here) and taking lots of pictures. Then we all got smoothies at the favorite coffee shop and headed back for Saturday night dinner at the McCoys' house where there were about 20 of us that chowed down on Fettuccine and had a great time of hanging out.

Cheyenne: A little collage of photos from our day in Cheyenne

Sunday we got up to head to church in Torrington, a slightly more significant town about 45 minutes to the north. Church was fun, and a family provided lunch for the 10 or so of us "college kids". Then came a lazy Sunday afternoon back in Lagrange before heading back for youth group, which is basically run by a few students from the school.

Casey and I at a natural rock arch at Lonetree

Me at Lonetree

Monday morning I went to classes again, then after lunch Casey and I went up hiking with another guy from the school out at Lonetree Canyon. Its only about 20 minutes away from the school, and its just a ridiculous amount of private land including some bluffs that some guy lets students from the school go hike around on. It was beautiful out there... sunny 70 degree day, hiking in the wind-sculpted sandstone formations on the edge of the bluff.

Bouldering

Some pretty nice terrain for SE Wyoming

We did some awesome bouldering (free climbing short routes without ropes) and got into some nice terrain. It was indescribably nice to get out in the great outdoors with such beautiful open space. Especially on such a nice day coming off a northeast winter. I definitely miss open space and rugged terrain in the northeast!


That night, we grilled up some tasty burgers back at the McCoys' did some more just hanging out. Tuesday I failed a pop quiz in "Modern Trends in Christianity", but I did get over a 60%. hehe... That night was open dorms, which happens after their "white glove" dorm room inspections. It's the one time a semester guys are allowed in the girls dorms and vice versa for a few hours. So everyone was pretty much just hanging out. Then it was already time to pack up. Man, the week went by SO quickly, its ridiculous. Even looking back writing this post, it sped by. Wednesday morning, I woke up at 6 and Cameron and I headed into Cheyenne so I could actually catch the shuttle to Denver this time. As far as travel days go, it went smoothly, mostly because I had relatively long layovers everywhere. Anyhow, after a day of sitting around, I got back to my place in Ithaca at about 10:30pm.

I can't even explain how great it was to see everyone there in Lagrange. Even though I'd never been there before, I knew so many people it felt almost like home in a way. I'd almost forgotten how great it feels to just be with real good friends...