A Family Tradition
Like millions of other people, the Massey’s went away for the weekend. Mr M and myself took one of those nice relaxing trips that we all like to take every once in awhile, to escape the same old grind of everyday living. Three days is not a very long time for a vacation so the logical thing to do is try to cram a two week vacation into the matter of 72 hours. Maybe “relaxing trip” are not exactly the words I am looking for, maybe fast and hectic trip would be better suited to our three day outing.
One of our favorite places to visit is Greybull. Yep, you read it right, Greybull. Mr M was the owner and publisher of the Greybull Standard newspaper before he started newspapering in Colorado. We have good friends and good times in Greybull. For those of you that are not familiar with the location of Greybull…it is approximately 450 miles north of Greeley in big wonderful Wyoming (where men are men and wooley critters roam free). In the opinion of this person, Greybull, Wyoming is a neat place to go.
Traveling to Greybull is always quite an experience, in fact traveling anywhere with Mr M behind the wheel of the car is quite an experience. You have to forget about food, cross your legs and pray that the car will require gas at the next town or within the hour. His philosophy is…if there is a road leading to it, you ought to be able to reach any city in the US in a matter of 15 minutes, if you don’t stop for anything as trivial as food and bathrooms. His idea of a gourmet meal while traveling is a bag of Cheetos and Pepsi. He also takes short naps while driving down the long stretches of highways that Wyoming is famous for. This is is way of keeping his passenger (me) wide awake, alert and talking, therefore saving the hard earned money that he would have to spend on no-doze and coffee
On our trips to Greybull, we have establish ed a tradition. It is traditional for me to drive the 98 miles of bad road from Casper to Shoshoni. This stretch of road consists of…98 miles of asphalt and sagebrush, where bee:r bottles and plastic bags along the roadway are considered points of interest. During this exciting part of the trip we pass such crowded metropolitan areas as Powder River, pop. 50, Hiland, pop. 15, and Moneta, pop. 10. That’s 75 people in 98 miles. There are some places in Colorado where 75 people live in the same house. Hell’s Half Acre is also a featured attraction along this stretch of road, that name alone should tell you something
While in Greybull, we certainly know how to relax. We call our friends and hit every cowboy dance within a 50 mile radius of Greybull, staying out until the wee small hours of the morning. We feel that going to Wyoming and not dancing the western swing would be like going to Disneyland and not seeing Mickey Mouse.
As always, we certainly enjoyed our trip to Greybull. Merle Haggard sings a song titled “My Favorite Memory” that has a line that says: “I guess everything does change except what we choose to recall”. Going back to a familiar place to see and enjoy old friends and good times every once in a while must be the meaning of the words: “What we choose to recall”. A few days in Greybull is even worth the drive from Casper to Shoshoni…After all, it’s a family tradition.
