Where the heck is Laramie?

Laramie is in Wyoming. Which is north of Colorado. East of Utah and Idaho. South of Montana. And west of South Dakota.  To say its in the middle of nowhere would be something of a lie because in my mind it's in the middle of everywhere.  What more could a mountain woman ask for than easy access to mountains, ski slopes, yellowstone, jackson hole, the badlands, the rockies, boulder.  I mean really-it's the center of the mountain world!

So you get the geographic idea.  The city itself is flat and relatively small, although big by wyoming standards.  Of the 30,000 city resdients, just about half of them are students at the university.  The town originally sprung up with the Union Pacific railroad camps and to this day remains an important part of product movement through the mountain interior. 

Annual Precipitation is only 10 inches.  Coupled with a January average of 21 and a July average of 64 I think I'll be quite comforatable-at least in the summer!  Of course I'll also be pleased by the snowy range 30 miles to the west and the laramie range 7 miles to the east.  Add a little rocky mountain national park for a weekend trip and I'll be in heaven...but my car will not be!

Other than that it seems like quite a simple and pleasant place.  The people are quite connected to the land as most are ranchers and understand the importance of natural resources very well.  They're also extraordinarily friendly and unlike Towson, when I call the university a live human being answers the phone! For now it's on to find a place to live.  Luckily I will enjoy rent that's less than $400 a month and a location where I can ALWAYS walk to class or work.

Over and Out.

On Board

Alright, so this is my first blog EVER.  If nothing else, at the end of it all I'll have a great journal of what I've been up to from January-August 2011.  So for starters, I'll tell you about the job.   I've just accepted a position as a trail crew leader for the Wyoming Conservation Corps.  The program is housed at the University of Wyoming in Laramie and aims to provide crews for state conservation projects while helping Wyoming's young people gain natural resource management experience through service of wyoming's land.  Beginning in January I will set sail via my 2003 saturn vue for Laramie.  From January until early May my comittment to the program will involve taking a 2 credt 'conservation leadership' course with the 15 other crew leaders at the university.  In that time we learn history, undergo training, and most importantly, hire our crews for the summer season.  When school gets out in May, we begin our projects across the state working 10 days on and 4 days off until mid August when the season finishes.  It sounds simple, but I'm sure there will be so much more to it than that.

For the next month, I'll be working like a maniac to save up money and get ready for the big move.  I guess it's a good thing that I already know my life fits quite easily in my car...