Trip to Walla Walla

May 16, 2007 Energy Motel, Diamondville, WY

A month ago we left for Kentucky.

This morning we finished packing and such, leaving Salina at
11 AM. We really need only 2 days to drive to our destination
Walla Walla, Washington, but we decided to take 3 days and
arrive with energy enough to enjoy the trip.

We were amazed at the changes along the way from Longmont
to Loveland. The completed US287 bypasses Berthoud and
there is so much new development it was hard to recognize
where we were. The same happened at 28th and the Diagonal
in Boulder, I must say.

It has been a lovely day. We stopped in Laramie for a picnic
lunch. This was in a lovely park in the center of town. After
lunch we drove almost non-stop covering 400 plus miles.

As we were driving I was remembering our stay at Long Branch
Lake, Kentucky. I forgot to mention a couple of details. As we
were getting settled at our campsite Robert noted, with disgust,
that someone had thrown fish heads and tails onto the ground,just
a few yards from the picnic table. Later, as I was preparing our
dinner I noticed 3 vultures were happily taking care of the fish.
I have decided that is one advantage of having a few of them
around.

As we were eating we heard a racket of hammering. I could see
from our window who was making such a racket and was thrilled to
Pileated woodpecker
see a Pileated woodpecker. I had
never seen one before. I'd
heard one once, years ago
in New York State.
It is a large woodpecker,
larger than the Hairy woodpecker.
It is black and white except it has
a red crest. Walking around the
campground later we
found the evidence of his work.
They make huge holes in
dead or at least sick trees, holes about 3-4 inches in diameter

But, now we are in the "Energy Motel" in Diamondville, Wyoming. This motel is run by a husband and wife team and is their retirement. She is very talkative and I think Robert is right when he surmised she is lonely. They are sort of stuck there 24 hours a day. Many of the other tenants of this motel are workers from the oil fields and some have to drive a long way to get to work. There is no housing at the work site.

Robert had a lengthy chat with a fellow from Portland, Oregon who
is living in the motel and working in the gas fields. He is an
inspector now, having worked his way up from field work. He's
working to have enough to put his 5 kids through college. But,
what a life. His family is in Portland and he is here. He and
another fellow who showed up to chat said they couldn't
understand why the town of Diamondville didn't build some more
housing. There are many empty buildings in town that could be
fixed up as apartments and with all the oil and gas workers it
seems they could make money. But Robert pointed out that
Diamondville had probably seen many an up and down in
the fields and were not about to invest very much.