The scene: Monday evening, Rawlins, WY. Exhausted, defeated, tired, lost. A sad motel room in a town that one resident describes as “100 miles from Laramie, 100 miles from Rock Springs, and 2 miles from hell.” Two young people mourning the loss of a beloved truck and wondering how they’re going to ever make it home.
As a bridesmaid in a wedding in San Francisco starting Thursday afternoon, there was little time for me to mope. I needed to figure out how I was going to get from Rawlins, WY to San Francisco, CA, in the next 24 hours without easy access to a car. Not an easy task.
Attempted Route 1: Take a Greyhound to Laramie, get a cab from the Laramie airport, and fly from Laramie to SF. Only issue was – how would I get from the Laramie Greyhound depot to the Laramie airport, in a town with no public transit system and no reliable taxi service?
Attempted Route 2: Greyhound from Rawlins to Santa Cruz. Vetoed due to taking over 30 hours and requiring over 4 bus transfers.
Attempted Route 3: Greyhound from Rawlins to Denver, cab from Denver bus depot to Denver airport, fly from Denver to SFO. Seemed perfect until I tried to buy the bus ticket… and discovered that the Greyhound website wouldn’t let me buy a bus ticked online for any Rawlins routes.
Attempted Route 4: Rent a U-Haul in Rawlins, drive the U-Haul to Laramie, drop me off at the airport in Laramie, at which point I fly back to SF. Vetoed due to a lack of trucks at the Rawlins U-Haul.
Actual Route: Rent a Chevy Malibu in Rawlins, drive to the Laramie “airport”, at which point I boarded a plane to Denver, and then another plane to San Francisco, getting me home before midnight on Tuesday, July 30. Fortunately, my day job as a management consultant means I have a ton of airline points and didn’t have to pay the outrageous sum for a last minute one way flight out of nowhere.
The Laramie airport – two rooms, two flights a day, and a staff that’s 100% younger than I am. But it has the quickest security line I’ve ever experienced?
Tiny plane!
Vitamins and minerals and fiber, oh my!
I have never been so calm in the face of a flight delay (over an hour out of Denver), or so happy to be on a 30-seater turbo-prob in nauseating turbulence… or so satisfied with a Jamba Juice from the Denver airport. Finally, home.
Adventures of a Big Yellow Truck 