As this edition goes to press, the Captain is somewhere near Wendover, crossing from Nevada into Utah and making steady progress toward Rapid City, South Dakota, on a drive that would make most reasonable people reconsider their life choices.
The mission began this morning with a stop in Winnemucca to offload cargo before continuing east with hopes of reaching Rawlins, Wyoming, by nightfall. If all goes well, Day 2 will begin in Rawlins with the final push toward Rapid City.
Before departure, the staff gathered to send her on her way. While everyone offered encouragement, one employee in particular, a South Dakota native, insisted on providing detailed instructions for the trip from Rawlins to Gillette, Wyoming.
The directions were not offered casually.
Anyone who has made that drive knows exactly why.
There is something about that stretch of Wyoming that has humbled travelers for generations.
Heading east, you are tired, road-weary and close enough to the Black Hills to start thinking you've already arrived. Heading west, you are exhausted from the adventures of the Black Hills and not nearly as sharp as you were a few days earlier. Either way, the route has a long history of causing confusion, second-guessing and spirited discussions between traveling companions.
The South Dakota native understands this.
Those directions were delivered with the seriousness usually reserved for weather warnings, emergency procedures and family recipes.
The trip is more than a road adventure. The Captain is headed to Rapid City to attend the annual R-CALF USA convention in her role as publisher of RANGE magazine, one of the newest additions to the growing family of publications under her stewardship.
The convention will bring together ranchers, livestock producers, industry leaders and policy experts from across the country for discussions on agriculture, land stewardship, livestock markets and issues affecting rural America.
It is a fitting destination for a publisher whose newspapers and magazines have long focused on the people, industries and communities that make the rural West unique.
Between now and then, however, there are still several hundred miles of highway, one overnight stop in Rawlins, Wyoming, and a carefully preserved set of directions from Rawlins to Gillette that generations of travelers would have appreciated having in their glove compartments.
Safe travels, Captain. We'll keep the presses warm.
And to our readers, we'll be right here, keeping you posted...
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