We reluctantly left Jackson and headed across the wide empty plains of Wyoming. We drove 600 km and hardly passed any town of size. Wyoming is the least populated state for its size in the US outside Alaska. So whilst Jackson may be an appealing place to live its a long, long way from anywhere. We arrived in Laramie and as the local campsite looked pretty unattractive we decided to stay in Walmart. During the night it poured and poured with rain. The next day we headed into Colorado and to the student town of Fort Collins. As Alisha and Lucy needed to do some schooling it made sense to park next to the New Belgium Brewing Company to do this. We had discovered this craft brewery's beers on our travels and with the girls doing schooling this allowed Steve to take the excellent brewery tour. However he could not fully enjoy all the free beer as he had to drive so was only able to take small sips of each brew. All this time it just kept raining. We then headed on to the Earthroamer factory. This is a company that makes overland vehicles in the US and we had spent a lot of time studying their website for ideas. As we were so close we felt we had to call in and we were given a tour of their company. In return they also wanted a tour of our truck! Nice vehicles especially for 2 people trips. In the rain we then headed off to find the house of our friends Steve and Chris Booth who we were going to be staying with. This was harder than we thought as many roads were closed due to flooding. We got to within 2 Kms of them but a river had burst its banks and there was no way through.

Undeterred we looked for another route and after 20kms finally arrived at their lovely house. Later that night President Obama declared a federal emergency in the district we were in as there was serious flooding, the worst in 100 years. The following day we headed into Boulder for a look around. The biggest sight was the swollen river and most businesses were closed but we still found somewhere for lunch.



Back at Steve and Chris's the weather cleared enough to allow Alisha and Lucy a swim in the pool. That evening we all headed into Denver for dinner with Steve and Chris's daughter, son in law and grandchildren at a true bar b que joint. It was lovely to catch up with some old friends from CEE, to talk about the old days and to see where they are living now.

Alisha and Lucy also loved their 2 dogs, Dillon and Lily.

We headed out over the Rockies to drive to Utah overnighting on the way at Rifle Gap Reservoir before heading on into Moab.