Discussion: Wow

Okay, I understood that you have wind out there in the winter that knocks down dead trees. That's somewhat formidable, but understandable. But wind that blows cars out of the parking lot? That's fearsome. Their owners must have a pretty miserable trip back to town on foot (with a headwind!).

Do most people run carrying a small chainsaw to clear the battle infested pine trees covering the trails every time the wind blows?

Most people who run, run behind snow bikers who are carrying the chain saws. But the (fewer) smarter people run behind those large tracked vehicles that grab trees by the base and saw them up into various log lengths and then place them in the log carrier. And then the very, very tiny minority left of the people who run, they are the smartest of all, and they go down to West Texas to run, where none of these issues exist.

I am one of the dummies who just run and don't run behind anything; I do keep my ears alert for especially disastrous creaking tree sounds, however.

JJ, nearly all of the cars that blow out of the parking lot are owned by flatlanders who have come up from Flatland. Usually when they see their car has been converted into a disaster situation, they give up, and wander downhill until they are out of sight, and eventually it gets dark and the cold takes them, and that is that.

I was under the impression that most of the locals drive trucks loaded with sandbags or dead pine trees to keep them from blowing away.

Well, yeah, the locals know, and they take appropriate measures. But keep in mind that there are hardly any locals, and most of the people you see here are tourists or up for the day or driving through the state or whatever it is. Sometimes it almost seems there are more license plates from Texas and Alaska around than there are from Wyoming. And here in little Laramie cars from Colorado outnumber cars from Wyoming by at least 4-1.

People always think that wherever they come from, it's windy there, too. But then they drive across the border into Wyoming, and like clockwork... It's truly uncanny.

I heard a great analogy yesterday. 2021 is like driving into Colorado from Kansas. You finally make it to the border, and there's the big sign, and... it still looks just like Kansas for a while...