WYOMING

WYOMING – COLD TEMPS, WARM RECEPTION, January 11-13

Our trip to Wyoming started out just fine.  We flew out of San Francisco to Denver to make our connection to Worland, the site of the Wyoming Winter Convention.  We met up with State Sponsor PGER Dwayne and Sandy Rumney at the gate for our flight on Great Lakes Airlines.  Our first indication that we were going to have some travel challenges was when they cancelled our flight.  After some discussion, we decided we would take the 1:50 to Sheridan (about two hours from Worland by car) and the folks from Worland would come get us.  Done!  Let’s have lunch.  But Mother Nature was not done with us yet.  Unfortunately, the 1:50 flight was delayed several times due to weather, both in Denver and Wyoming, and did not finally get in the air until about 5:30 pm.  With an outside temperature of -40 degrees, the heater in our little plane did not stand a chance.  I believe it was piloted by about a 13 year-old girl, with a co-pilot that had not yet started shaving.  We launched into some horrific weather which required the plane to be through the de-ice device twice.  That did not take long as the plane was only about 20 feet long with two rows of seven seats each.  But the crew did a great job of plowing on through a very turbulent night with absolutely no visibility.  Nobody barfed but we did get awfully cold. 

Upon arriving in Sheridan, we were warmly greeted by SDGER Mike Pettigrew and 1st Vice President Larry Christy who had made the drive over to pick us up in their 4-wheel-drive vehicles.  After a quick stop for sandwiches, we headed out into the snowy night for the return trip.  It was only then that we discovered that the road between Worland and Sheridan goes over a 9,666 foot pass . . . in the snow.  No snow plows here - these are rugged individualists that reserve snow plows for real weather and not just a foot or two of snow!  Mike and Larry were both excellent drivers and we eventually pulled into our hotel at about 10:30 Friday night.  We thanked them both profusely and headed for bed.  The sun will come out tomorrow!

Saturday morning, Tom headed over to the Worland Elks Lodge #1908 for their conference meetings.  Venita joined several of the ladies for breakfast.  At Noon, they had the Ladies Luncheon at the Lodge and Venita had a chance to hand out her pin and talk to the ladies about our travels and the Elks.  After lunch, we had some time to visit with our friends Charlie and Vera Cole.  Charlie is a PER from Monterey Lodge #1285, now retired and living in Sheridan.

Saturday evening we made a stop and had our photo taken next to a banner that the Elks had erected in the center of downtown Worland.  We then headed for the Lodge for the banquet.  While they normally have a reception for the GER prior to the dinner, we found that the playoff game between the Denver Broncos and the Baltimore Ravens was commanding everyone’s attention.  So we sat down, joined in the cheering and considered it time well spent.

Dinner that evening was very nicely done.  Tom spoke with the attendees and shared his vision for the Order.   The Wyoming Elks presented Venita with a beautiful necklace featuring the bronco rider that is the emblem of Wyoming.  Tom received a handsome knife with a bone handle and a stand for display.  But the most treasured gift of all was the 35^th presentation of the “jackalope.”  We know it will have a special place of honor in Tom’s office.

Before the night was finished, Tom handed out the Ritual Competition awards to both the winning state team that will represent Wyoming at Grand Lodge as well as to the teams that had competed in their “DDGER Team Tournament.”  We were tickled to find that our friend Charlie had been ER for his  DDGER team and not only did they win, but he won the award for Most Impressive Exalted Ruler.  Congrats, Charlie, you still have it!

Sunday morning, we walked out of the hotel to a temperature of -13 degrees.  But our gracious hosts were there to make sure we were given warm hugs and a royal send-off.  Thank you for everything, Wyoming Elks.  You made our trip special and we will definitely be back . . . in the summer!