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DAY 5:

Celebrated DJ’s 50th birthday. Stayed in most of the day, had a lot of romancing, chatting and hugging, then took her to a scrumptious steak dinner at the ARO in Sundance. It was very busy, and we open carried, no problem:

(did NOT open carry in front of the post office while mailing postcards):

The meal was wonderful. We fed each other dessert too. (”Devil’s Tower Sundae”!) The waitresses were very friendly, and we were really nice to them, and tipped them generously. (We’ve been doing that everywhere….to help be good emissaries for open carry.)

A table of tourists from Iowa mad dogged us about the guns, but fug ‘em. Locals didn’t blink. And when we got back to the hotel, we saw the Iowa gun haters were in the room across the hall from us. They didn’t look pleased to see us. We just smiled.

At night, we went out to a cool cowboy bar with some more of our friends we hadn’t met in the flesh yet. Was damn nifty, and we got along great. Didn’t open carry, since you can’t in a bar. “Freebird” was playing on the jukebox as we left. I felt that was a good sign for Wyoming freedom.

Also was the first time I’ve smoked in a bar since 2003, and that was in Ireland! (and you can’t smoke in bars in Ireland now, either!)

DAY 6:

Rush hour in Wyoming - 8:30 AM on a Monday morning, just outside of Sundance:

Guns safely open in holsters in the car. This is legal in Wyoming:

Fences to keep snow off the highway. Locals sometimes tell tourists that these are bleachers to watch “the deer and the antelope play”:

On the way to Casper…

Lunch rush hour in Wyoming - noon on a Monday, just outside of Buffalo:

DJ open carrying at a Kum & Go in Buffalo. We went inside, open carried, no problem:

Went to the John Gatchell Museum and museum store. We went inside, open carried, no problem.

Open carry at the John Gatchell Museum:

Very sweet little old lady who works there asked us where we’re from. We said “Los Angeles, but we’re moving to Wyoming.” Man who was the director of the museum smiled and said “And you’re already carrying firearms?” DJ said, “We can’t do that in California.” I said “That’s part of why we’re moving here.” Lady smiled and gently laughed at us saying, “You won’t need ‘em here.”

They were both super friendly. We bought a book, a stuffed toy prairie dog in a little Wyoming T-shirt, a pop-up Wyoming card, and a bumper sticker that has a picture of a bear and says “Send more tourists. The last ones were delicious!”

We decided not to put that on the car, since it wouldn’t make sense here with California plates. We put it on our big ammo carrying box.

Went into the Johnson County Library in Buffalo, walked around, open carried no problem. Librarian noticed our guns, didn’t care, chatted with us. I asked her if she’d gotten the copy of “A User’s Manual for the Human Experience” that I sent, she said yes, but it hadn’t been processed yet, so wasn’t on the shelf yet. (I sent my book to about 60 libraries in Wyoming.) We chatted a little more. She was totally polite. Everyone here is.

Went to the McDonalds in Buffalo for lunch. Had the cutest encounter yet. There were three boys in there having lunch alone, without their parents. They were probably ages 8, 10 and 12. Boys immediately noticed my gun. The oldest one asked me, “Are you a policeman?” I said, “Nope.” Kid asked, “Sheriff?” “Nope.” Kid asked, “Highway patrol?” I said, “Nope.” (And thought to myself, “This young man really knows his different types of law enforcement!”)

Kid looked at the ground for several seconds and then looked up and asked me, “What are you?” I replied, “A citizen.” Kid looked confused again. I said “In Wyoming an adult with no felony record can openly carry a firearm as long as he’s not engaging in, or planning to engage in, a crime.”

All three kids got excited, asked all kinds of questions. Had a good time chattin’ with them.

When DJ walked back with the food and sat down, they said, “Cool! She’s got one too!”

We finished lunch, went out to the car, parked next to us was a car with a bike trailer covered with snow (must have come down from the Big Horn Mountains). I made a snowball. It’s been almost two decades since I’d done that. (My last snowball was also in Europe, on tour with my band Bomb, in 1990.)

DJ was quite impressed with the perfectly spherical snowball I was able to fashion in seconds. Come to think of it, so was I. I guess it’s like riding a bike…

In the process of making the snowball perfect:

We’re having a blast, feel kinda like little kids with the skills and options of adults, especially in Wyoming. We can’t wait to move to here. And we love open carrying our guns. We don’t feel cocky or tough packin’, we just feel free and safe.

We’re gonna feel declawed when we have to put the guns back in the case to cross the border back into Utah, and then to the People’s Republik of Kalifornia. I probably should just “be a man” and pocket it for my remaining time in Cali, but it’s a friggin’ year in prison if you get caught with a gun in your pocket in California.

We’ll be living in Casper soon enough though. Hopefully within two or three months.

Tune in tomorrow for more wild & wooly high-plains adventures, in our soon-to-be hometown, Casper, Wyoming! (I’ll give you a hint. Tomorrow may involve some really big guns! bigger guns than we’re used to.)

This entry was posted by Michael W. Dean on Monday, June 8th, 2009 at 3:08 pm and is filed under The world is a strange and beautiful place. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.