Where I Live

The Laramie Valley

Just the last few days, it’s been chilly here in the mornings.  As I’ve mentioned before, we’re at 7,200 feet above sea level here in Laramie ~ the high plains.  It makes me sad to see summer going so quickly.

Summers in Laramie are a wonder.  Temperatures are always moderate ~ mid 70s to low 80s ~ except for a couple of days in August where we get in the 90s.  Every afternoon, it clouds up and rains just a bit, for fifteen minutes or a half hour, and cools things down, and then it’s sunny again.  Summer light is clear and bright, and in the mornings and evenings it’s yellow and gives everything a lovely cast. 

It’s more of a challenge to grow vegetables because we are so cool.  Our growing season is, at the most, 3 months.  You’re not supposed to plant your starts outside until June 1, and we can get the first frosts in September.  Literally, we have had snow every month of the year at some point.  But it makes for mild beautiful summers.

We almost always have a heavy late spring snowstorm that breaks branches.  Some winters seem longer than others.

And the students at the university are gone.  It is so peaceful.  The town during the school year can be hectic with traffic because the students double the size of the town.  And in the fall, when they first arrive back, there are a lot of crazy drivers that just aren’t paying attention or are too filled with racing hormones or something.

But fall is also one of my favorite times of year.  Something about the cool in the air, the excitement of the return of the students, the deep breath before winter.  I’ve always loved that. 

Of course, this year has been different.  We had that hot spell early in the year and all the wildfires.  But then our usual summer weather kicked in. 

Because of our weather and where we are, we don’t have many bugs ~ just a few mosquitos ~ and we don’t have tornados to speak of or hurricanes or anything like that.  Our worst of course are the blizzards.

We’re a good combination of big town and small.  It feels like a small town ~ heck, Wyoming feels like a small town ~ but you can still get breakfast at 2 in the morning and we have music and theater and all that.  And if you’re really missing the city, you can go to Denver 2.5 hours away.  Or if you’re an outdoors person, the mountains are 20 minutes away, literally.

It’s not beautiful in the way many places are. It’s not Jackson, and many people think it’s ugly. Heck, I think it’s ugly about February or March during mud season.  But you get used to its quiet beauty.

One of the many things not to take for granted.