Day Two in Laramie

Well, I didn’t get my campus tour today. It was far, far too cold out. The wind chill was aobut 8 degrees. Jane did take me across campus (we cut through buildings where ever we could to stay out of the wind) to the main office for her department, Public Relations, and I met some of the people there. Jane’s boss Jim was really interested and took our picture and asked all about what I was doing. He certainly seemed to think my tour was a neat thing. 

While we were over there, we stopped in and visited Pat in his office. They call me Queen of Cyberspace, but he spends all day doing web design so I felt like an amateur. He has two computers on his desk, a Mac and a PC, and each of the computers has two screens that he uses at the same time. I hadn’t seen anything like that before, and I was really impressed.

Since neither one of us wanted to be outside, Jane took me to some of her favorite cold day places. First we went to the geology museum to look at the dinosaur fossils. Wyoming is a big source for fossils and there are some nice ones there. I got to see Big Al, the Allosaurus who had his own documentary on the BBC and a T-rex skull and several other big fellows that I am happy I did not meet while they were alive. The biggest one, an apatosaurus, is down for repairs. Whew! There was also a display where you could actually watch people cleaning fossil dinosaurs that were found while digging a pipeline in Wyoming. That was really interesting. (Jane says to watch for the museum in dinosaur documentaries – sometimes they will use it as a setting for paleontologists who are talking. The green checkerboard linoleum floor and the upper balconies are hard to mistake.)

Next we went over to the conservatory. Blissful warmth at last! We saw all sorts of orchids and tropical plants and I felt right at home for a while.

Then it was back out into the cold, over to Jane’s office. We stopped to grab a quick picture of the front of Old Main, the oldest building on campus, and then walked very very quickly back to the office. Jane’s office is in the Ivinson Building, which was built in 1916 and served as a hospital for about 60 years. When the hospital moved, the University acquired it and now it houses Information Technology, the Campus Police Department, and the telephone operators, one of whom is Jane. Jane said she keeps thinking about taking her camera and taking photos to see if she gets any orbs in them, since it used to be a hospital, but then she remembers that she has to work in the evenings sometimes and thinks better of it.

Tomorrow we will try for the campus tour again. I hope it is a little bit warmer!

Pat shows me his two computer screens

 

This fellow is a plant eater, but he still looks impressive.

 

Now this is the ticket! Warmth and green plants!

 

Old Main – when the University started in 1886, this building was it!