Today was to be a fun, dog-free day. We decided to leave the dogs at home (after some early morning exercise) and drive to the Ames Monument and surrounding area. It was to be a sunny, warm, stress-free day. 

The Ames Monument is a pyramid like structure built at the highest point of the transcontinental railroad shortly after its completion. It has a rich history linked to the railroad, as does most of this country around Laramie, WY. I'll not get into details in this post, and give a more complete explanation and history in the future (once we actually get there).

After 4-1/2 hours and about 185 miles, we got back home tired and cranky.

The day went something like this:

We left the cabin at about 10:15 in the morning after walking the dogs for a long while, giving them exercise and a good mid-morning bathroom break. We planned to leave them in the cabin for 4 or 5 hours, so this seemed a good precaution. Especially for Hailey who has developed a problem with her bladder and can't hold pee too terribly long.

We had two objectives: see the Ames Monument and eat lunch at the Bunkhouse Bar on Happy Jack Road just west of Cheyenne. Happy Jack Road is an alternate to I80 when traveling between Laramie and Cheyenne. It is more scenic and less stressful than fighting with the truck traffic on the interstate. Ames Monument is off I80 however, and there is no easy way to get from one road to the other except in Cheyenne or at the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Monument at the top of the Laramie Range a few miles outside of Laramie.

So, given the time, we decided to eat first--driving Happy Jack Road to the restaurant--then, pop over to I80 and stop at the Ames Monument on the way back.

We found the restaurant around 11:30 and ordered a couple of sandwiches and had a good, but not spectacular lunch. While there I got a notification from Amazon that a package we'd ordered (something to make Hailey more comfortable and less likely to pee on the rug) could not be delivered. I immediately knew we were dealing with FedEx again.

I was pretty angry because I'd paid extra shipping to get the package on Saturday, and I was worried about Hailey.

If you've followed this blog for very long, you know the issues we've had with deliveries from FedEx. (Just search for FedEx and you'll see links to several posts on the subject.) They don't show our address in their master database and for some reason--rather than simply calling us--they will try to guess at our address, usually by changing the zip code. Packages then make their way bouncing around Colorado for a while before someone calls to figure it out. We've actually had some luck with a couple of recent packages. My former company sent me a theme calendar by FedEx last week and when the delivery driver could not find my address he simply called me and I told him to deliver the package to the FedEx office in Laramie where I'd pick it up. But, we've had some pretty amazing disasters too. Like the time we ordered two entry rugs on separate orders. One came just fine (I don't recall who was the carrier for that one), however the other one, once we finally tracked it down, had been delivered by FedEx to someone in Georgia! (We got our money back.)

I'll make a long story short and just say that after almost 45 minutes on the phone with Amazon and two different people at FedEx, I lost the cell signal and gave up. I was frustrated and took my anger out on all of them. Lynne say's I was "over the top". This sort of ruined the happy mood of the day.

Finally, after spending all that time standing in the parking lot of the restaurant, we got back on the road. We drove east toward Cheyenne about 10 miles or so, then cut over to I80 and headed back west toward Laramie. Destination: Ames Monument. But, after 15 minutes or so I turned to Lynne and said "are both my jackets in the back"? No. Only my parka.

Damn, I'd left my nice denim vest at the restaurant. As Lynne pointed out, I had on my green vest, but I had worn the heavier denim vest over this lightweight vest. Layering, you know?

So, we turned around at the next opportunity and drove back to the restaurant, which took us a good 20 minutes or more. But, the vest was not there. It was not over the back of the chair where I was sure I had put it. And, no one had seen it or turned it in. I left a card for them in case they found it.

By this time, I was upset still over the FedEx "discussions", we were both frustrated and tired, so we took Happy Jack Road back to Laramie and then on to home.

We'll just try to do Ames Monument some other time soon. And, not take a long detour to eat lunch.

By the way, the green denim vest was hanging on the coat hook here at the cabin.