Laramie, WY - Blogabond

Originally, we were supposed to take I-40 from Salt Lake City to Denver. However, we were told that I-40 would have been a hell of a drive and that one of the roads that we needed to take was closed. Thus, we had to take the 80.

Taking the 80 through Wyoming takes us directly through Laramie. Now, it has always been in the plans that we would stop in Laramie to pay our respects to Matthew Shepherd, but earlier this evening and driving through it, gave me another perspective.

We happened to be going by Laramie at about 6 PM. It’s dark and all the lights are out. All along our trip, it’s been cloudy. Suddenly, the night’s sky is clear and up above were a multitude of stars. From what I remember of Matt’s story is that as he was tied up to the fence, he had clear views of both the city lights and the stars. As we drove through Laramie that is exactly the view that I was treated to (Rob was asleep.) I couldn’t stop thinking of what Matthew had went through. Being tied naked to the fence. Cold. And the glittering of both lights from a city and up above.

In a pervious blog, I wrote about how I stand out. How I feel very different. How I feel out of place. Going through Laramie tonight reminded me that I am different. Being reminded of what happened to Matthew, reminded me that I (we) had to be careful.

When we stopped for dinner at McDonald’s, both Rob and I were getting stared at. We were also staring at everyone else. I don’t know which one of us was the outsiders. Everyone in the city looks completely different from what you would find in California…and I’m sure that we looked extremely out of place to all of them.

As we ate at McDonald’s, both Rob and I whispered to each other the entire dinner. Normally, I wouldn’t care a rat’s ass who was listening to our conversation. But tonight at dinner, I was very aware of what I was saying. I was very aware of not being overtly “gay,” of not staring at the cute boy walking into the restaurant, of not making sexual jokes out loud. It took every effort to be “straight.”

This is just the juxtaposition of what we were doing three hours earlier. Three hours earlier we were singing at the tops of lungs the songs from Rent. (We have a few of them on camera, so hopefully you’ll see what I mean.) How is it that we can be comfortable doing this, and then hours later, be cognizant that we couldn’t “act” this way because there is that possibility that we’ll get ourselves into a bit of trouble.

****

We have just reached the cabin where Jessica and her parents are staying. It’s beautiful. I didn’t think that during our trip that we would get to fall asleep in front of a fire. It is the perfect evening to today.

Off to bed.

James

written by

James Coloma on December 27, 2005 from Laramie, United States

from the travel blog: Rob & James - Cross Country Trip - December 2005 to January 2006

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