3 Encounters with the Law...in Wyoming

Caution...this is a bit shocking, so you might want to read this before you let the kids see it. Really.
I had no less that three encounters with the law in Wyoming, each more traumatic than the last.

During my first ten minutes in WY, I was pulled over for speeding. I have never been pulled over for speeding before. Yuck. The very nice policeman gave me a warning. It seems the speed limit in towns is 30. I was doing about 38. It was unpleasant, but harmless.

That same evening, we decided to get a hotel room. We had been camping for three nights, with one night of nothing but driving, and decided to treat ourselves. We drove into Gillette, and found a decent chain-type hotel. I did some laundry and was relaxing in the shower, when a man burst into the room screaming, "This is my room!" I screamed. Think Psycho without the knife. Don and T got up (they were watching TV) and chased the guy out of the room and down the hall, down the stairs, and into his room. Don called for security. Security called the police. A few minutes later, I was giving a statement to 4 very sympathetic police officers. After hearing the whole thing, the police commended Don for being calm (!!) and one said, "I would have shot him." Don, of course, was an unarmed easterner.

At the "free-continental-breakfast" the next morning, people were asking the girl at the desk what all the commotion was. "Oh, it was just a misunderstanding," was the stock answer the girl gave. And it was, sort of. The guy was on medication and was lost. His room was right below ours, and he thought...yeah.

The third encounter was of the elk kind. While park rangers are not technically Wyoming police, they do enforce the law in the parks, and the park was in Wyoming. The rangers were very nice and they do their job well, though I think hitting the elk was the most traumatic incident we had in Wyoming.