Back on the gravel road heading north, we found the turn down a fence line just as the gravel on the main road returned to pavement (thanks, Wyoming). We turned east, past a windmill and tank, and found our prize in less than a mile: a nifty monument with a (damaged) base with slate of different colors marking the different states. In 1867, Oliver Chaffee, the surveyor and astronomer who flubbed a bit down at NE-CO-KS, managed to get this one right, apparently - the north boundary of Colorado is the 41st parallel, while the boundary of Nebraska-Wyoming is the 27th meridian west of Washington, DC (screw that Greenwich Observatory!). We noted that the meadow in Wyoming was much greener than those in Nebraska and Colorado – clearly Wyoming didn’t have the drought problems that Nebraska and Colorado were having. Clearly.

The paved road north took us surprisingly quickly into Pine Bluffs, WY, where we stopped and had ice cream at the U Drop Inn, a “café and laundry” on the old Lincoln Highway US 30, north of I-80. Colleen and Jeanette watched the Reagan memorial/funeral on CNN with the proprietors of the U Drop Inn. I recommend stopping here if you ever find yourself on I-80 – it’s Wall Drug without, well, everything. Just nice folks that will go out of their way to find a sugar cone for you so you don’t have to eat your ice cream in one of those pretty aluminum cups on a doily.

It was getting on in the afternoon, and we’d heard rumors of big storms in the area (Sterling, CO, about 60 miles east of Keota, was hit with a tornado during that afternoon), so we hopped on the interstate and cruised on back to Boulder. We figured it was about 275 miles, and, though I’m not sure that Colleen and Jeanette would go that far out of their way to find a tri-point monument again, we had fun and saw some pretty country.

And I further convinced myself that I would go that far out of my way, and then some, for more tri-points… ha.