Before doing so, I played captain obvious and checked the dipstick where I found not so clean fluid but full to capacity. So, off comes the exhaust followed by the pan. Pretty easy job actually and what I found made perfect sense… The filter had fallen into the pan! That’s right, the filter was not inserted into the transmission like it should be which explains everything. This had happened to me once before in a classic car but it was something I never would have expected. So, if your car, truck or van slips on initial acceleration, but seems to recover, this may be your problem.

What it all boiled down to was the fact that I paid someone to replace the tranny filter and fluid a few years back and he didn’t replace the little bushing that slides into the transmission holding the shaft of the filter snugly. I see why too! That thing is pressed in and pretty much a pain to extract. But, there would be no repeat of this one, so I removed it with a very sharp screwdriver and a small hammer by prying under the lip- without damaging the machined area that it slides into.

Clean fluid, new filter and off we went! No more slipping. Going to wait a few days, then siphon out the fluid and replace which will give the old fluid a chance to run through the filter and remove any sediments or particles.

So, a beautiful pass comes across, I wind up and BAM! It was as though time stood still for a second like in The Matrix as I felt a twist that was so unnatural, I fully expected to see my leg out to the side at a right angle. When the leg planted, you hear “pop, pop, pop” so loud that people 15 feet away said “Don’t Move!”.

Thankfully, I was surrounded by nice people who grabbed ice and helped me to the car. Quick trip to the emergency room yields the following: meniscus tear, piece of the patella broken off, possible LCL damaged and possible ACL damage. DAMN IT! One more problem- I cannot extend the leg fully.. for months. Finally broke down and requested an MRI after three months of working hard to rehab something that should not be rehabbed. MRI reveals the meniscus tear actually flipped and was acting as a door stop. Well, that explains the inability to extend the leg. It also shows a frayed ACL, fluid everywhere along with the separated piece of meniscus which is quite fascinating to look at.

Fast forward two weeks. The big day arrives and doc is going in to fix the meniscus by shaving the rough edges and removing the bad piece. While there, he finds that my ACL is like tissue paper and replaces it with a cadaver’s adding later that it had snapped off the femur. So, I had been walking around for months without an ACL. I wake up dizzy but am surrounded by very friendly nurses and my wife. Doc is onto the next case but has briefed the Mrs. on the situation. Says it went well, the nerve block worked and not to play superhero by not taking the meds prescribed. Problem is they make me dizzy, but after that passes, I pass out. Good thing. They say it’s weight bearing from the beginning as long as I’m wearing the immobilizing brace. A quick check of my leg shows bandages covered by some contraption that circulates ice water around the knee and should work very well, an ace bandage and the aforementioned immobilizing brace. No showers for 48 hours, stay off the damn leg but move about somewhat to keep from clotting, meds, meds and more meds, ice water, compression stockings to ward off clots, elevate leg, and watch for increased pain on second day. It’s 3am right now, so I am expecting to wake in pain. We’ll see and update this account, I shall! You’re going to need a good deal of physical assistance unless you are exceptionally strong. Simple things like using the toilet require time to undo your brace, prop your leg up on a stool, etc. Having someone with you for the first few days will be a blessing as you cannot carry items easily while using crutches. Keep a supply of water nearby, your pills, tissues, a garbage can, remotes and your phone.

Day 2: woke several times last night due to movements while sleeping causing sharp pains. The meds were a blessing as only one pill allowed me to sleep for a few hours at a clip. As the nerve block began to wear off, two pills were necessary. Needless to say, I was out cold rather quickly. Thank goodness for this fine, yet simple piece of machinery called a DonJoy Iceman.

The ice really does become your friend. Onto the experience. You’d swear your leg has a 100lb weight strapped to it, but it doesn’t.. The pain varies from mildly uncomfortable to intense. Again, take the meds as instructed. Slept more earlier in the day and the time seemed to pass a little easier with the leg elevated. The rule of thumb seems to be that your leg is roughly a foot higher than your chest. Lying on your back, all this requires is a few pillows. Finally spoke to the doc today. He says that the ACL was ripped off the Femur, so I was running around without one for months. Unreal! No wonder I couldn’t fix the damn thing!

Day 3: had trouble sleeping last night early on as a weird phenomenon occurred. It was as though someone was prodding my leg with an electrode with the speed of a lightning storm. It was unbearable at a few points and even extended to the other leg. I’m guessing the tissues may be reconnecting and/or referred pain is the culprit. The result was spasming that shook my whole body out of sleep and that was after taking two percocets. Loosened the brace, massaged the leg and eventually slept soundly for a good 7 hours. Best sleep since surgery. While I tried to do some rehab work on days one and two, it was largely unsuccessful. Leg lift attempts felt like some foreign exercise I had never done as the sensation and feedback from your knee are in another language… and unless you’ve already had ACL replacement, feel unimaginable. Today was the first day that some of that feedback subsided but new experiences were there to confound me further. Having been unable to extend my leg fully for four months meant there was a kind of dead spot when attempting to activate muscles that couldn’t be fully utilized prior. What I’m saying here is be patient. The first steps are the most difficult and I had to reiterate this a few times today. The brace that was provided limits mobility laterally, so it’s very unnatural. It makes me feel like if the brace were off, I would not be able to support my leg. Not sure if this is true, but just three days ago, it was very strong, so I doubt it. Will advise on this in a few days. Standing today without meds produces a sensation that is nearly indescribable but I’ll try. Since your leg has been elevated most of the time, just the act of bringing it down to the floor produces a rush of blood that is tremendous. All of the surgery access points will immediately become apparent as they scream for a few seconds. Then, it goes away in a flash until you put some weight on the foot. It returns slightly and what you’ll find is that bearing weight is a lot more pleasant that switching positions. I dread getting up after resting, but have no problem hobbling about the house on crutches. In fact, it feels good. Until this point, cleaning with a wash cloth in front of the sink is advisable as you don’t want to get the bandages wet. If you’re like me, going two days without a shower is a real problem. Plus, the pain makes you sweat uncontrollably at times. Time to pull out a garbage bag, the medical tape and have a nice warm shower. Get something to sit on that is very sturdy and not slippery. One fall in the shower could put you back in the operating room. In fact, if you have a tub, not a shower stall, I’d skip it. Too much risk and a wash cloth will get you just as clean!!

Days 4 and 5 were a blur.

Day 6, we removed the bandages and did some cleaning. Regardless of my pain level, I did as many leg lifts as possible though there wasn’t much flexion in the knee yet, full extension was excellent. Flexion is essentially the bend in your knee in degrees. The knee was so swollen that upon trying to bend it, the feeling of intense pressure internally was evident and really held me back. So, continually massaging the area, it eventually allowed for near 60 degree flexion. One thing I have noticed is that upon bending the knee, on the LCL side, it seems to get stuck when bending at about 20 degree angle. When I pass this point, I hear a click that is audible.

Day 8: Met with the doc for my first follow-up. Feels like it’s been inflated to 80psi like a truck tire. Doc says it looks great, asks a few questions, then pulls out this incredible set of pictures of the actual inside of my knee. Amazing! Here we can see how the ACL had been snapped off the femur, the damage to the LCL and the back of my kneecap which needed some cleaning. The meniscus also needed repair. For the life of me, I still cannot figure out how this much damage can happen from one wrong move. Here, the doc provides me with tips and gives the rehabilitation orders for physical therapy.

Day 10: I walk for the first time without crutches. This was like the first time you were able to ride a bike and were wobbly but were pedaling away without falling. It was truly like a new experience. The leg feels weak from all that immobilization but I am determined to get it back into shape. Each day, several times at the very least, I have been doing all of the exercises specified. Despite this, the leg still looks atrophied and I fear it will be some time before it looks or moves like it once did.

Between day 10 and today, the progress has been steady and marked by less pain, easier movement and regaining that sense of independence. Counting on others for every thing is really difficult if you are an independent person. Hopefully, you have someone patient and caring that will be providing a hand for it’s essential.

On August 15th or so, I called the guy I normally deal with for hay and he had a story to tell. Back in July, his entire crop received 7 rains effectively ruining the hay for horses. He continued stating “all the local hay is going to Texas, so you better stock up!” How right he was. Call after call resulted in the same story “we’re sold out and have sold off the next cutting to Texas”. Thanks very much Mr. Hayman! What are your regular clients supposed to do now that you’ve become a sellout like the rest? The answer happened to be truck in your own semi-load! I did just that! Screw these guys who took an extra buck a bale rather than passing that cost onto his normal clients who wound up paying much more as a result of their greed.

The above picture is of the semi-load I shipped in at a ridiculous cost to cover our needs. There are many folks who are paying $300-$350 a ton for hay that cost 1/4 of that in 2010! It’s a travesty and yet, when you check craigslist in Nebraska for example, there is still hay available for $50 a ton! Doesn’t say much for our integrity now does it?

An even bigger issue is one I heard from farmers in Wyoming and Montana- much of their hay being shipped to be Japan. With so much local hay being shipped rather than consumed by locals, a shortage is quickly exacerbating the situation and we’re seeing crazy prices like $150 for a 700lb bale of grass hay. That’s insanity. Who can afford to feed animals at that cost. My prediction on what another unintended effect might be is the sale of beautiful horses at meat auctions which is an absolute travesty.

As a result of the above situations, I attended the hay auction on October 29th, 2011 and the lowest priced decent hay recorded was roughly $240 per ton. That doesn’t include shipping mind you, so you’d have to add on the cost. Many of the lots exceeded $350 per ton for excellent quality hay. The problem? This hay was 1/3 of that amount last year. Paying a little more is one thing, tripling the expense of feeding your animals is another. Not everyone has a few extra grand laying around to bring in a truckload and I saw it as having no choice. Take the risk or pay three times what we did last season.

The answer to all of this for those unlucky enough to live in an area like Northern Colorado? Locate a trailer-load of hay and have it shipped in. Search craigslist in Nebraska, hop in the truck and take a ride. Make the deal, hire a trucker and put this nightmare behind you.

Anyhow, my earliest recollections of shopping for car insurance online involved visiting Progressive’s site where I requested an online rate. This was way before the decision to tie credit ratings into the purchase of car insurance and the process was pretty smooth. Then along came a few others like Electric Insurance, 21st Century and a few others. The buggy interfaces soon gave way to improved versions and better features. Then Geico came onto the scene and somwhere inbetween aggregators like Insweb.com, Netquote.com, 4freequotes.com, insureme.com(used to be insurance shopping network) to name a few. The line became a bit blurry between the aggregator sites – which worked with both agents and carriers – and the actual insurance carrier web sites. Most have thrived, weathering the bubble burst of 1999-2000, but one of them-{begin rant} Insweb.com has fared so poorly in such a tremendous marketplace, that one has to wonder how they went public in the first place. How do you spend 150 million plus over 12 years and not figure out how to turn a profit? This eludes me. If only someone had invested $100 million in my ideas, the game would be over… {end rant} )

The two largest aggregators- netquote and insureme are now owned by Bankrate.com under the banner BankRateInsurance. That must have been a tough transition for they were the two largest companies in the space with very different philosophies. The question is how the integration and overlap will affect the combined company and whether the strategies will mesh. Make no mistake, with north of $250 million invested, they will have no choice but to play nice! Their expectation levels have to be staggering. With Google reportedly coming into comparison shopping, this will be interesting to watch.

Since those days in 1994, the market has matured considerably and you can now make changes online, purchase insurance online using a credit card, even get a loan online, purchase a car right there, then insure it a few minutes later. Simply amazing in terms of the amount of legwork that has been removed from the average consumer’s search. It’s getting late.. will continue this line of thinking tomorrow.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago. To-date, the machine had been flawless. It was always checked, lubed and maintained prior to use, so when the oil light began to flicker, my first thoughts were that it must be a faulty switch. Having seen a few engine failures due to ignoring the so-called “idiot-light”, I shut it down immediately and began looking for the root of the problem. Oil was full and only had 50 hours on it. Filter was new, but replacing it just in case was a good measure. No good. Pulled the oil pressure sending switch, tested with an ohm-meter and it was fine. Not looking too good at this moment. Then I plumbed in a mechanical oil pressure gauge. 0psi. Uh, oh…

Not one to take any chances, I took another gauge out of a known-working car and checked it back-to-back. Nothing. Zero psi. Panic sets in as this cannot be a cheap job, yet I’ve done nothing but take excellent care of the machine. At this point, I call a friend who is a heavy-equipment guy who has worked on CAT’s for 20 years and happens to work at large dealership in the East. He asks for the machine’s id # and before you know it, there are two potential issues that point at this very problem. One bulletin(similar to a recall notice for cars) says that the oil pump gear dowels shear off causing a loss of pressure and engine failure. The other says that the oil pump pickup can come off causing the aforementioned issues. Well, at least there is something to go on, but the machine is three years out of warranty. This is when the value of purchasing from Caterpillar became perfectly clear.

A call to the local CAT dealer starts with the usual description of symptoms but ends very differently. This time, the rep. says that CAT is very good about issues like this, so it’s best to take it apart, ascertain the real issue, then talk to the company. You’re not going to believe this, but they replaced the entire engine and the receipt says “Caterpillar Goodwill 100%”. They paid for a reman engine which is $8k, the installation and everything but the incidentals. Are you kidding me? Someone actually stands behind their product to this extent and took care of a machine that was babied but three years out of warranty. This is the kind of company I want to deal with and will literally forever. This kind of goodwill is unheard of in any industry and I am thankful for the backing of CAT and all involved in the transaction.

What will my next machine be? A Caterpillar. Without question, a Caterpillar and it will be from the dealer that helped bridge the gap and turn a bad situation into a great experience.

The solution: enroll in their automated payment system which will take the minimum payment from your checking account automatically thereby avoiding the issue of late payments altogether. Be sure to add over-draft to that checking account because bouncing a check will result in the same 27% interest rate being applied for six months. I’ve dealt with AMEX on the phone and let me tell you, they are not accustomed to working with people and any company that would bang you for a minimum of six months because of one late payment might need to be avoided…. if the were the only one. Sadly, this is common.

Might sound like they are here to help in the advertisements, but trust that if you are having trouble, they’re not going to bail you out. It’s just not in the business model. During the economic crash we saw in 2008, I received what could only be called a “margin call” from AMEX. Here’s how the conversation went:

AMEX: Good afternoon. This is AMEX. We need you to make a payment today.
Me: The bill isn’t due until the 15th and I am current.
AMEX: How much of a payment can you make today?
Me: Did you hear me? The bill is not due.
AMEX: How much of a payment can you make today?

They never faltered from this same line. I was both pissed off and disgusted at the same time. Their strong-arm tactic wasn’t for the weak-willed and I’m sure they made thousands of calls that week. What I didn’t realize was that their fiscal quarter was ending and it was an attempt to shore up their cash position. Bet it worked, but it made me vary wary. A word to the wise: be ready to make a payment at any time if AMEX is your main source of credit.

Pay your bill on-time, set up auto-draft to avoid late payments and have enough to cover this payment at all times!

But wait, it got better… Just after crossing the border, a text message came through stating it would be $15.28 per megabyte of data transfer. Hold on a minute! A 2meg picture of the Canadian border would cost $30 to send? Ridiculous. To say I am displeased with our good friends at ATT would be an understatement.

What this made me realize while being in Canada without my usual tools is that we are far too dependent on this damn iphone. It’s a real dependency and something should be done about it. I couldn’t check email, no looking at google maps to see where I was, no checking facebook, no text messaging just for the hell of it with a picture of my smiling face. Every addiction has a price and this one’s not so bad…

In summary, you will need:

1- Your drivers license,
2- A State Issued, Certified Birth certificate- not the pretty one with your baby feet on it regardless of whether it has a raised seal. Mine did and it was unacceptable.
3- Proof of travel in the form of an itinerary with confirmation or tickets issued in your name showing a date within 14 days.
4- Two photos meeting the standards required by the Passport Agency. Formatting requirements set forth here: http://travel.state.gov/passport/get/get_874.html
5- if applying for an immediate passport at a government run passport agency for your children, they will need to appear with you. Photos will be necessary for everyone requiring a passport- even infants. Our child’s passport expires in 5 years due to the changes in appearance kids experience, so we’ll need to repeat the process in 5 years.

In Detail, here’s the process:

FIRST AND FOREMOST: Find an official US Government Passport agency in your state. There may not be one and you could have to travel to another state to get this done. At the bottom of this page, you will find a list. 1-877-487-2778 is the phone number to set an appointment.

1- find your original birth certificate. Not the one with your footprints on it, the official one containing an id number for your birth, a raised seal and filed with the state. If you don’t have it, you’ll need to order one from the state in which you were born. NOTE: There appear to be many web sites offering this service, but I would not order from anyone but the actual state. Your search should be something like “California Office of Vital Records”. You will be able to visit the office to buy one on-the-spot, but in many cases it will be too far away. This will necessitate ordering over the phone or online. BE CAREFUL where you enter your social security number!! I wound up ordering it online through the state web site, but there was no expedited option to purchase it immediately. The site quoted 5 business days. They did however offer an option to ship overnight and it arrived in two business days. Cost $95.

2- You must have government id with a photo. This includes a drivers license or some other form of id with your picture that is issued by the government. They will not accept your social security card as proof.

3- Get two passport photos. Formatting requirements set forth here: http://travel.state.gov/passport/get/get_874.html. Many local companies such as postnet will take the pictures for a fee. It cost us $14 per person.

4- You must have proof of travel. Yes, that means you have to book travel, have a confirmation number and be able to prove you need it quickly to use the expedited option at a government office. Personally, without the preceding three items, I would not book anything. If there is a delay in receiving your birth certificate it would definitely cause you to scramble on many fronts changing dates.

5- Call 1-877-487-2778 to set an appointment at the passport agency . Your confirmation number will be required and be sure to allow ample time to get it done. This really was an all-day process with a 10am appointment resulting in a 3pm issuance of our passports. The office was 1 1/2 hours away from our home. Many of you will be much further and that may necessitate alternate options such as using a company that specializes in getting passports quick. The fees are roughly double, but you will have no choice.

Adult passports were $195 each for same-day and children were $135 each at the passport agency. If you don’t have a time constraint, the process involves mailing your information or stopping into the same passport agency where the fees will be lower since you aren’t requiring same day service. Either way, good luck and be patient. Projecting your tension onto the folks at the passport agency will not result in anything but increased frustration, so keep yourself under control!!!

List of passport agencies from: http://travel.state.gov/passport/npic/agencies/agencies_913.html

* Arkansas Passport Center
191 Office Park Drive
Hot Springs, AR 71913

Hours: 8:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m., local time, M-F, excluding Federal holidays
Schedule An Appointment 24/7: 1-877-487-2778

* Boston Passport Agency
10 Causeway Street
Suite 247
Boston, MA 02222-1094

This Agency issues the US Passport Card on-site!
Hours: 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m., local time, M-F, excluding Federal holidays
Schedule An Appointment 24/7: 1-877-487-2778

* Buffalo Passport Agency
Genesee Gateway Building
111 Genesee Road
Suite 101
Buffalo, NY 14203

This Agency issues the US Passport Card on-site!
Hours: 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m., M,T,Th,F; 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. Wednesday, local time, excluding Federal holidays
Schedule An Appointment 24/7: 1-877-487-2778

* Chicago Passport Agency
Kluczynski Federal Building
230 S. Dearborn Street,
18th Floor
Chicago, IL 60604-1564

This Agency issues the US Passport Card on-site!
Hours: 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m., local time, M-F, excluding Federal holidays
Schedule An Appointment 24/7: 1-877-487-2778

* Colorado Passport Agency
Cherry Creek III
3151 South Vaughn Way, Suite 600
Aurora, CO 80014

Hours: 8:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m., local time, M-F, excluding Federal holidays
Schedule An Appointment 24/7: 1-877-487-2778

* Connecticut Passport Agency
50 Washington Street
Norwalk, CT 06854
Parking Entrance located at 27 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive

Hours: 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m., local time, M-F, excluding Federal holidays
Schedule An Appointment 24/7: 1-877-487-2778

* Dallas Passport Agency
Earle Cabell Federal Building
1100 Commerce St, Suite 1120
Dallas, TX 75242

This Agency issues the US Passport Card on-site!
Hours: 8:00 a.m.- 3:00 p.m., Local Time, M-F, excluding Federal holidays.
Schedule An Appointment 24/7: 1-877-487-2778

* Detroit Passport Agency
211 West Fort Street, 2nd floor
Detroit, MI 48226-3269

This Agency issues the US Passport Card on-site!
Hours: 9:00 a.m.- 3:30 p.m., Local Time, M-F, excluding Federal holidays
Schedule An Appointment 24/7: 1-877-487-2778

* Honolulu Passport Agency
Prince Kuhio Federal Building
300 Ala Moana Blvd.
Suite 1-330
Honolulu, HI 96850

Hours: 8:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m., local time, M-F, excluding Federal holidays
Schedule An Appointment 24/7: 1-877-487-2778

* Houston Passport Agency
Mickey Leland Federal Building
1919 Smith Street
4th Floor
Houston, TX 77002-8049

This Agency issues the US Passport Card on-site!
Hours: 8:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m., local time, M-F, excluding Federal holidays
Schedule An Appointment 24/7: 1-877-487-2778

* Los Angeles Passport Agency
Federal Building
11000 Wilshire Blvd.
Suite 1000
Los Angeles, CA 90024-3615

This Agency issues the US Passport Card on-site!
Hours: 7:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m., local time, M-F, excluding Federal holidays
Schedule An Appointment 24/7: 1-877-487-2778

* Miami Passport Agency
Omni Center
1501 Biscayne Boulevard
Suite 210
Miami, FL 33132

This Agency issues the US Passport Card on-site!
Hours: 8:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m., local time, M-F, excluding Federal holidays
Schedule An Appointment 24/7: 1-877-487-2778

* Minneapolis Passport Agency
212 3rd Ave S
Minneapolis, MN 55401

This Agency issues the US Passport Card on-site!
Hours: 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m, M, T,Th, F; 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Wednesday, local time,
excluding Federal holidays
Schedule An Appointment 24/7: 1-877-487-2778

* National Passport Center
207 International Drive
* Portsmouth, NH 03801
*
o
+ Hours: 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m., local time, M-F, excluding Federal holidays
+ Schedule An Appointment 24/7: 1-877-487-2778
*

* New Orleans Passport Agency
One Canal Place
* (corner of Canal and North Peters Streets)
365 Canal Street, Suite 1300
New Orleans, LA 70130-6508

Hours: 8:00 a.m. – 12 p.m., local time, M-F, excluding Federal holidays
Schedule An Appointment 24/7: 1-877-487-2778

* New York Passport Agency
Great New York Federal Building
376 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10014

This Agency issues the US Passport Card on-site!
Hours: 7:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m., local time, M-F, excluding Federal holidays
Schedule An Appointment 24/7: 1-877-487-2778

* Philadelphia Passport Agency
U.S. Custom House
200 Chestnut Street
Room 103
Philadelphia, PA 19106-2970

Hours: 8:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m., local time, M-F, excluding Federal holidays
Schedule An Appointment 24/7: 1-877-487-2778

* San Francisco Passport Agency
95 Hawthorne Street
5th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94105-3901

Hours: 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m., local time, M-F, excluding Federal holidays
Schedule An Appointment 24/7: 1-877-487-2778

* Seattle Passport Agency
Henry Jackson Federal Building
915 Second Avenue
Suite 992
Seattle, WA 98174-1091

This Agency issues the US Passport Card on-site!
Hours: 8:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m., local time, M-F, excluding Federal holidays
Schedule An Appointment 24/7: 1-877-487-2778

* Washington Passport Agency
1111 19th Street, N.W.
First Floor, Sidewalk Level
Washington, D.C. 20036

Hours: 8:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m., local time, M-F, excluding Federal holidays
Schedule An Appointment 24/7: 1-877-487-2778

Western Passport Center
7373 East Rosewood Street
Tucson, AZ 85710

This Agency issues the US Passport Card on-site!
Hours: Mon, Tues, Thur, Fri – 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Wed. 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., local time, excluding Federal holidays
Schedule An Appointment 24/7: 1-877-487-2778

* Special Issuance Agency
1111 19th Street, N.W. Suite 200
Washington, D.C. 20036

Hours: 8:15 a.m. – 4:30 p.m., local time, M-F, excluding Federal holidays
Appointments: Contact Your Official Travel Office for Appointment Information

Drove through Wyoming from the south east corner near Cheyenne, to Yellowstone National Park and was astounded at the millions of acres of vacant land that exists in the heart of the state. It was breathtaking and scary at the same time. The realization that we hadn’t seen a police officer in 8 hours of driving underscored the need for self-sustainability among its peoples.

While we enjoyed Yellowstone immensely, I will never, I repeat – never, make that drive again and it has nothing to do with the length of the drive. FIVE of the strangest incidents I could possibly describe occurred on this trip and you probably won’t believe all of them.