Wyoming Cowboys Weeks 1-2

 After a week long journey through the Grand Canyon, Utah, and the Rocky Mountains I finally made it to the cowboy state, Wyoming. My name is Josh Reyes and in the fall I will be a senior at Arizona State University working towards a degree in Food Industry Management. The education I have received so far has prepared me for the business side of agribusiness and the food industry and while I have worked with hunger advocacy groups on food policy and hunger outreach I have never had the opportunity to get food service management experience. I will also get to share this experience with my fellow intern Chris Ware, who graduated from Westchester University with a degree in nutrition. Needless to say I am looking forward to the amazing opportunities that are here in Laramie! I am happy to write about my experiences here in Wyoming but I find that a story is best told through pictures so ill stick pretty close to that.

The Northern desert near the four corners of AZ, UT, CO, NM

I started my journey from Phoenix, Arizona and drove over a thousand miles around the southwest and Rockies.

Downtown Denver

I made many stops along the way to Wyoming including camping in Ouray and Telluride, Colorado. The last stop I made before Wyoming was in Denver, Co. i really enjoyed Denver and could even see myself moving there one day.

Before i met my internship coordinator, Mark Zieres and Chris I wandered around the University of Wyoming campus for a while. I was a little surprised to see how big the campus was. Coming from a school with 60,000 students I didn't think the school would be so large.

On the very first day of work Mark took us around the campus to look at all of the different retail locations and dining options on campus. I was pleased to hear the school has a bakery that makes everything sold from scratch.


The Book and Bean is a retail location in the library that serves pastries and coffee as well as sandwiches and sushi.

Ames Monument

Vedauwoo 

At the end of our first day in Laramie Mark took us out to see some of the local scenery. The Ames monument was amazing to see in person. It was built in the 1800's as a tribute to the funders of the Union Pacific railroad that built the town around Ames and Laramie for that matter. After that we went to hike at Vedauwoo park.

 In our first week we also planted a garden with Amy Bey, RD. She showed us how to turn the soil and set up a watering system.

In our second week we got to do some prep work in the kitchen and even get our hands dirty making tacos and a vegan paella dish.

One of my favorite parts of the week was getting to test teriyaki recipes with the staff at the dining hall. Chris and I had to make six different batches to get the recipe just right but when we did it won the blind taste test.

THE BOOT BARN!! I will have to get some cowboy gear before I leave.