We arrived 50 minutes early for the meeting. One, because my partner wasn't sure of the meeting place (I was), and two, because I wasn't sure of the parking situation. But without the legislature in session, parking was easy.

So we were early.

Started off to find a coffee shop, but as soon as we reached the doors, we knew we would go instead to the building next door.

The Capitol. My partner had never been there.

It was empty, except for the Highway Patrolman who provided security, the gal at the information desk, and a family of four also wandering the place.

And one gal working at her computer. I forget which office. Just down from the Governor's.

He wasn't in, of course. He's in Denver.

So we pretty much had the place to ourselves, and free rein. And me without my camera.

We went onto the House floor. And the Senate's. Both with all the desks covered in plastic to protect from the dust and debris settling in from the ceiling repairs.

Repairmen also not working today. Maybe they're in Denver, too.

We checked the House balcony, and the Senate's. We visited their meeting rooms, filled with overstuffed leather chairs. It didn't occur to me until much later that I should have sat in one.

We checked the photos on the walls showing each and every member of each and every legislature in the state's history. Finding the folks we knew, and the ancestors of families that are still there every session.

It's a small state.

We checked the propaganda display left decades ago by the refining industry, prominently displayed on the balcony floor, in the rotunda. And we checked Chief Washakie's statue.

My partner, who is building his own home, pointed out the detailed woodwork. The hand-carved rails. The doorway edging made from four thin mattes of wood, rather than the routed single piece you find in modern construction. The artistic jogs in the ceiling trim which are actually there to hide the fact that it was nigh on impossible to get long beams that were truly straight back then, so they added the jogs to break up the warped lines. The tiny joint pieces added in corners to give a smooth line, rather than a simple mitered joint you see these days.

Before, I just thought all the wood was pretty.

Time flew, and we nodded to the bored patrolman as we left.

And we were still 15 minutes early for the meeting. Had to turn on the lights. My partner grabbed a corner seat, so I took the one next to him around the table. Soon people filtered in, in groups of two or three.

One of the gals from the Governor's office, the one running the meeting, took the seat next to mine and I suddenly realized I was on the Power end of the table.

This is not good. Not when your plan is to be a mouse in the corner, speaking up only when a question is sent your way. Fortunately another gal, 10 days from her due date, needed a seat at the table, giving me an excuse to shuffle off the corner.

In the end, 22 of us in the room. With our outfit the second-most represented, outnumbered only by the Governor's people. The Department of Corrections was the least, with just one.

I learned quite a bit.

The project we were here to discuss will be "world class". Possibly the largest wind power project in the world.

One thousand turbines.

That's three thousand huge turbine blades traveling down our highways, two at a time. 1500 trucks.

Three to four thousand tower pieces, depending on the most efficient height of their towers. They're talking 2 megawatts per tower. We're expected to eventually provide a major portion of the nation's wind energy, and more than a fourth of the state's expected output will come from right here.

It takes 40 truck loads of concrete for each tower's base.

That's 40,000 trucks of concrete. The industrial siting people aren't sure where that much cement could come from.

Good wind power sites have wind 25-30 percent of the time.

This site by us has marketable wind 50 percent of the time.

The highway department worries about letting turbines get too close to public roads. It seems the blades have a tendency to ice up in the right conditions, and the ice comes flying off in huge chunks. Potentially lethal chunks.

Whereas every nonrenewable energy source pays taxes and royalties, wind power does not. They're even exempt from sales taxes in our state. Which, surprisingly, is a bad thing. Because there's no incentive for local, state or federal agencies to support such projects. The only folks making money are the ones who own the towers, and those who own the land. Everybody else just gets impacts, with little compensation.

Odd to think that taxing an industry might make it more successful, rather than less.

The warden at the state penitentiary is unhappy the project planners have plans to build an access road through his facility.

We think maybe the planners haven't planned too carefully, yet.

Inmates would probably be quite happy about it, though.

We were happy it was the Governor's people, not our outfit, who first brought up worries about sage grouse. And the rare, rare pocket gopher suspected of being in this country. Now if only the project planners would stop to notice...