United Parcel Service times every delivery its drivers make= down to the last second.
It’s a high-pressure environment that means drivers don’t really have time to learn much about the people on their routes, much less to become friends.
But James Cary Lambert isn’t just any UPS driver.
Ask people on Lambert’s Happy Valley route about their favorite man in brown, and they won’t talk tracking numbers or missing packages.
They’ll tell you instead about a guy who offers to bring groceries to people who are snowed in, who keeps spare dog food in his truck for seniors’ pets, and who is not afraid to dress up for a good cause — like making children laugh at the community’s haunted Halloween house.
It’s been a fun ride, Lambert told Cowboy State Daily, but this past year was his last.
After a 33-year career, he’s hanging up his UPS hat and retiring.
It’s been a job full of laughs and lessons that little things matter, showing up matters, and humility is how to face both Wyoming's wind and its people.
Windy Wyoming
One of the first lessons a Wyoming UPS driver learns delivering to a place like Happy Valley is humility.
“There’s a lot of wind, and you have the snow drifts,” he said. “So, you have to determine if the snow drifts are big or long or what.”
But early on Lambert didn’t know just how deceptive those snowdrifts could sometimes be.
He found that out on a 1-mile stretch of driveway leading to and from a rancher’s house during a Wyoming whiteout.
Lambert had just delivered a package to the home. With snow coming down hard enough to call it a blizzard, he was driving cautiously and slowly away, taking no chances.
He had his lights on, and said that the driveway ahead that he’d just been on, “looked flat.”
“But the next thing you know …”
Lambert found himself stuck in a snow drift that was 20 feet long and a few feet deep.
That sent him trudging the half-mile back to the farmer’s house for a sheepish knock on the door.
The farmer, seeing Lambert with no truck, immediately knew what had happened.
“You got stuck down there,” Lambert recalls the farmer saying.
Lambert admitted he was stuck and didn’t have to say any more. The farmer immediately fetched his tractor to help Cary get unstuck.
“That’s one thing about this community,” Lambert said. “You know, even if I didn’t know that person, he would have pulled me out, saying, ‘Hey, you know, you just delivered a package to me. I can come on out there and help you.”
That’s a Godsend, Lambert said, considering how often he’s out in the middle of nowhere, delivering packages to ranches that might have a driveway three or more miles long.
While he and the farmer worked, something else happened that Lambert will never forget about Happy Valley.
A troupe of curious cattle came to watch what the funny humans were doing out in the snow.
Lambert could only shake his head with amusement. He had just been humbled by the snow, and here were the cows, staring him down, and making sure he was never going to forget it.
More Than Just Packages
A little patience and humility go a long way during a long Wyoming winter. And sometimes the bravest thing a UPS driver can do is not try to push his way through.
“Wyoming winters will teach you respect,” Lambert said. “The whiteouts, the black ice, the brutal wind, the road closures — I-80. And you still have to find a way to get the job safely done.
"That’s always the top priority, no matter the wind or snow conditions. Just making sure everything is done safely.”
From then on Lambert decided that, “Oh I think I can …” means don’t do it.
“You can just pass up that delivery,” he said. “And get it to them the next day, when things are cleared.”
But patience and humility don’t just go the distance when it comes to Wyoming weather. People like it too, Lambert has found.
“People like knowing that you are treating them with dignity and respect,” he said. “There are so many people who say, ‘But you’re just delivering packages.’ I don’t believe that.
"You’re delivering more than just a package. Whatever is in that package means something to the people receiving it.”
Sometimes it might be dog food or groceries or any everyday thing. And sometimes it might just be a $25,000 engagement ring.
On the latter occasion, Cary took a little extra time, in spite of the ticking clock on his every delivery, to arrange a discreet handoff.
It wasn’t the correct order of packages — not even close — but he didn’t want to be the reason the surprise got spoiled.
“Delivering package after package saves miles,” Lambert said. “It saves time. But when you’ve got a special thing like this, you’re gonna go off your trace of delivering when you’re supposed to.”
A “trace” is UPS lingo for a set order of deliveries laid out for the driver to follow for maximum efficiency.
“It was a good PR thing to do,” Lambert said. “Even though it wasn’t advertised or brought up in a commercial.”
But it could have been, Lambert added with a chuckle.
“What can Brown do for you?” he said. “Get your engagement ring on time. Something like that.
“It was a good gesture,” he continued. “I can be flexible and do that.”
Going The Extra Mile For Neighbors
The first time Darlene and Tom Rombach met their UPS delivery guy, they were snowed in on Iron Horse Road, up near Ames Monument.
That’s a little off the beaten track, Darlene told Cowboy State Daily. It didn’t take them long to realize this was a place where getting “snowed in” is quite common.
“He sat there and offered to bring us groceries if we needed food or anything we might need,” she said. “He said he would definitely get it here somehow, some way, which I thought was awesome.
"I’ve never had a UPS driver tell me that,” Darlene added. "But he’s wonderful. He gets involved with people, and actually pets, too, and seniors, especially.”
The Rombachs bought themselves a much larger tractor so that they could be certain of getting in and out even when the snow was bad, so they never needed to take Lambert up on his offer.
But they know of instances where Lambert has taken food to other senior citizens living along his routes.
Over the years, the Rombachs came to trust Lambert, giving him a key to their barn, which houses a refrigerator and freezer.
That way, when the Christmas ham arrives and they’re out of town, Lambert can stash it for them.
“Then he says, ‘Oh I only took a couple of bites, but you won’t miss them,’” Darlene said, laughing. “He loves to tease us about that. He’s very happy-go-lucky. I’ve never even seen that man mad.”
The Rombachs often offer Lambert a sandwich or coffee or hot cocoa whenever he stops by. And they’ve learned that his favorite drink is Coke — but only in glass bottles.
“That’s his signature with us,” Rombach said. “And he said, ‘Man, I don’t see these too often.’ So we would have to look at different stores to find those. And we put several six packs in the refrigerator just for him.”
Laughter Is The Best Medicine
Last year, when his friends the Rombachs didn’t have a delivery, Lambert still showed up anyway, dressed in his Santa suit.
“He pulls right up to the house,” Tom said. “He stands in front of his truck, on the steps to his truck, dressed full Santa, waving. And I just start laughing.
"I’m like, ‘Oh my God, that’s Cary,’ and he was smiling and he had the beard, the hat, the boots — I mean, he’s driving a UPS truck like that all day.”
There were mandatory photos of the occasion, with one of those glass Coke bottles Lambert is so fond of.
“He stood out by our door and we had a big Christmas wreath, and he’s smiling, holding a Coke in his hands — just like that (Coca-Cola Secret Santa) commercial.”
No one could stop laughing after that.
“He was so good,” Tom said. “He looked identical to Santa Claus and we were just laughing the whole time. It was amazing. He made our Christmas with that.”
Lambert isn’t retiring from life, just his UPS job.
He’s planning to stay quite busy and already has a real estate staging business. He also plans to continue his “Wagcinations” calendar, which raises money to help seniors get pets vaccinated.
Looking back on his long UPS career, Lambert doesn’t see it as just a “job.” It’s been life, and a wonderful one at that.
As he sees it, his truck was an office, one that came with a big picture window looking out on a wonderful Wyoming world.
Part of what made that Wyoming world so wonderful wasn’t just the view, though that was a “cherry” on top. It was the people he met along the way.
Nothing Beats A Handshake
UPS might be timing his every delivery, but early on he figured out that he did have time for a friendly handshake and a front-porch chat, even if that chat only lasted a smiling minute or two.
Over time, those minutes here and there built strong friendships. Showing up for things like haunted Halloweens with a costume and a lighted truck, meanwhile, earned him a place in the community.
“The kids just had a blast coming to see him,” Happy Valley resident and Bunkhouse Bar & Grill owner Terry Hongo said. “He came out with his truck, and it was all decorated, and he was all decorated up, too.
"That’s the thing about him. This is our community, but even though he doesn’t live out here, he’s part of it.”
Ask Lambert what 33 years in UPS brown has taught him, and it’s memories that come to his mind. Those times when he learned that the littlest gestures mean the most.
Three minutes on a porch to take in the view with a customer who doesn’t see many visitors. Texting ahead to say he can’t make it through the storm today, but that he’ll definitely bring their packages tomorrow.
Showing up every day with a laugh and a smile — and a Santa suit or a Halloween costume if need be.
One afternoon during his last two weeks, he walked into the Rombachs’ house and broke down in tears.
“He goes, ‘I’m going to miss all of you,’” Tim said. “Then he gave me a hug, gave my wife a hug. That’s the kind of person he is.”
A job doesn’t have to be just another route. It can be a wonderful part of life if we’re willing to take a minute here and there to smile at the world and hear what it has to say in return.
Contact Renee Jean at renee@cowboystatedaily.com
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
