The Wyoming State Capital. Cheyenne, Wyoming
August 14
We awoke to another sunny, hot day in Denver. By now, I was wondering if the whole “mountain” myth surrounding Denver was just a lot of marketing. While I did see mountains in the distance to the west, what I mostly saw were flat plains filled with urban sprawl. Since I live in a flat plain filled with urban sprawl, I know the effect that high temperatures combined with that sprawl can have on a person (for those of you who don’t know, it just makes the temperature feel hotter). So, it became apparent to me that we had to get out of Denver and into the countryside.
In planning for this trip, I had notice that Wyoming was only 90 miles north of Denver. With our goal of visiting as many states as possible still alive, this scenario looked like a great opportunity to scratch another state off our list. Additionally, I wanted to visit Fort Laramie, which is one of the original American outposts in (what is now) the western United States. Fort Laramie was another 100 miles from the Wyoming/Colorado border. I knew Dianne probably wouldn’t be happy driving that far. So, I told her that we were heading north and didn’t fill in the details.
In order to prepare for this trip, we drove across the street from the hotel where a shopping center stood. The center had a Wal-Mart, a Home Depot, a McDonalds, and an International House of Pancakes (IHOP). Because we didn’t know when we were going to eat next, we decided to stop at the IHOP for breakfast. The food was your basic IHOP standards (chocolate chip pancakes for me, strawberry Belgian waffle for Dianne). But, it filled us up adequately for the drive ahead. We then made our way across the parking lot to Wal-Mart, bought some water and supplies, and started our drive north.
The urban sprawl that typifies Denver evaporated after about 20 minutes. We were surrounded by grassland that was occasionally dotted with houses. The drive became a pleasant, but uneventful, event. After about an hour of driving, we pulled into Fort Collins. We wanted to add to our collection of university apparel by getting some clothes at Colorado State. On our way to the campus book store, we walked through most of the campus. I was very impressed with its beauty and design. After a quick tour and a stop at the book store, we continued on our way north.
When we left Fort Collins, I told Dianne that we were heading to Wyoming. But, I didn’t tell her where in Wyoming we were headed. Soon after crossing the Wyoming/Colorado border, we came across Wyoming’s capital, Cheyenne. She asked, “Are we stopping here?” I said, “Later we will. But, keep driving for now.” She gave me a look that said she was sure we were going to have a bad trip.
We passed through Cheyenne in a blink on an eye. Soon, we were in Wyoming’s prairie-land. While the prairie in Colorado was occasionally dotted with houses and signs of civilization, there were no such features in Wyoming. The landscape looked like it hadn’t changed in hundreds of years. Unfortunately, it became pretty monotonous after a while. The drive generated boredom that we hadn’t experienced since either I-40 through the Arizona/New Mexico desert or I-15 through Utah. As I found out on those drives, Dianne gets antsy when she experiences that level of boredom. Thus, it was no surprise when she said, “Just where are we going?” I tried to stall from giving her an answer, because we were about an hour away from Fort Laramie. But, the questions became more frequent. I had to answer in order to preserve any sort of civility between us. So, I told her that we were headed to Fort Laramie. She then asked how far we were from there. I told her that it looked like we were about an hour away. She gave off a slight sigh of exasperation and continued driving.
The map indicated that there was a small road that led from Wheatland to Fort Laramie. It looked like a shortcut that would cut about 15 minutes off the drive. So, we turned into Wheatland to find the road. Unfortunately, there were no signs indicating a road that would lead to Fort Laramie. We drove through Wheatland several times to no avail. Finally, Dianne convinced me that we should ask directions (why are women always the ones who remember to ask for directions). I pulled into a service station and asked for about the mysterious shortcut to Fort Laramie. The attendant said that he had never heard of such a shortcut. He instead directed us back onto Interstate 25 North, and then to Highway 26 East. We took his advice. After I returned home, I located the shortcut I was trying to find. It’s Highway 160, which starts about 5 miles north of Wheatland. But, the maps indicate that anyone taking this route needs to make turns on a couple of other roads before reaching Fort Laramie. Additionally, the road looks very narrow. So, perhaps we made the best choice by taking the I-25/H-26 route.
After driving another 40 minutes through grassland, we made it to Fort Laramie National Monument. We spent about two hours touring the grounds and soaking in the history. With our visit complete, it was time for the long drive back to Denver. We stopped in Guernsey for some gasoline. We thought about getting some food; but, we were just mildly hungry. So, we continued driving. After enduring the seemingly never-ending Wyoming countryside for a second time, we made it to Cheyenne. By now, we were both quite hungry, so we decided to stop.
As we made our way through the town, I was surprised at the lack of auto traffic. I’m use to a state capital being as busy as Sacramento or Denver. But, here we were in a state capital at 5 p.m. on a Thursday and few other cars were on the road. I thought that we’d see more traffic as we got closer to the state capital building itself. That idea was shattered when we parked about a block away from the capital. There was even less traffic in this area than there was in the fringes of town. It was so vacant that I was able to stand in the middle of Capital Avenue (the street running in front of the capital) for quite a bit of time and take a perfectly centered picture of the building. I hadn’t been in a capital city this quiet since I spent a couple of hours on a Sunday in Jackson, Mississippi.
By the time we got to the capital building, it (as were all other state offices) was closed. Dianne was a bit disappointed, because she wanted to get a picture of the Wyoming state flag to add to her collection of state flag picture (I get pictures of myself in front of capital buildings, she gets pictures of flags…now you see why we’re married). We walked around to the back of the capital building to get some pictures. While we were looking for a good spot from which to take our picture, I saw two maintenance workers lowering the Wyoming flag from another state building. I pointed them out to Dianne, who ran over to them. She asked them if they would hold the flag up so that she could take a picture of it. They obliged, and she got her picture.
After thoroughly exploring the capital grounds, we began walking south on Capital Avenue toward downtown Cheyenne. We stopped at St. Mary’s Cathedral, which was open for Eucharistic Adoration, for a quick look. We didn’t stop for long, but paused long enough to get a good appreciation for the cathedral’s beauty. We continued down the street until we reached the center of downtown Cheyenne. We began walking a tour of downtown that Lonely Planet had mapped out. We completed enough of it to see the impressive train station and several other turn of the century buildings. When we reached the part of the tour that went past old houses, we stopped. We didn’t stop because we don’t like old houses. Instead, we stopped because it was 6:30 p.m. and we were hungry. Fortunately, the walking tour had taken us by Lexie’s Mesa Grill. I had a Mesa Blackened Burger ($6.79), while Dianne had a grilled chicken sandwich ($6.99). We topped the meal off by sharing some deep fried ice cream ($3.99). It was a great dinner, with superb service and a unique atmosphere. I highly recommend Lexie’s if one is looking for good dining in Cheyenne.
After dinner, we walked back to the car (only about a half-mile away), and started the drive back to Denver. An hour and a half later, we were back at the hotel. Our room was as hot as it had been the day before. We opened the windows and let some of the cooler mountain air take the edge off the room’s heat. Before long, the exertions of the day caught up with us and we prepared for sleep.
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