I'm catching up on some posts I wanted to do but haven't had time for yet, so we have to head back to Cheyenne for a bit.
My heart belongs to Laramie, but Cheyenne is a beautiful city and it deserves to be explored and appreciated by someone with time. The downtown has the accumulated layers that any city gets with time, but somehow they are more accessible here. There are a lot of neat old brick and stone buildings, and old buildings and storefronts that have been repurposed many times but still often bear their original signage, which I find charming. The storefront below no longer sold Oil & Coal Warm Air Furnaces. It was an antique shop or something. But the old sign remained.
I hate to leave out all the little things I saw that jumped out at me, little moments that surprised and delighted me. I forgot to tell you that at Murdoch's, as I was walking back to Goose, I saw a man carry his purchase over to his vehicle and climb in. Nothing unusual there, except that his vehicle was a big, green John Deere tractor. He fired it up , and s l o w l y pulled out of the parking lot on the way to his next errand. I wanted to take his picture, but he looked like a stern old farmer and I didn't think he'd take too kindly to some fruit loop from California taking his picture.
Then as I was fiddling with the GPS prior to leaving Murdochs, I heard a musical ching, ching, ching sound going by in the parking lot. I looked up, and a man was walking to his truck. The ringing sound was HIS SPURS! I shit you not. The man had to pick up a couple things at the store and he wore his spurs. Maybe he wears them all the time. This was Cheyenne, after all. That right there was quite possibly the neatest thing I saw in Cheyenne.
Or maybe it was the couple pulling a horse trailer out of the gas station. The side escape door wasn't latched and it swung open as they were pulling out of the lot, and the pretty paint horse inside stuck his head out and looked around. Before I could race after them honking my horn, the driver noticed it, stopped and got out to come back to the trailer. With a big grin at the horse he threw up his hands in a gesture that said what happened old buddy? and gave the horse's head a big, loving hug before closing the door.
There was the Suburban I passed that was painted electric lime green with a diagonal divide of gray primer and the stencil of a grenade on the side. I should have taken a picture of that one. Goose slowed down to have a look. She thought it was a striking example of her breed.
There was the rumble of thunder from the lazy thunderstorm that produced that rainbow I took a picture of. The thunderhead grumbling overhead was no supercell, but thunder is such a rare thing in my part of the world I couldn't help but look up in awe. Nobody else paid the slightest attention to it.
I guess I can't tell you about everything I see, or every person I meet (like the England Company trucker I met at the Midas waiting room and had a conversation with). I have to drive, after all. But I try to share as much as I can.
After getting some last words of advice from Bill at the Little America service garage about what to do if I have a warranty issue on the battery or alternator down the road (I can check in with their affiliated truck stops and get help there), I drove back up to the hotel parking lot where I'd spent the night. I had meant to stop at one of the Little Americas if time allowed, but I had made the decision to let it go and get on the road when Goose had her battery issue and I wound up here after all. So I decided I might as well check out the gift shop and use the palatial bathroom that Aaron wanted me to see.
This place is pretty fancy. It's modern but styled in the tradition of the old resort hotels, with a big, luxurious lobby that has a huge fireplace, lots of comfortable seating, tables with board games. There were some kids in there playing with an impressive marble chess set.
The gift shop is very nice with a great deal of high quality merchandise and absolutely none of the cheap crap you often find in "gift shops". This is a high-end store, with the prices to go along with it. They have very nice jewelry, including a lot of sterling silver and turquoise, a big selection of Pendleton blankets, which I drooled over but couldn't buy since Goose ate up most of the souvenir budget for herself (she points out that she is doing the hard work on this trip, so she deserves something nice for herself. I can't argue with that, although I wish she could have been happy with a new sunshade or maybe a pair of fuzzy dice.)
Along with a good number of soft toys and stuff for kids, there is quite a selection of beautiful clothing, art, a collection of leather covered planners and checkbook covers, purses, cowboy hats and boots. They have very nice Wyoming and Little America tshirts that are a cut above the usual.
This is the lovely Stephanie, posing in front of the papoose doll displayed on the wall. I took two pictures of her and the one we thought was better turns out upon further inspection to be blurred, so I have to use the one where her eyes are closed. Sorry, Stephanie! She's going camping this weekend with her boyfriend. Hope she is having a great time.
There is a deli right across from the gift shop, and around the corner are the bathrooms. I went in there, and boy howdy! Aaron was right! They are something else. There are no "stalls." Each toilet is a private, marble walled room with wood trim and full doors. This is the light fixture on the ceiling of the one I was in.
This was the best I could do to capture a slice of the view from the throne, but it gives you an idea how seriously these people take their restrooms.
The sink area. My pictures don't do this place justice.
There is a stuffed Emperor Penguin in the lobby, with the story that goes with it (there were two brought as gifts but they died on the way and so they were stuffed. The other one is at the other Little America). There is a life sized model of an indian chief as well. If you want a comfortable, friendly, resort style place to stay in Cheyenne, this could be your spot. They have other amenities I didn't explore, but me and Aaron can sure vouch for those bathrooms!
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