Cheyenne, Wyoming

Monday - 28 June 2004 - Fort Collins, Colorado: Today we only drove 150 miles and were in three states! We had breakfast in Nebraska, lunch in Wyoming and dinner in Colorado. Not only are we well-traveled, we are well-fed! We left Sidney this morning and drove east on I-80 to Cheyenne, Wyoming and visited the Capitol Building. As Capitol Buildings go, it has all the components required, and in an elegant manner.  But, with all the lovely wood paneled walls and heavy wooden chairs and banisters - the Wyoming State House still has an air of the Old West. There was a flurry of activity as they are preparing for a special session, but we were allowed on all floors during our self-guided tour. The Wyoming State House also gives guests FREE postcards! This is the first State House we have visited without a gift shop in the basement - selling postcards!

Wyoming State House, built in 1886


Close-up of the Wyoming State House


A statue of Chief Washakie in the lobby


The rotunda


Tiffany skylight is over the House Chambers


The Spirit of Wyoming on the west grounds of the Capitol

After our tour, we took a risk and left the RV and tow car (parked IN FRONT of the Capitol Building in a one-hour zone), and walked about a half-mile into Historic Old Town Cheyenne. We are happy we did, as it is a very cute little town and they are working very hard to make the town more attractive and interesting. A new plaza is nearing completion in front of the newly-restored train station. They have trolley tours and horse-drawn carriage tours of the Old Town area. Inside the train station is the Visitor Center, the town museum, a few shops and a restaurant.

On display were photos of a busy train station on the day it opened all those years ago, and it was interesting to see how little the building seemed to change. They really did a fabulous job on the restoration - an exact duplicate! The chandeliers are exact replicas also. You know how some towns have painted cows, some towns have painted buffalo, and our town has painted salmon? Cheyenne has painted Cowboy Boots! They were just being delivered this afternoon to the new Train Depot. Very fun. We talked to a few of the artists and everyone was so excited about the project.

Cowboy boots


Cheyenne art

Time for lunch and we found ourselves across the street at an old Cheyenne institution - The Albany Restaurant, Bar and Liquor Mart. Seriously, that is the name of the joint and that has been the name of the place for 60 years. When you walk inside The Albany Restaurant, you can only imagine many, many deals have been made inside the wood-paneled booths! The Albany Restaurant signature dish is a prime rib sandwich (which we did not try, but they did look divine). We had lighter sandwiches and looked around at the hundreds of historical photos of Wyoming on the walls. The photo over our booth was taken in 1886 of a saloon a few blocks down the street. After lunch, we walked down to find it and could recognize the building, but notice the street had been built up quite a bit because in the 1886 photo there were about 8 steps up into the front door and now there were none! Very interesting! From other city tours we have taken, it was evident there are underground tunnels below the streets in Cheyenne - I could see the "skylights" built into the sidewalks! Oh, the weird things a girl learns to notice while traveling in the Wild West.

So, we continued - south on I-25 to Fort Collins, Colorado, where we will stay for a few days visiting my girlhood friend. We are in a pretty nice campground and I am so happy report there are glowing blue lights from DataStorms on FOUR RVs! This is very exciting for me and possibly a record of some sort!

RV Park: Fort Collins Lakeside KOA (was Heron Lakes RV Resort)