Cheyenne, Wyoming

Sunday is a quiet day in Laramie, so I started out early with good coffee at the Coal Creek Coffee place in Laramie's historic downtown. After that, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. When life is moving at a slower, less stressful pace, (like a dying turtle) the minutes seem to last longer and there are so many more hours in a day. Laramie could market itself as a town where time is as vast as the valley it inhabits. Or maybe it's not just the reduction in stress, but a touch of boredom mixed in too. Hotel rooms are boring, and not conducive to working even when it's writing disguised as work. I've written, but mostly in coffee places and while sitting at a couple of parks.

I wanted to check out the Happy Jack Road that runs from the summit in the Medicine Bow National Forest, to Cheyenne. It turned out to be a beautiful area. I could see the fabulous rock formations of Vedauwoo, the plains to the southeast, pinon pines and vast meadows. The Curt Dowdy State Park looked like a great place to camp.

It didn't take too long to get to Cheyenne. There are several nice parks with lakes in the town and the downtown has some new construction going on. My overall impression of Cheyenne is that it's much nicer than I previously thought. Not that anyone in Cheyenne ever cared what I believed.

I can't complain about the weather even though the renowned Wyoming wind hit 45 mph gusts today, which ain't nothing for Wyoming wind. However, I'm heading for home tomorrow and there are clouds building up in the north. Rumors of snow are being whispered, but none of the weather people seem to agree on their guessing about tomorrow's atmospheric mood up here. I've had my share of weather surprises in this state so I'm feeling a bit paranoid.

Speaking of weather, it was 16 years ago today that Colorado was hit by the blizzard of 1997. It was a bad one.

Cheyenne, Wyoming

Wyoming

Vedauwoo

After being in the hotel room for several hours, I decided to go out to a coffee place for a break. On the way to the truck, I realized I had already had too much caffeine, and decided to go for a drive instead. I wanted to avoid the freeway but ended up taking I-80 east to Vedauwoo, about 17 miles away. It was balmy in Laramie when I left but, as is often the case in the west, an icy wind was blasting when I arrived at the park. It was pleasant there despite being at 8,000 feet, but I wished I had brought my coat instead of my fleece. (a rookie mistake not to take a selection of outerwear) There were two buses of elementary school students to keep me company as I admired the rock formations.

I had hoped to see beavers and moose but only saw some crows.

I thought the name Vedauwoo must derive from one of the Native American languages, but I was sadly mistaken. Turns out that it's a made-up name from a theatre production that was once put on in the canyon there. Further investigation shows that the word is anglicized from the Arapahoe word "bitto'o'wu", meaning, perhaps, earth, or earthborn, or earthborn spirit. Maybelle Land DeKay is the one who appropriated the word for her play.

About the play:  it "...had a cast of nearly 500 including nymphs, sprites, and a lusty elf, Indians, trappers, cowboys, the university dean and president" The was also a dinosaur with one line: "groan"."
(from an article by Roger Ludwig, September 10th, 2011)

The play, produced three times between 1928 and 1931, sounds like a hoot. Maybe someone should revive it for history's sake.