CHEYENNE, WYOMING

we stumbled into Cheyenne not knowing it was the start of their gala 118th celebration of Frontier Days which brings over 200,000 people to the area and which is also where the finals of the National Rodeo Circuit are held.  Motels like the  Day's Inn were going for over $200 a night!!!!!! The Day's Inn?????

However, we didn't do too much better; finally settled on the Sands Motel; a notch above what would be politely called a "fleabag" sort of place. Thursday night was only $70 but Friday night was $130 and at best the place is a $50'er.

And then the next day, knowing we didn't have to drive anywhere and after a good night's sleep, Bill looks at the map and sees that just an hour or so farther down I-80 was Laramie and we could have stayed there!

However, except for the motel, it was an enjoyable stop. The downtown area is darling and has the oldest train depot in the states and Cheyenne was important in the history  of the Transcontinental Railroad so there are lots of historical buildings and placques. Because of the Frontier Days, downtown had a gala festive air with all shops open late and gunfights on a lot of corners and guitar players and some pretty good looking cowboys too.

We did a lot of sightseeing and the library is awesomely big and well organized with great spots all through the 3 floors for sitting and perusing some of their thousands of magazines. We went through the Botanical Gardens which had been decimated from a recent hail storm (Cheyenne gets the most severe hail storms in the whole u.s.- 13 per year.) and then did a great walk around a lake.

We saw Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and loved it. Caesar, the head ape, and his family are great with wonderful expressive faces. The moral of this film was apes can be bad and good and humans can be bad and good. No group of people is all saints or all sinners.

Then ate at Qdoba Grill. Its like a Chipotle Grill which means they slop on the food in whatever tortilla shape or texture you want and then you watch it get cold as the people in front of you can't decide between cheddar cheese or queso.
I had 2 ground beef tacos and it was too spicy for me to eat.

So as consolation we had to go to Spooners, a yoghurt place where we had chocolate and raspberry lemonade with a side of hot fudge. Delicious.

Very very glad to be exiting this motel this morning and heading down the road; closer to our 4 day rest in Driggs, Idaho where we are going to hike in the Bridger-Teton Wilderness.