Travels with Twinkles: Cheyenne, Wyoming

September 8 - 10, 2016:

Another very windy drive today from Scottsbluff, Nebraska to Cheyenne, Wyoming. Our route was route 71 south to route 88 west, a very lonely road, passing through no towns and no services until arriving in Cheyenne. There were beautiful areas but few places to stop and admire them.

We arrived at the Restway Travel Park in early afternoon and are set up in a full hookup site for the next three days. It has several full time residents and seems a bit quirky, but everything works and it is convenient to everything.

We were in Cheyenne during our first year RV’ing back in 2012, we were new to the west then, it will be interesting to see what we think of Cheyenne now. Cheyenne started as a Union Pacific rail division shop area. The town quickly formed next the the railroad as happened over and over again all along the route of the railroad. It became a very prosperous town with several wealthy Cattle Barons building elaborate mansions in town. The Union Pacific Depot as a result is larger and more lavish than most others.

The classic Cheyenne Train Depot

Iron Horse sculpture in front of the Depot

Cowboy Boots are big in Cheyenne

Union Pacific route map in floor of depot

We take a ride to the historic district of Cheyenne and tour a few blocks and as usual end up in a quilt shop. Cheyenne has many historic and interesting buildings and the incredible Union Pacific Train Depot. This town reminds me of Pueblo Colorado in many ways, there are many similarities. I pick up a historic walking tour map at the visitors center which I find to be loaded with good stuff, the history of the buildings and the people who built them. The Plains Hotel is a remaining treasure in the downtown, I highly recommend visiting it. The State of Wyoming Capital building is also a beauty, but we couldn’t see it on this visit as it is undergoing a massive three year restoration and upgrade.

Love this mural

A very cute downtown children art project

Many nice storefronts

Chief blowing smoke ?

Classic architecture and tour bus

Better view

The Wrangler Store which Twinkles reminds me is where
I bought my Cowboy Boots in 2012 that I rarely wear

The corner of the Wrangler Store

Old Railroad warehouse

The Lincoln Theater

The Plains Hotel built in 1911

Totally awesome inside

There really isn’t much of a downtown shopping district left, it’s all moved out to the newer Dell Range Blvd. area that is lined with strip malls, restaurant chains, fast food chains and retail shops of all kinds.

We stopped at the Holiday Park to take a look at the Big Boy Locomotive, No. 4004, built in 1941 for the Union Pacific Railroad. There were 25 of these Locomotives built, they were the largest and most powerful Steam Locomotives ever built. This Locomotive was retired ion 1958 and put on display here. Another Big Boy Locomotive, no 4014 is currently undergoing total restoration back to running condition in Cheyenne. When completed, it will be the largest, heaviest and powerful operational Steam Locomotive in the world.

It's really huge !

We happened to go by the Egg and I restaurant that I had seen good reviews for, so we stopped for lunch. The food was good, but the decor, the hostess and the bus person having a loud personal conversation in the dining room were annoying. Oh, and the door handle in the Mens room was disgustingly filthy looking. Afraid it’s just an average dining experience, at best.

I go to downtown Cheyenne in the evening to check out a jam session at the Paramount coffee shop. It’s a nice shop, but I was there for about an hour and only one person played and they were about 17 years old and I think they better stay in school, study for a different career path. I left and went to the Crown Bar about a block away where a Bobby Phillips was playing mostly classic rock who was quite good. There was a "Big Buck" shooting gallery electronic game that a couple of guys were playing that caught my attention, this is not something you see in other areas of the country, but it seems to be way more common here. The weird thing about it, seemed to me, was that it played background music as you shot and it just did’t seem right to hear Jefferson Airplane and Tom Petty songs as you blasted away at deer, elk and bears.

I believe this

We checked out the Cheyenne Saturday Farmers Market which was a good one, many fruit and vegetable vendors. Twinkles was thrilled with a vendor with large plastic bags that you could fill to the brim with anything on the table for $10. People were buying like crazy !