This place is a 4-star according to Woodall's, but I'm not convinced. We're right by the Interstate and there is nary a blade of grass in sight. Oh well, we can't stay in state parks every night. At least there is a pool for Katie and a laundry for me. Mark is taking Katie into town to try and find a Wi-Fi spot, and I get to write and relax and make dinner here.
After dinner, Katie and I went for a walk and Katie started playing with a little girl who was playing mini golf in front of the campground office. I sat down in a swinging chair and watched them and chatted with the girl's parents. Turns out they were playing Spider Solitaire on their laptop, (my favorite,) and that he works for Workhorse, a company that makes the chassis for RVs. They are big railroad fans and mentioned that there is a train here that is one of the biggest ever made, a Big Boy he called it. And there's supposed to be a train museum. We'll go see it tomorrow, and maybe be there at the same time that this family, and their two sweet girls, are.
Thursday, August 4
The train musuem is in an old depot, a pretty nice one:
Cheyenne was a big railroad town, but eventually the railroads headed other ways. At one time, it had an enormous roundhouse, servicing and building parts for dozens of trains a day. It had a huge crane that could lift an entire steam engine. But, like the steam engines, most of it went to scrap by the 1960s. Still, they kept a few of the biggest steam engines, and even kept them running. Here is one that ran as late as I think 1980:
To give you an idea of how big it is, here is Mark standing nearby:
If the darn cyclone fence weren't there, you could see better. He's shorter than the train's wheels.
Here is Katie with the girls she met last night, standing on an old freight scale:
These girls and their family called the museum ahead of time and contacted the folks that still work on the last few steam engines. They got to see the last little part of the roundhouse (no longer round--it's more of a pie shape now) that is still standing, and they got to go inside and see the steam trains that are still working, including the very first Big Boy (#4000), I think. We didn't go on that private tour, but I wish we'd been there to see the last of the old equipment they use to make parts and see inside the old building.
After the museum, we ate lunch in the park which contains the Big Boy (above), and then headed out to see the highest point of the old Lincoln Highway (and now the highest point on I-80), where there is a monument to Lincoln. It's not far from Cheyenne.
On the way, I called and actually got in touch with my grandma Dorcas. (Seems that she's always been out when I've tried calling her for the past couple of months) It was soooo good to hear her, she was outside painting one of the window sills on her home, at the back of her kitchen, where it used to be an old trailer (not an Airstream, but aluminum like one). It was 100 degrees in Bishop, and has been hot like that for over a week. But despite the heat, she is still getting lots of wildlife at her place. She always has lots of birds that she feeds, and she got a skunk visiting her this morning. She said he was looking for a snack (maybe fallen birdseed), and didn't spray anybody. She sounded really good, which is great. At 81, and a diabetic, I worry about her.
Before we reached the summit, we stopped to see a famous tree. I'd seen a 19th century picture of it at the train museum--conductors used to pour water on it when the old railroad came this way (later those tracks were removed and became a wagon trail, that is now I-80). Here's the little tree that could:
One thing I found interesting is that now they have the rocks held together by steel cables--the tree's definitely won the war with the rocks.
Finally we made it to the summit of I-80, and there, at a rest stop, was President Lincoln:
From the visitor's center there, you can see I-80, and above it, a grassy clearing on the hill, where there is a road that is the old Lincoln Highway (Hwy 30).
When I-80 was built in 1969, no one except locals used the old highway anymore, so they moved Lincoln over here to this rest stop. I was a little aghast. He used to be at the real summit, overlooking his highway, but they moved him so more people could see him. The visitor's center guide said we could drive over and see the real summit, where he used to be. I was all for it. We headed over, and found the old turn-out where they used to have him, but couldn't find the foundation that is supposed to still be there. Anyway, I enjoyed being on the old road for a minute.
Then we drove out to Laramie, a little town near Cheyenne that is the home of the University of Wyoming. We thought it might be a cute college town. They were having a farmer's market, and we bought some of the best salsa I've ever tasted, a grab-bag of assorted gourmet mushrooms, some huge corn and a $10 bag of peaches (we had no idea it was going to be that expensive). We wandered around, had ice cream of course, and bought Katie a really cute tie-dyed tank top, and a cute white halter for me. Drove home and unloaded all our stuff, to find--- the peaches were gone. No idea where we left them. They were Mark's special treat, so he was unpleased, but we had some really good spaghetti with the mushrooms we'd bought, and downed half the salsa, with some chips.
After dinner, Katie and I went for a walk and met a family at the KOA's mini golf. They have six kids, including an adorable redheaded four-year-old named Abby, and they run a travel website geared toward educational trips for groups. The dad chatted with me about where we've been and what we've enjoyed doing, and he was able to tell me a bunch of things to see when we reach Colorado. They are a really nice family, and we ended up going over to their site for s'mores after it got dark. I showed them our website and saw theirs. Here it is: www.family-vacations.net
Unfortunately they leave tomorrow, but it was fun meeting them.
Friday, August 5
Today we headed into town to see the historic downtown part of Cheyenne. There was a farmer's market going on, and I asked Mark if we should try buying peaches again, but we decided not to throw good money after bad, or something like that. We'll wait for the freestones to come in season.
We wandered into The Wrangler (as in Wrangler jeans I think), an ancient, huge westernwear store. Here it is:
I could not believe how many cowboy boots they sell there. Here is the men's section:
and the kids section (part of it--the big kids have their own wall behind me):
I was sort of tempted to buy Katie some boots, but then we saw the pricetags and changed our minds. Maybe we should have forked out the money and just done it, I don't know. But she didn't have any socks on, so she couldn't just pop some on and wow us. But if you are in the market for boots, a cowboy hat, or any kind of western duds, boy this is the place.
Saturday, August 6
Today I did laundry and got caught up on putting our souveniers into a 3-ring binder, while Mark took Katie to Barnes & Noble and a big outdoors store, and the pool. Tomorrow we leave for Colorado, where we'll spend the rest of August. I'm looking forward to it--all I remember is the mountains, but first we'll be in the northeast. Our first stop will probably be Fort Collins. We'll see if we can stay at a state park near there. Bye bye, Wyoming...