I Petted a Buffalo!

There is a big bison ranch just off I-25 near the Wyoming/Colorado border called The Terry Bison Ranch. The whole ranch looks ancient, and some of the buildings are actually from the 1880s. The Ranch boasts an RV park, a restaurant, gift store, and other touristy attractions. We were told the ranch had the second largest herd of bison for meat in the U.S.  The largest herd is owned by Ted Turner, a name everyone knows. (By the way, the terms bison and buffalo are synonymous for these North American animals.) We'd stopped here before, just to look it over, but this time we decided to take the train ride out into the fields "where the buffalo roam". This is the cute little train we boarded.

We had an excellent driver and tour guide. I was tickled to see this unique "chicken house", an old bus. The photo doesn't show too well the myriads of chickens resting in the shade underneath. This type of chicken house can be moved from place to place, always giving the chickens a secure home and at the same time fresh ground. I think it's a great idea!

 As our train made a loop around the field we were suddenly surprised to see this sign.

 A moment later, around the loop, we were back in Wyoming!

Finally, we came upon the bison we'd been seeking. This is the biggest guy, the head honcho of the herd.

And this lady was the sweetest and the most adept at begging. We'd all purchased bags of special green (alfalfa?) pellets, just for feeding the bison. All these critters knew to approach the train, and fully expected their treats. Out would come their big, gray tongues and the pellet would disappear, leaving behind a very slimed hand. We all fed them till our bags were empty. What fun!

Just to prove my title, here I am petting a buffalo! The fur on this one's neck was curly, and very soft and deep and cushy. Guess that's how they can withstand the harsh, snowy winters on the prairie.

We had to try this! Ride 'em, Cowboy, Mr. Keith!

My turn! I'm "out on the lone prai-rie"!

And last, a jackalope! We had a great time here, seeing the bison, some camels, llamas, horses, cows, chickens, a mascot turkey, goats, alpacas, and maybe some other critters I'm forgetting to name. We plan to go back with our friends and fellow workampers next week to eat at the Senator's Restaurant, which boasts the best bison burgers in Wyoming. Gee whiz, I feel a little guilty wanting to eat a bison burger after petting a bison!

Friendship!

 I just recently, sadly, missed my 50 year high school reunion in Mossyrock, Washington. We were just too far away, working at our job at the KOA, and getting Mr. Keith's chemo treatments. Imagine my joy when my friend Mari, former neighbor and classmate from our school days emailed me to say she and hubby were coming to Laramie to visit their son and family, and could we come there and meet them for lunch and visiting! I was overjoyed! We arrived early in Laramie last Sunday morning, so had time to tour around the town. It's a lovely city — the University of Wyoming is there. We also found the Ivinson Mansion, built in 1892. It is now the Laramie Plains Museum.

We'd heard about the Wyoming Territorial Prison so we located that. The prison was built in the 1870s and was the only prison to actually incarcerate Butch Cassidy. We will definitely plan another trip to Laramie so that we can go inside both of these historical buildings, and maybe we'll find even more to investigate!

We met the family outside the Catholic Church, then went to lunch with Mari and George at a local restaurant, where Mr. Keith had his usual shrimp, and I had my favorite, a buffalo burger. Most of all, we enjoyed catching up with our friends! We had last seen them in 2007 when we were workamping at an RV resort near Olympia, Washington. After lunch we were invited to go out to the "ranch", where we met the grandchildren (there are 7 in all), as well as lots of rabbits, goats, chickens, horses, and even a friendly dog and a shy cat. Here is a photo of the youngest grandson, Jeremiah, who proudly acted as our tour guide. These goats are for milk, which the family consumes, and I believe also markets. John, Mari's son, is an extension agent with the University.

I did snap one photo of our friends, Mari and George. I wish I had gotten more! What a wonderful day we had with them! They are truly a  special couple, full of love and kindness and memories! We will try to see them again when we make our fall trip back to Washington. Our visit was truly the best day we've had all summer! Thanks, Mari and George!

The Trolley

 Something we've been meaning to do since summer began was to ride the Trolley in Cheyenne, a touristy attraction complete with tour guide. At first we thought maybe we'd take the horse drawn wagon, but since the ride was only 20 minutes long we decided on the Trolley, a 2 hour jaunt through town. We purchased our tickets here at the Depot, which is Cheyenne's visitor center.

 We had an excellent tour guide, a native to Cheyenne, who is also a school bus driver come September. He was full of stories about the origin of Cheyenne, the railroad, most historical buildings in the city, and even some tales about famous people who'd been in the town. I didn't get any pictures as we were riding, only at our one stop, the Old West Museum at Frontier Park, the site of the famous Frontier Days. I remember one story he told, as we drove through another park, Holliday. He pointed out some big, old cottonwoods and said that Steve McQueen and Ali McGraw had gotten married there, just because Steve liked the city of Cheyenne. He'd starred in a movie about an area outlaw, the infamous Tom Horn.

 The museum was full of old wagons of various uses. I liked this milk wagon, restored, and featured in the parades that take place during Frontier Days. There was also an extensive display of the rodeo history of Cheyenne. We plan to return and take our time going through this museum. There is so much to see and learn!

 But we were most impressed with this wagon, one of the original stages used for the journey between Cheyenne and Deadwood. It has been beautifully restored. It's difficult to imagine going the 300 miles between the towns sitting on the narrow though luxurious seats we saw inside. We were told it took about 55 hours for the trip, which was fraught with the perils of robbers and Indians. We've made that same trip in about 7 or 8 hours with our 5th wheel. On one memorable trip the stage was robbed 3 times and the passengers arrived at their destination wearing only their underwear!  Since we've had workamper jobs in both Deadwood and Cheyenne, it was interesting to us to hear about the towns' connections way back in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

At the museum we saw one of Cheyenne's famous boots. There are many of these boots scattered around town, each one with different art work and featuring a different part of the city's history. This one was decorated with gambling paraphernalia. Here we are boarding the trolley for the second half of the trip. Mr. Keith is in the tan shirt in the left of the photo. He had found a man from San Francisco to swap stories with about the old days of living there.

One last photo, the other side of the boot at the museum. These are works of art. You can take an auto tour of all the boots with a pamphlet that tells about each one. We may do that on another day out!

A Trip to Fort Collins

 After church on Sunday Mr. Keith expressed a desire to go to Fort Collins, Colorado, a 45 mile drive from Cheyenne by the freeway. Of course, we never take a direct route on our sight-seeing trips, (how boring!) so to avoid the freeway, I-25, we took Hwy 85 and also got a quick look at Greeley and Loveland, both attractive towns, as well as driving through a few tiny farming communities. We saw lots of crops in fields, and we were happy to see that they all looked healthy. No drought here! We finally made it to Fort Collins, a beautiful university and tourist city. Both times we've been there the town was packed with cars and people on the streets. Finding a parking place is a challenge! We did, though, and on our walk to our chosen restaurant we saw this startling piano sitting in a courtyard. I was tempted to give it a try, but there were too many people around. Pretty, isn't it?

 I couldn't get a really good photo of the main street itself. The sidewalks are lined with huge flower pots and many benches and flower beds, not to mention crowds of people. These big pots in the photo are actually in the middle of the street, between the two lanes on each side. Fort Collins reminds me a little of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, only much bigger. At the beginning of our trip I posted on Facebook that we were going to Fort Collins for lunch. Our former employer at the Strasburg KOA responded that her favorite restaurant was the HoHut Mongolian BBQ right on the main street, so we decided to find it and go there. Yum, yum, was it ever good! Thanks, Tracy!

 There were street musicians here and there on the main drag, but these were the ones we decided to sit down to listen to. They were so good! In this photo they are playing some jazz. The saxophonist reminded me of my son playing the sax in the jazz band in school.

 The saxophonist, for the next number, changed to a clarinet, and they played an Irish Jig. Wow! I was impressed. It also reminded me of my days of playing the clarinet, though I couldn't hold a candle to this fellow! He must practice all the time.

On the way home we still avoided I-25 by going north of Fort Collins on back roads (there were lots of ritzy ditzy houses out there!) till we found a place to cross over the freeway and back over to Hwy 85. This shot is about halfway between Greeley and Cheyenne. I was intrigued by the old bridge out there without a road on either side. There are actually two bridges there. (Click to enlarge.) The sandstone bluff adds even more interest to the view. We were thinking it must have been the old road from many years ago. We made a decision to go back to Fort Collins soon, straight there on the freeway, and then spend several hours exploring just the town. It will be worth it! Maybe we'll even eat at the HoHut Mongolian BBQ again!

Our Day Rocked!

After church on Sunday, a nap, a snack, some lying around, suddenly Mr. Keith said, "Let's go find that pyramid our friend told us about." This friend, Dale, is a railroad man, and he said there was an actual pyramid built by some railroad men, off by itself high in the Laramie mountains. It's about halfway between Cheyenne and Laramie, near the town of Buford on I-80. As you can see, Buford is rather small, in fact, the 2 buildings were boarded up, so we couldn't tell if the one resident was even there!

Approaching the Ames Brothers Pyramid.

From the sign at the pyramid:

"Completed in 1882 at a cost of $65,000, this monolithic, 60 foot high granite pyramid was built by the Union Pacific Railroad Company. It stands on the highest elevation (8,247 feet) of the original transcontinental route. Until 1901, when the railroad was relocated several miles to the south, it passed close by the north side of the monument where once stood the rail town of Sherman." The sculpture at the top is a likeness of one of the brothers, but his nose is missing. Did it fall off on its own, or did some target practicing vandal shoot it off? I wonder!

I always look down as well as up, wherever I am. I love this abundant little yellow flower against the Wyoming red rock.

Beautiful Wyoming colors, looking north from the monument towards Vedauwoo.

Again from the sign:

"The monument serves as a memorial to the Ames brothers of Massachusetts, Oakes (1804-1873) and Oliver (1807-1877), whose wealth, influence, talent, and work were key factors in the construction of the first coast to coast railroad in North America. The contribution made by Oakes was especially significant, even though in 1873 he was implicated in a scandal relative to financing the construction of the railroad."

The monument was quite the thing to see when the railroad ran beside it. Later the rails were moved to a better site, away from the monument, then Hwy 80 was built on the rail bed and also later moved about 2 miles away from it. The result of all that moving is that the monument sits all by itself out on the high desert-prairie. Our faithful Focus sits beside the pyramid to show its relative size.

We've heard many times about the Recreational Area called Vedauwoo. We found it right across the freeway from the Monument, so we drove into the area. "Known to the Arapaho Indians as “Land of the Earthborn Spirit,” the rock formations of Vedauwoo (pronounced vee-da-voo) attract experienced climbers, campers and hikers." We were amazed by the unusual formations. Many looked like someone (Someone?) had piled the rocks up by hand. This pile actually had some hikers up on the top.

The old-fashioned fence here and there seemed to really set off the beauty of the rock formations. Looks like a storm is brewing in the distance. One thing we noticed was that though it was nearly 90 degrees in Cheyenne when we left, the temperature at the 8000 foot level was much cooler.

In addition to the piles of rocks, some formations seemed to sprout singly right out of the ground. Many looked like giant mushrooms. (Click to enlarge these photos.) We enjoyed our late afternoon excursion high up in the Laramie Mountains. I'll give my nephew credit for the title, "Our Day Rocked!"

Happy Anniversary!

Where to go, what to do for our 17th anniversary. Well, first of all, we spent 4 hours on our day off continuing to paint the KOA building. Whew! Was it ever hot! We got a lot done, rested, took showers, then headed over to The Depot to have dinner. This building was constructed in the 1860s and is beautifully restored to its former glory, though it is not used as a train station now. It houses a restaurant, brewery, museum and gift shop. There is still a multiple track, very busy train yard right outside the back of The Depot. We saw a couple of trains arrive as we ate our dinner.

This is the former lobby where travelers awaited their trains.

The outside plaza is lovely, with flowerpots, sculptures, bricked walkways, and the famous 6 foot high cowboy boots seen in several places in Cheyenne. I love this horse, made out of all kinds of metal shapes and pieces. The large pink building behind it is the original Wrangler Store, there since 1892.

These enormous flower pots adorn the front of The Depot and were all around the plaza.

Here I am sitting on a boot at the entrance to The Depot. This one features a list of all the Wyoming Governors along with some fancy artwork. The Depot is right at the center of the old town. The street that runs parallel is Lincolnway, which is old highway 80, and looking straight north from The Depot is Capitol Avenue ending with an awesome view of the State Capitol, its dome shining in the sun.

This photo has nothing to do with our anniversary dinner, but we pass by it every time we go into or come from town. We always think about Jody Foster and the movie "Contact", and wonder if Cheyenne is looking for aliens, too!

Around Town

Mr. Keith and I took a Sunday drive just around Cheyenne to check out some places we'd earlier driven past. In late April we visited the Botanical Gardens, but the grounds had not been planted yet. This time there were lovely plots of flowers everywhere. I didn't take any photos of the flowers, not sure why, but we did love this walkway through a swampy area next to a tiny, reedy lake where some boys were fishing. The signposts had little blurbs about life in the marsh. It was a delightful place to walk, teeming with dragonflies and red-winged blackbirds along with other wiggly critters in the deep grass.

There is a larger lake near the Gardens, also. Small groups of people, adults and kids, lined the rail fence with their fishing poles propped up, hoping for a catch. I liked this view of some of the many ducks and geese keeping cool on a hot day. Old, gnarly willow trees shade the shoreline, and huge cottonwoods add to the beauty of this place. I've read that the cottonwood is the Wyoming state tree.

The Wyoming Governors' mansion, built in 1905 at a cost of $33,000 and used to house the Governors and their families through 1976, is a commanding sight. It's open to the public, restored to its former glory to the tune of $1,000,000, and is right near to the majestic State Capitol building, which we will tour on another day. The tour guide showed us a video about the history of the 4 story mansion and then left us alone to wander through the rooms as we liked. Here's a funny - I've begun using my cane when I know we'll be doing lots of walking, just to give some stability to my old arthritic hip, and when she saw it, she told me I could maybe just make it up to the second floor but not the third floor or the basement because the staircases were narrow and steep. Hmm - throw me a challenge! The stairs were indeed steep, but we had no trouble, and it was well worth the climb. The rooms are beautiful. I especially liked the grand piano we found in the library!

Hunger pangs hit us after our visit to the mansion so we headed for fast food. Frequently we will each want to visit a different restaurant. Mr Keith chose Taco Bell and I preferred McDonald's, so we drove through both, got tacos for Keith and an Angus burger for me, and headed down to Holliday Park where we ate and watched the large population of Canada geese and these domestic white geese, with a few Mallard ducks mixed in. I wish I had been quick enough to snap the hilarious sight of about 50 Canada geese following a little boy who was tossing pieces of bread to them. He truly was the Pied Piper! I did put my camera into action when these white beauties came up to the car. They quickly gobbled up the remainder of my hamburger bun, squawking loudly the whole time. We will come another day with plenty of bread crumbs and let ourselves be entertained by these seasoned moochers. There is lots to see in Cheyenne, enough to keep us busy for the rest of the summer!