Hello, Old Paint

July 15-17

We rode into Cheyenne today, but came by way of Fort Collins.

We left Casper on Friday. Tired of the Interstates, I decided to take a route that included state highways, and got us lost about 15 miles out.

We were tearing along Wyoming Highway 220 for most of an hour. I asked Joanna to check the directions. How far are we supposed to travel before we turn left onto Wyoming 487?

Eighteen miles, she said. 

I knew that was far behind us.

It took me at least half an hour to get back on track. So a drive of three hours and change grew close to five.

We found the turn, and got as far as Medicine Bow, a kind of ghost town, in southern Wyoming. The town grew up with the transcontinental railroad and was a fairly prosperous place once. Interstate 80 bypassed it, and unlike KFC, nobody had a white suit to help promote the local fried chicken, so it went into decline.

Its sign lists a population of 284, but the town has a large hotel called the Virginian, which may be named for the Owen Wister novel, which was written in the town. The hotel is a state landmark.

There is a fence that provides a backdrop for an extensive display of folk sculpture. There is also a substantial senior center.

We picked up the Lincoln Highway, one of my favorite roads, at Medicine Bow. Actually, there are few paved highways out here, so routes often overlap for extended distances. In this case, U.S. 30 East and U.S. 287 South were the same road.

The route, which follows the trail that Chivington’s men used when they committed the Sand Creek Massacre, took us to Laramie. We stopped at a Safeway to buy fruit and chia seeds for smoothies. We also compared the written directions, which were about to get complicated, with the map. It was an official state highway map and I couldn’t find the routes. 

So this called for a quick change of plans. It was back to the Interstates.

We backtracked half a mile and took I-80 east to Cheyenne and I-25 south to Fort Collins. We stayed in a La Quinta right off the Interstate.

About four miles down the highway is the turnoff to Old Town. This is the part of town where all the bars are. It was packed, and not knowing the town, I prowled around several blocks until I found a parking space around the corner from the Rescue Mission.

The streets of Old Town are lined with trees, which is uncommon for this part of the world. There is angled parking on both curbs and also in the center of the street, forming a traffic island. They were all fully occupied on Friday night.

FtCollins2

Most of the businesses are boutiques, craft beer bars, ice creameries, antique shops, and the like. Mixed in are a large Ace Hardware franchise, a few thrift stores, and a Sports Authority going out of business.

We were looking for a brew pub that nobody seemed to have heard of. I found out later that’s because I had the name wrong.

We went into the Crown Pub. Jack T., who has been to Fort Collins several times, told me that of the 13 breweries in the area Odell and Horse & Dragon were reputed best. 

The Crown had both. Odell’s IPA has a good, bitter flavor, but not as much aroma as I expect from an India pale ale. Horse & Dragon was represented by a session IPA. 

I had them with a plate of chicken and stuffed rellenos, smothered in  cheddar. Joanna had grilled New York strip served on top of pita and covered with a Gorgonzola cream sauce. 

My dish was a little too hot for Joanna, but I sampled the steak in sauce, which was delicious.

The main reason we drove to Fort Collins was to see Jack T., who was up from Santa Fe with his wife, Sunny, to visit her son and daughter-in-law and her new grandchild. Jack met us at the hotel around 11 on the 16th and we took off for Old Town again.

The streets of Old Town are just as full on Saturday morning as they are on Friday night. Somebody must have picked up brunch to go, because a pickup pulled out of the center parking island just ahead of us.

One problem solved. We got out and tried to find a pub called the Mayor, which advertises 100 taps. I wanted to find it and go back that night for dinner.

It took some doing. It’s full name is the Mayor of Old Town, although it is a couple of blocks south of Mulberry Street, which is on the map as the southern border of Old Town. But 100 taps. Who’s going to quibble?

It was early to get into serious beer drinking, only a little after noon. But we stopped in for a quick one. I couldn’t believe it. There was a Horse & Dragon red IPA, This is an American craft brewing innovation—an Irish red style ale hopped like India pale. Brew rarely gets better than that.

I nursed that and we all three shared a soft pretzel. 

Somewhere in our wanderings we mentioned Medicine Bow and its senior center. Jack told us that a lot of these microscopic towns are cheap places to live on Social Security checks. Out of 284 people, most of them could be retired. 

I guess there’d be a bigger need for a senior center than for a grammar school. Cheaper, too.

Later, as we were browsing in the Old Firehouse bookstore, Joanna confided that she was getting hungry. A third of a pretzel wasn’t doing it. 

We found a bar where she and I shared a plate of roast pork with black beans and rice. 

Later, Jack, who was going to join his family for dinner, dropped us off at the hotel, where I took a rest. I fell asleep and woke up thinking it was morning.

But I was pleasantly corrected when I realized it was time to go out for another beer.

Joanna wanted more black beans and rice. She had noticed during our earlier wanderings a restaurant called the Blue Agave on College Avenue. Fine with me.

This time, we followed signs for public parking, and wound up in a parking garage. It cost a dollar an hour. Had I known that sooner, it would have saved a lot of prowling the streets looking for an open slot.

The parking garage is a smoke-free facility, so the sign, in order to be thorough, included a ban on tobacco, vapes, and cannabis.

We had a long wait for a table, so we went outside and watched kids playing in a fountain. Every once in a while it shoots a 6- or 8-foot arc of water out of the sidewalk toward a rock that catches it. 

The kids dodge under the arc. They stand on the outlet and use their feet to aim the spray at each other. There are also other, smaller geysers in the sidewalk, that spout periodically, so  walking across this little square requires care.

There was a woman with two children playing music on the College Avenue side of the square, and a teenage girl playing exquisite violin on the other side.

We weren’t in the mood for any of the entrees, so we wound up putting dinner together out of small dishes—appetizers and sides. 

We had a house salad that include candied pecans, jicama, and Mandarin oranges besides two kinds of lettuce. We had guacamole, black beans, cilantro rice, cornbread, grilled squash. A variety of little dishes, all very good.

I had another good local ale, but can’t remember the name.

This morning, the 17th, we had less than an hour’s travel to our destination, in Cheyenne, which is less than 50 miles from Fort Collins. Out here, that’s right next door.

But first I had to stop at a dispensary called Choice Organics. It’s about a half-mile from La Quinta. There are two entrances. I used the one that labeled “recreational.” There was another marked “medicinal.”

Inside, you draw a number, wait to be called, and show your ID with proof of age, before you are let into the actual store. A budtender is there to answer your questions.

We got to Cheyenne too early. The Radisson could put us into a room, but we wanted a refrigerator, and none of those rooms was ready yet when we got there shortly after noon.

So I went down the road to find the Outlaw Saloon, not for a drink, but just to confirm where it is. It’s maybe a half mile walk from the hotel. They have sidewalks here.

Then we headed downtown. 

We found the state museum, which was closed, and the state capitol, which was being fixed. Well, it was covered with what appeared to be scaffolding. But what do I know? I’ve never been here before. Maybe it’s designed to look like that.

We were parked in front of an official-looking building. We thought at first it was the museum but then weren’t sure. I think it was a courthouse.

Anyhow a friendly security guard came by and gave us directions to the museum. As we were driving away, she stopped us and told us that the depot has interesting attractions, including a horse-drawn carriage tour.

Where’s that? Take any of the one-way streets headed south.

We got onto Central, and damn, it took us to the right place.

Depot plaza is in a historic stone building, which is the second or third rail station built by Union Pacific in Cheyenne. The previous stations burned down. The floor has a map that recaps the building of the transcontinental railroad.

There is also a bar with self-serve taps similar to those in the Pour bar at Asheville. It was early, so I used my card to pull a sour ale called Tart N Juicy (I had originally read the hand-written sign to say Tart in July). It wasn’t as tart as I like sour to be, but was still good.

We didn’t get onto the horse-drawn trolley. Maybe we’ll get a chance tomorrow or Tuesday.

It was three, so we went to the Radisson to check in and rest.

We had steaks at the restaurant in the hotel. Joanna ordered a New York strip without any signature seasoning. I had a top sirloin with some kind of sauce. I could tell the beef was damned good, so it would have been better without the treatment.

With dinner, I had a couple of ales from Wyoming Black Tooth Brewery in Sheridan. The Caught Lookin’ blonde ale was almost citrusy and was sharp from the hops. The Hot Streak IPA was OK. but it wasn’t full-bodied and, surprisingly, not as sharp as the blonde.

I was not driving, so I had no incentive to behave. I took Joanna to the bar to watch TV and watch me drink more beer. The Odell porter is OK. I’m not a fan of porters, but I wanted a change. 

We watched bull riders at the Cheyenne rodeo. No sound, so it may have been live or recap for all I could tell. Then the program changed to golf.

We tried to find a soccer match, but the only one was from Mexico and the TV wasn’t signed up for that.

We did find women’s college wrestling on one of the multitude of Fox sports channels. I have no idea how they score the game, but it was fun to watch. 

My second drink at the bar was Alaska amber ale. Good, and like ambers, kind of nutty flavor. 

I got an Odell IPA to take to the room, and that’s almost gone, so I’m going to have to sign off.

Good riding to all and to all a good night

Harry