Cheyenne

The seven hour drive from Cody to Cheyenne was lacking in spectacular scenery (except for the glorious Wind River Canyon), but high desert sagebrush country has its own subtle beauty. We have tried to focus on the downtown area of each city we have visited, but only in Cheyenne did we book a downtown hotel - the Historic Plains Hotel, built in 1911 and restored some years ago. The good news is that the Plains is very nice overall, although the rooms are small and dark and somewhat lacking in hot water. The bad news is that downtown Cheyenne has not fared as well as the other cities we have visited. John has a theory going that cities with a smaller population base (Sioux Falls, Rapid City, Cody) have done better at maintaining vital downtowns than larger ones because their economy does not support regional malls and big box retailers. Which is to say that not a whole lot is happening in downtown Cheyenne (it is the state capital, so it has many law offices, but we get the sense that the Wyoming legislature only meets every other year for a cup of coffee). The Union Pacific still has an incredibly vast switching center - so large that huge bridges have been constructed to move traffic over it - but there is no longer any passenger service. We ate at an old-school western restaurant favored by locals and had a perfectly adequate meal, then went walking. Which is how we ended up at the western store with Tiffany.

It seems that spending two days in Cody with Bev Perkins and her extensive

collection of cowgirl boots awakened something in Susan that we did not suspect was in there - a hunger for cowgirl boots. And Tiffany was the lady to make it happen. Tiffany learned to ride horses before she could walk, has worked rodeo, shows both horses and dogs, works for the sheriff 40 hours a week and in the western store part-time, and is one of the nicest human beings we have ever met. Which is how Susan wound up with her pair of "starter boots." Tiffany also tried to fit John, but his narrow little feet proved too much of a challenge even for her.

Side notes: we are glad for most everything we brought along on this trip (our own pillows in particular) but next time we will bring a short extension cord - most hotel/motel rooms are lacking in enough outlets to recharge cell phones, laptop, etc. Tomorrow we head for Colorado to visit Dan and Donna Taylor, our last stop before the wedding that precipitated the entire trip.