Cheyenne, WY
Road Trip to Wyoming
This morning we packed a few road trip essentials and did the 1.5-2hr drive to Cheyenne, WY for a day trip. I have certain goals for each state and one of them is to visit the capitol building.
The drive is straight up I-25. Once we passed the Fort Collins area we were in new territory. As we crossed into Wyoming we noticed there was a visitor's center and rest stop. I hadn't planned on stopping because our first real stop was only about 10 minutes away, but when we saw the rest area we had to pull off for a visit.
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| It was the coolest looking rest stop we have been to except for maybe this one in Oklahoma. |
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| The rest stop featured some nice public art and a dog park (not pictured). |
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| While there I grabbed the official WY state highway map and a state parks guide. |
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| There was also a museum that included a wooly Mammoth |
Donna and I were taking turns in the rest stop so I didn't get to see everything. If things hold true we will be by here another 4 or 5 times so we can stop again.
Our first and kind of last stop was Accomplice Beer Company for brunch. There is a nice patio in the back where dogs are allowed and the brunch menu looked good to us. We ordered food and a flight of beer and enjoyed the sun and train yard views from the patio.
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| Francis really enjoyed the sun. |
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| and begging for some of my breakfast (see him under the table?) Luckily for Francis, a wasp made me drop some of my egg and he helped clean up the spill. |
During breakfast one of my traveling friends Alan, let me know about public art scattered around Cheyenne. They are painted boots much like the painted Badgers seen in
this post. We decided to keep our eyes open for the Cheyenne Big Boots on our walk to the capitol building.
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| Well that didn't take long. There were 2 right outside the brewery! In fact Cheyenne really had its public art going on. There was art everywhere. |
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| Cowboy art |
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| More boot art |
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| Old neon sign art |
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| Even more more boot art |
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| Mini statues celebrating locals, This one celebrated the first female governor of WY and the US. Nellie Ross did it in 1925. WY is known as The Equality State because they were the first state to give women the right to vote. |
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| After a nice 15 minute walk we were in front of the capitol building. We both took turns watching Francis while the other speed ran the building. |
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| The building was basically redone about 10 years ago. It still feels set it the correct time, but everything is perfect. It's a very good capitol building. |
We each took about 15 minutes to see the building. It was the first capitol building we have been in without a security check. A docent mentioned that it was because this is The People's Building. That's a very different philosophy than the Winnipeg, MB tour where you had to be on a guided tour and then you were asked to leave after the tour.
After we were done with seeing the capitol, we walked back to the car and saw some more boots along the way. We had 1 more stop in Cheyenne to check off another checklist item.
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| Pinball in Wyoming! |
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| I had done some research on Flippers Family Arcade. I had read that you have to use a reloadable players card to play and you had to buy one for $10 but that didn't support my goal of running in, playing one game, and running out. I just wanted to check off the state. As I read further there was mention of older EM (Electro Mechanical) Machines that took quarters so that was what I would do. I would play one of them. |
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| I entered right at opening and searched for the EM Machines but there were none. I walked the entire arcade searching and couldn't find them. I wasn't going to buy a $10 card and make Donna wait so I was ready to give up but then I saw the Godzilla State Button Blinking. A FREE game! My problem was solved! |
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| I had one of the worst Godzilla games of my life but the goal wasn't a high score, it was just to play pinball in Wyoming. As I finished up I noticed Scooby-Doo had a free game too so I had to play that one too. Great success! |
The drive home took us a different route due to construction so we ended up getting new highways. It was a fun day of exploring and I got to check off three things for my states list, Wyoming State Capitol, A Brewery in Wyoming, and Pinball in Wyoming.
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| One more county down in Wyoming. We still have a lot to do there. |
