So, what do you want to do tomorrow?” Judy asked me.
“How about driving up to Cheyenne?”
“Cheyenne? Why would you want to go there?”
“I haven’t been there in decades. Just curious.” I responded. And with that I did a google search. There were enough interesting places to convince Judy it would be worth exploring, even on a Sunday when much of the city is closed.
As we drove in, I yelped, “look. Stop.” There was a large, gorgeous mural. I hopped out of the car and looked more closely and took photos. A block later, I yelped again. This time Judy parked, and we walked, finding more and more murals. This stop and go went on until we reached center city.
We poked around the one open store, a jumble of Frontier Days memorabilia (an annual, enormous rodeo), western art, furniture, jewelry, and do-dads.
Depot Plaza is the heart of the city (even more so than the capital building). We ate lunch there, in the converted railway station, then explored the area. One of the reasons I wanted to visit Cheyenne, apart from nostalgia and murals, is the collection of 8’ high boot sculptures decorated by local artists. Dubbed “These Boots are made for Talking” thirty-two of them are scattered around the city.
It was raining off and on while we explored. The rain is much appreciated out here, they’re suffering from a severe, prolonged drought. But the rain limited our poking around. We did see enough to know that they could have rolled up the sidewalks and no one would have noticed—the city was nearly devoid of people.
Our last stop was at the Botanical Garden—to see one final boot and the garden. We saw the boot, but the rain stopped our walk.
Returning to Fort Collins, Colorado, we drove through torrential rain. We agreed Cheyenne was interesting for an afternoon, but neither of us plan to return anytime soon.