Day 7 – July 5, 2013
Denver-Cheyenne-Denver
190 miles/3 hour round trip
Today we drove to Cheyenne, WY to visit the capitol (which
was too far out of the way for last year’s Yellowstone trip) and so I could
have lunch with an old friend of mine from Naples. I don’t know how the capitol
thing started, but it has become a “thing.” Whenever we visit a state, we have
to also visit the capitol building. It’s actually very interesting to see how
different some of them are architecturally; and to see to what extent to which
they’re still actively used by the state government; and how we’re treated by
the capitol staff. In some states we’ve experienced security like the airport
and some states have an open door, come-one-come-all policy. However, this is
the first (yesterday in Denver) and second time we were denied entrance into
the capitol building. The building was ensconced in scaffolding and the grass
was all over-grown on the property. It was rather sad. Remodeling?
Cheyenne is much smaller than I’d anticipated. It’s a clean
little city, but I didn’t feel the love I was expecting. It lacks the charm of
other little cities we’ve visited in the past.
We had lunch downtown with my friend Jane, who I’d not seen
in twenty-four years. We worked together at the Ritz Carlton in Naples. Eventually
she went off and had babies and I left for grad school. We’ve kept in touch
over the years with Christmas cards, phone calls and emails – but our paths had
never crossed. Until today!
It was so good to see her. She seems happy. It’s funny to
see her in this environment, because Jane was a total beach girl when I knew her.
Now she’s embracing the small town western life. She was actually born and
raised in Jackson Hole (lucky girl), but her family moved to Cheyenne when all
the millionaires moved in to that area.
After lunch, the road warriors and I headed back to Denver
and just hung out by the pool until I had to go to the lobby for another rondevuex.
I finally got to meet my editor from The HerStories Project, Stephanie Sprenger.
She is delightful! We had a really nice time getting to know each other better
and I’m excited for more HerStories Projects in the future.
We
drove into Boulder for dinner. Boulder is hippy central! Oh, is was comical.
But I’d like to point out that it’s probably the cleanest city I have ever
seen. And that ain’t no exaggeration!
Jane and Allie
Wyoming State Capitol
Meeting Stephanie, my editor at The HerStories Project
