the vale of the venomous vixen

it is ridiculous how good of a time i have been having in cheyenne. seriously, cheyenne shouldnt be this great of a place.

i took a free horse drawn carriage ride through the heart of downtown cheyenne today, how fucking sweet? i do not believe i have ever been drawn by horses. cheyenne did it to me. while i was on the carriage ride i learned a whole bunch from the drive-man about the history of cheyenne. something i think i mentioned but will repeat is that cheyenne is currently a city of 50,000 people. that isnt very many. that is barely a suburb.

the reason why cheyenne is such a hub with so few people dates back to the old west and the cattle barons. many cattle barons settled in cheyenne and used the rest of the state to raise cattle to be shipped around the country as starters for others herds or for beef. in the 1800's cheyenne boasted more millionaires per capita than any other place in the united states.

that doesnt really matter to me now, but because of that then cheyenne garnered a reputation. nice buildings were being built, a beautiful state capitol building and many other things. hotels were fashioned with electric lighting and indoor plumbing, unprecedented for a city so small at the time, but the dollars demanded it. amazingly there are a number of old buildings still intact here, including the first brick building ever built. still standing. amazing.

the carriage lasted about a half hour and was very informative. i was with a number of ladies wearing purple. we have all seen these ladies and i wanted to ask them why they wear purple. i could look it up very easily right now, but i would rather just ask one of these women when i have the chance.

high noon gun fight

after the carriage i went to the train depot. union pacific made its home in cheyenne wyoming at one point, i do not recall if it is still today. but they have a large rail museum and a lot of focus on the rail industry. i dont think anything up here would have ever been on the map without the rails.

when i got done with that it was high noon and i went to watch the gunfight. high noon in cheyenne right now is super hot. i was wearing my sandals and the gunslingers talked for about 40 minutes before they started their re-enactment. they cautioned kids against using guns, alerted adults to the dangers of guns, asked every group of people where they were from and then introduced each of the gunslingers. it was tedious and i wanted to leave. but i stayed to watch the beginning of the gunfight.

it drew out for awhile, and i couldnt take it. it was hard to hear them and the action was kind of pitiful. also the heat was becoming unbearable. i have been sunburnt since sacramento (sunburnt since sacramento is a good song title or book name) and today didnt help at all. my feet and my face doubled over and i am beet red again. after leaving the gunfight i found the solace of shade and rested for a few moments consulting the cheyenne visitors guide finding the things that i knew where there but had forgotten about.

a beautiful pink flower

one of those things was the botanic gardens, another free attraction. it appeared that they were situated in a large park, called lions park in the north end of town, so i decided to head up that way. what do i find when i get there? a bunch of stuff! there was a large gathering with tents and air filled playthings for kids, it looked interesting so i walked toward it. it was just ending but it appeared to be a college/army recruitment picnic. there were a bunch of tables for christian colleges and the military, and there was a beer garden, however all of the kegs were tapped by the time i arrived. i wouldve loved to have had some beers on the federal government.

around this time i got a second or third wave of loving cheyenne wyoming. there was just so much stuff happening, everywhere i went was something for free that i could peruse and explore and enjoy. it was great. i walked through the park more and there was a large lake with a swimming area and rentals for kayaks and paddle boats. i debated renting a kayak for $4/half hour, but decided against it.

then i made it to the botanic garden. it wasnt very exciting, but it was free. it was more like a home garden than a botanic garden. i dug up a carrot and ate it. it was by far the worst of the botanic gardens that i have visited, it is a strike against the idea of moving to cheyenne wyoming. because they only had figs and pineapple guava growing in there, not a whole lot of fruit.

done there, i walked over the the indian village, but nothing was happening. then i walked the parking lot of the rodeo, but again, nothing going on, so i headed back downtown.

i think this is when i went to the liquor store, i am not sure of that because as i write this, i am drunk. or as my friend steve would say, crunk. at the liquor store i bee lined for a 12 pack of pbr. becasue, if i drink one right away the rest will fit in my cooler. but then i stopped for a minute. and i started looking at the liquor. my figure isnt getting better with age and the more beer drinking i do, the bigger my belly will grow. i felt that i needed to start liking liquor. at the gunfight they were drinking whiskey.

see the whiskey? and the pbr? a punk rock cowboy!

i want to be a cowboy, and cowboys drink whiskey, so i bought a pint of jack daniels. when i left the liquor store, i laughed aloud for a long time. what the hell was i thinking? i dont like whiskey, or any "sipping" liquor. what was i trying to do. i got back to my truck and packed away my goods and did some other arranging, then i put a few beers in my bag and rustled up my computer and went to sit at the hotel for awhile.

i found a nice niche on the mezzanine (where i am right now), the clerks cannot see me and i can get wireless and drink freely. its great. i sat and grazed the internet, drinking three beers and then went out for dinner. it was expensive, but so what. money isnt something that i should define myself by.

then i came back to the truck and put some music on my ipod. i sat on my bumper, listening to music and sewing my cell phone holster which i had ripped the day before trying to sneak into an abandoned building. i wasnt happy about it. i didnt make it in and i bruised my case. not worth mentioning further. i listened to atmosphere, the rats, and dead moon. i drank a few beers and cracked open my whiskey. it wasnt very good and i cannot imagine myself getting used to it. but i couldnt ever imagine myself having a great time in cheyenne wyoming, either. no expectations. one day perhaps i will love whiskey like i love olives.

then it was 6:45 and i had a date. at some point in the day i stopped into the atlas theatre, the only live performance theatre in cheyenne and a very old theatre to boot. i talked with the proprietor about the show: the vale of the venomous vixen. it opened the night before and i had talked with some of the players. i was intrigued and decided i would stay to see it. i got the student price, $12. and retrospectively, it may be the best $12 i have ever spent.

the mc and card girl.

the play is an annual melodrama that the theatre puts on, and for a number of years it has been written by some local yokels. but they have done an amazing job. i am getting ahead of myself here. this year is the 53rd year of the "old time melodrama" and i couldnt have asked for more. i am very much into vaudeville, old timey things, and good things. this was all of them.

i packed three beers in my bag and walked to the theatre. i was disappointed becasue i walked right in and went into the bathroom, then up the stairs to the balcony. had i known it would have been so easy, i couldve saved $12. i sat down and waited for about 15 minutes until the lights went down and the mc came onto the stage, while people were clapping i opened my first beer.

the mc and the "card girl" were funny. the card girl changed the cards that say "act one" "act two" "female vocalist" etc. they worked together well and i laughed heartily. they started the evening with a sing-a-long to "oh susanna" and "home on the range". i dont think i can explain it with due justice, so if you are reading this just laugh out load for about thirty seconds. then you are getting close. the first act set everything up, it wasnt very good but it was pretty good. after the act were the first olio's.

never heard the word olio? me neither. they are just like vaudeville acts between the acts of the play and they were great. i took some videos, but wasnt smart enough to get all of them. right now i wish i wrote better and remembered better. i would like to lay out the play in words for you right now, but really, i cannot do that. you have to come to cheyenne wyoming and see it yourself. just like the transfused. one of the olio's was a person i had talked to the night before, and he sang a hilarious song, which i sang along loud with enjoyed beyond the description of words. the chorus was "o why did i ever leave wyo-ming" we went through a few verses about it was wonderful.

so we had some olio's some can can dancers and the play itself. which dealt with real world issues in a hilarious way and didnt end up the way you would expect at all. the hero and heroine did not end up together. it was great, i love stories like that.

i drank three beers, sang along, yelled, hissed, booed, cheered, and enjoyed myself immensely. i would recommend this experience to anyone within a hundred mile radius. and beyond, really.

and now, i am back at the hotel, wishing that i could forever be int he state of bliss that contained me in at the theatre, wishing that i could always be in cheyenne. how wierd. i gotta leave tomorrow.