Cheyenne - August 22

Today was a quiet day, with no appointments. I slept very well in my room at the Round Up Motel, which the office lady tells me was built in the 1940's. It's quaint and retro, with far more character that the more expensive brands! I have everything I need. And the office lady also pointed me to the nearby Diamond Horseshoe Cafe for a delightful breakfast. The motel is directly across the  street from a very large compound called The Outlaw Saloon. I am sure I would find it educational to inspect that establishment, but, despite its possible educational value, it is not to my taste.

I used the free morning to go to the Wyoming State Museum, adjacent to the rather magnificent gold-domed state capitol. It's a good historical museum, illuminating special events in Wyoming history, beginning, it seems, with the creation. I was pleased that, in their section devoted to more recent history, they displayed a prominent photo memorial to Matthew Shepard.

After the museum I walked around  the city, and it was a nice moment when I heard, in the near distance, a church bell striking the noon hour, followed by a carillon rendition of "Faith of Our Fathers" (or, as  it  is now often called, "Faith of Our Forebears"). It was especially a nice moment when I approached the imposing stone church and discovered that it was the First Presbyterian Church of Cheyenne - built, according to the cornerstone - in 1923, and, I am sure, much too large for its present congregation. Still, it's nice.

Tomorrow  I  will not attend  worship there. Instead, I will go to the Highlands Presbyterian Church, a small  congregation in another section of the city. Cheyenne is, of course, Wyoming's largest city, and there are three Presbyterian churches here: First, Highlands, and Korean. I will make contact with all of them.

One other interesting moment: at the very grandly restored Union Pacific train terminal, now a museum, a British couple were inquiring whether passengers still used this terminal. When they were told there was no passenger train service to Cheyenne anymore, they registered shock, and the lady exclaimed,"But they have all that track!" Dennis O'Brien once wrote a book, called, I think: God and the New Haven Railroad, and Why Neither is Doing Very Well."  I could not help but think of it.