Casper, WY to Denver, CO

Today was really a light day and we had little planned other than the drive from Casper to Denver. The kids needed a rest, so we all slept late and did not leave until about 10:30. The drive south through Wyoming is uneventful with a lot of empty land used for farming. Seriously, it seems that Wyoming is one big empty state that is used to grow hay. It's beautiful to me, but the kids find it pretty uninteresting!

They were able to keep themselves amused for most of the ride playing hang-man. You can really pass a lot of time with that game.

We arrived in Cheyenne for a late lunch and really had no idea where to eat. Cheyenne is the largest city in the state and houses the capital building. We drove through their downtown area, past their capital building, and stopped in their historic downtown. It seems that most cities around here have historic downtown areas.

We recognized a restaurant that we ate at in another city (a small chain), and went in to use their facilities. None of us were excited about eating there, so we headed out for a walk around the blocks. Across the street was Pizzeria Venti that we walked into last as we thought it was just a pizza place. It turns out that it was an excellent restaurant that could have been in any southern Italy town. They had so many different "pizza" dishes that all looked so great.

When we walked in, an older woman treated us like she was our grandmother and started telling us what each of the different foods were. She really sold us on staying, and we're so glad we did. This was one of the best meals we had on our trip and we encourage you to stop by Cheyenne to eat there!

After lunch we headed south towards Denver. Actually Debbie and Reagan's house is in Parker, not in Denver, and this adds a bit more onto the drive since it's a suburb south of the city. As we drove through Denver we had a sort of culture shock. We've been in small towns for the past week and seeing such a huge city with so much traffic really shocked us. We arrived at their house after stopping for a car wash that was long overdue. It feels good to get all of the bugs off of the front of the car, as we probably had collected 1000's of them along our drive.

Their neighborhood is filled with houses that, quite frankly, we have never seen before in California. When I say large, it really does not represent the size and beauty of these homes. It almost makes you want to move to the area, but it's hard to give up California weather!


Gary and Tammy came over shortly after we arrived and we spent the night chatting about some old times and new times. All of the kids got along great (there were 6 of them total), and they ended up playing until around midnight when Gary and his family left. It was terrific to see everyone after so long.

Oh, one thing that I forgot to mention is that Reagan and Debbie actually have a slide in their house. Can you say unique? It provided hours of fun for the kids.


We don't have any firm plans for tomorrow in Denver yet. We will head to their downtown area, see some of the big sites, and then meet with Reagan and Debbie for dinner as they will be working all day. They've really made us feel at home here in Denver, and we appreciate it very much.