Our Cheyenne motel was named “Little America.” We had never heard of Little America, but Ted arranged all of our hotels and thought it looked like a good place to stay. We followed the GPS instructions and found it. My first thought was, “Oh no! Motel 6 would be a giant leap upward!” I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to hurt Ted’s feelings, but the only things visible at the driveway with the Little America sign were dozens of semi-trailer trucks and a Sinclair gas station. I assumed the hotel was behind the gas station and was a haven for the truckers. In fact, Little America was far behind the gas station and is classified as a four-star hotel / resort. Whew! Ted chose very well.
We unpacked and asked the concierge to recommend a nice Italian restaurant. She recommended Losteria Mondello, a family-owned restaurant with a pizza carry-out section in front and dining rooms in the back. We were surprised to be the only diners at 7:00 pm. The waitress told us they were really busy in the pizza area until 6:00, when people left to go home and watch first NFL game of the season on TV.
Our dinner was excellent and, being the only diners, so was the service. When our salads arrived, a man who’d been sitting at a nearby table with a laptop (and whom we assumed was the owner) came over to our table and informed us that he sings in the dining room on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. Since it was Thursday, he moved a few feet away, and began serenading us (authentically) in Italian. It was another restaurant first for us. He sang another song during our main course. Since he sings on Thursdays and performed for only the two of us, would he have sung to an empty room to fulfill his job responsibilities?
In the morning, we headed for downtown Cheyenne to see, among other things, what is described as one of the most beautiful train depots in the country.
The depot now houses a railroad museum and restaurant.
The model of the depot shows the entire building. Union Pacific donated the depot to the city of Cheyenne.
The floor of the waiting area in the depot features a scale map of the railroad’s route from Omaha, NE to Promontory Summit in the Idaho Territory. Tables were set up for an event, so I couldn’t get a picture of the entire map.
The waiting area of the depot–including the tables for the upcoming event that cover most of the railroad map.
There are several topical sculptures outside the depot.
This is titled “Hard to Leave.”
Women are more optimistic. This is titled “A New Beginning.”
The first floor of the museum seems to include every word ever written about every train that ever rode the tracks. It is probably of more interest to someone who worked with the railroads or is passionate about them for some other reason. Upstairs, however, there are exhibits with less text to read. For example, we saw this calculator.
This calculator can count into the duodecillions. That’s a 1 with 39 zeroes after it.
Ted’s and my favorite exhibit was the scale model train that occupied about half of the second floor (originally the baggage room of the depot). The literature describes the model as “one of the world’s most popular and loved narrow gauge model railroads.” It is an HO scale of the Clear Creek Lines of the Colorado and Southern Railway and took the builder 30 years to complete. He handcrafted everything–the trains and the scenery.
The model runs in and out of six bays like those in the picture, beginning at the darkened doorway in the background and running continuously to the foreground of the picture. A stairway beside the third bay allows visitors to see the model at its scaled higher elevations.
As we were leaving the depot to have lunch, we learned that a 90-minute trolley tour was departing from the depot in ten minutes. Coming up: a trolley tour.