Looking for Longmire

Looking For Longmire

I became a fan of Longmire, the TV series about a modern-day sheriff in Wyoming, on my first trip to Denver to visit Emma. This year, as my roommate and I planned Our Summer Daughter Trip, I decided I wanted to go on a road trip to Wyoming to search for Walt Longmire. Never mind that the series is filmed in New Mexico, and the actor who plays Walt, Robert Taylor, is Australian. I can still have my fantasies. 

Walt and the Crew

Emma planned our three-day road trip to include a night in a dog-friendly log cabin Air B and B in Walden, Colorado. 

Emma in Walden Air B and B

Walden is small, quaint and western. We had lunch at the bowling alley and breakfast in a local café frequented by elderly motorcycle enthusiasts. Very satisfying in so many ways.

Breakfast at the Moose Creek Cafe

From Walden to Wyoming, we drove across plains where the deer and the antelope play, through a couple of wildfires and then descended the mountains via a twisty road with appropriate speed limits. We lunched in Cheyenne, a quintessential western city frequented by Walt Longmire on sheriff business. 

Downtown Cheyenne
(Walt's Boot?)

Downtown Cheyenne

Pioneer Women

Ranchwear at the Wrangler

Tryin' on the Ranchwear

Need any Cowboy Boots?

Or Cowboy Furniture?

Our second night was at Terry Bison Ranch, the second largest bison ranch in the USA. Nestled in an open range right beside a busy four-lane freeway, Terry Bison Ranch offered many activities—trail rides, ATV tours, train trips, bison-feeding. Its amenities included a homemade amusement park, a restaurant featuring the Longmire Burger, a petting menagerie of camels, pigs, horses, donkeys, peacocks, emus and bison, of course. The ranch covers 33,000 acres and extends into the state of Colorado.

Trail Rides

Bison-Feeding Train Trip

Homemade Amusement Ride

(Made from oil barrels)

Longmire Burger

Main Street, Terry Bison Ranch
Emma and Lucy

I know you are wondering what the difference is between a bison and a buffalo. According to our tour guide, a bison is 5% cow, and a buffalo is 100% buffalo. According to Google, these are the differences:

Bison	Buffalo
§  Have a large hump.	§  Do not have a hump.
§  Small, sharp horns.	§  Medium, sharp horns.
§  Thick fur and thick beard.	§  Light fur and no beard.
§  Native to North and South America and Europe.	§  Native to Africa.
§  Used for meat, clothing, weapons and shelter.	§  Used for meat.

We visited the grave of Tinker, a 2250-pound bison who had a cameo appearance in the movie Dances with Wolves.

Tiny Tinker

Emma and I met a Cowboy with a Story as we were walking Miss Lucy, Emma and Jarrett’s loving dog. The Cowboy escorted us through the ranch, past the cabins, past the travel trailers, past the scary woman with the scary rottweiler and the scared 4-year-old, to the dog park at the edge of the establishment. Mr. Cowboy was tall and lanky, wore cowboy boots and a cowboy hat and spoke with a definite drawl. He prefaced every answer to our inquiries with, “Yes Ma’am.” Although we spent an hour with him, we never got his name, so we christened him Chester in retrospect. 

Chester, Emma and Lucy at The Tradin' Post

Car Travel Games are inevitable on road trips. Emma is used to it from her childhood. Licence Plate, Horse, Name the 50 States and their Capitals, List all the States You Have Visited are some of our favourites. All sorts of fun! This was a bit of a test for Emma’s husband, Jarrett, I’m sure. Road Trip with the In-Laws. Think about it.

Licence Plate

We even developed a new car game: A Song from Every State. Busted Flat in Baton Rouge: Colorado, Rocky Mountain High; North to Alaska; Destination, Bangor Maine; Sweet Home Alabama; T for Texas, T for Tennessee. This game has potential!

Emma and Daddy

Back in Denver, we enjoyed a variety of activities including
knitting at the local seniors’ centre, the Brazillian Steakhouse, Jamming on the Jetty and The Cherry Creek Arts Festival. 

Brazilian Steakhouse

Jamming on the Jetty

Cherry Creek Arts Festival

As usual, Emma and I indulged in several bad movies.

A Fork in the Road

An Hour Behind

Changing Hearts

A Frosty Affair

A Perfect Match

Happy Log

They were all deliciously bad, but I can't decide which was the worst--A Fork in the Road or Happy Log.

A Fork in the Road

Happy Log

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And just to balance out trashy movie consumption, I finished two books. The Seagull by Ann Cleeves is a satisfying British mystery featuring beloved protagonist Vera Stanhope. Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate is based on a true story of child trafficking in the US in the late 1930s. Startling and compelling.

Good

Compelling

Our Summer Daughter Tour took us from Denver to Toronto on our 35^th wedding anniversary. There we were, the four of us in Julia’s one-bedroom basement apartment for three hot days. We all survived!

Family in Toronto

The Toronto trip featured VIP passes to a Dave Matthews concert, compliments of Emma who has drag in the music industry. We watched the concert from the stage, had open access to the floating bar and were treated to an amazing catered feast with the crew and band. Unfortunately, Tom and I were so intent on getting to the roasted beet and goat cheese dumplings, we missed Dave Matthews in the line-up behind us. At least we didn’t run him down on our way to the carrot cake!

The Floating Bar:Anne, Emma, Tom

Dave Matthews

That trip has ended. Alas, Longmire is fiction, but the rest is real. 

...Until Next Time...