Austin360 blogs > Out & About > Archives > 2008 > July > 19 > Entry
Mountain West No. 1: Colorado Springs and Casper
We’re in Casper Wy. A real Jack Twist is just down the way at the Motel 6. No kidding. Hanging out on the balcony, tipping back a longneck, curling a smile every time one of our party passes.
Yesterday, we ate at Saigon Springs again in Colorado Springs. Located next to a mini-golf course in the north ‘burbs, it’s a place for robust flavors and an unexpectedly vibrant crowd. Glad to return on this trip after provisioning our journey west at nearby Costco, etc.
Early this morning, joined by Joe Starr, Rob Kendrick and Edith Sorenson, we headed north in our rented black Chevy Trailblazer. Once we evaded the Empire of Denver, we lunched in Fort Collins at the Charco Broil, clearly the best restaurant in town back in the 1970s and still happening. Hints of hippie, pioneer, road house, all kinds of decorative themes executed in heavy materials. The steak sandwiches are fantabulous, as is the sasparilla.
Most of the day, we sailed through Colorado and Wyoming grasslands — which Georgia O’Keefe could have painted — via two-lane highways, stopping in Virginia Dale, Medicine Bow and other dry specks on the map. Wanted to explore the the Fossil Cabin Museum on 487, but it was not only closed, it was for sale.
Pronghorns abound. Waterfowl in the rain-filled hollers. Hawks patrol the endless hills. We continue north in the morning.
Casper itself is a green cleft folded inside soft, brown bluffs along the North Platte River. Only 50,000 souls make their homes here, but it’s the closest thing to a city for hundreds of miles and thus serves as a giant social magnet. Downtown, mostly one drag, has maintained four cinemas, which I can’t recall seeing in any other place this size, all of them flocked with activity-starved kids.
We dined at an acceptable Italian spot called Botticelli, then explored the central city a bit. This morning, Joe and I took a short walk and spied cottontail after cottontail.
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