Preparing for my journey to Torrington, Wyoming tomorrow for the Total Eclipse

A few days  ago I drove up to Torrington, Wyoming, just an hour and a half or so north of Cheyenne in perfect road conditions, took a lot of photos, and wrote an article, Where to see the Total Eclipse in Torrington Wyoming.

Looks like hundreds of people from Colorado might be planning to go up to Torrington, because that article is averaging a hundred hits a day.

So tomorrow....I am actually going to be driving up to Jay Em, which is another 30 or so miles north of Torrington, because unlike Torrington, Jay Em has a personalized post office cancellation.

I have created a post card with the Jay Em stamp on the front and some info about Jay Em on the back, affixed the Eclipse stamp to it, and tomorrow I hope to get at least 10 and hopefully 20 cancelled.

Then I'll try to sell them on Ebay or offer them as a perk for my Tiny Towns project, which I'll be launching sooner or later on Kickstarter.

I'll be leaving at 5 am, in hopes of beating the traffic. I've put a pillow and blankets in my car so if I get there as normal, after just an hour and a half drive time, I can take a nap if I feel like it.

I've also bought candy bars and a quart of milk and put them in a cooler which I'll be bringing with.

Also...because as a woman it's not easy to get out of the car and relieve oneself if one is stuck in traffic...I dont' mind admitting...I'll be wearing a Depend. Hey! I believe in being prepared and if a hundred thousand people descend on Torrington or Jay Em, well, I don't intend to suffer if there are no port-a-potties!

What is the 146 Club?

I subscribed months ago to the Wyoming Eclipse Festival Newsletter.

The Wyoming Eclipse Festival is the official title for the festival taking place in Casper, Wyoming from today. Friday, August 18 to Monday, April 21 - and there are a lot of fun events taking place for both science enthusiasts and enthusiasts of fun - and the two aren't necessarily exclusive, of course!

Always at the bottom of these emails was a banner ad saying, Spend $146 and join the 146 Club.

Every time I'd click on it to see what the 146 Club was, it would take me to an Event Brite page that would say, "Event Past."

"What is this 146 Club?" I thought, so I googled, "146 Club."

And the first 146 Club that came up was one that fights human trafficking, although it was called Love146 Club.

Turns out the Wyoming Eclipse Festival's 146 Club was so named because Casper is going to have 146 seconds of totality on August 21, 2017, so the similarity of the names is just a coincidence. (And as an aside, the Wyoming Eclipse Festival could have done a better job promoting this club. Apart from a Facebook post from August 2016 - one year ago - I saw no advertising for it (in my belated research of a couple of days ago!)

Check out Eclipsecasper.com and there's no mention of the 146 Club at all, there's just a banner ad on the email newsletter they send out.

Still, the coincidence was serendipity of a kind.

In looking for Casper's 146 Club I learned about the Love146 Club.

https://love146.org/

The Love146 Club is so named because a couple of undercover agents went into an auction where young girls were being auctioned off to be sex slaves. Each girl had a numbered tag pinned to her dress so the buyer could choose her by number, and the only one of these girls who was still "defiant" after months of sexual abuse had the number 146 pinned to her dress.

According to the website, because these agents were undercover they couldn't do anything at this sex auction, when they finally returned with their warrants the girls, including number 146, were gone, never to be found again.

It's important that parents, and of course teenagers themselves, learn of this danger right in their own back yards.

There's human trafficking for sex slaves of young girls and boys - right here in the US. (Though this is not exclusively a US problem, of course).

Below is a post from 2015 - this organization has been in existence since 2000.

10 Reasons you should start a Love146 Club

This is an important subject. The percentage of sex slaves as part of our population as a whole may be very small, but it still amounts to probably hundreds of thousands of girls and boys forced into this awful life.

11 Days to the Great American Eclipse!

I've left it a bit late to start writing Destination Guides for a few of the cities in Wyoming that are in TPOT (a hashtag term I've coined for The path of totality. I hope it goes viral!). There's extenuating circumstances for my tardiness, but now I've really got to get on the stick and get these guides ready.

My expectation is that thousands of people who were unable to get hotel reservations for the cities in question will be staying in Cheyenne, and even as far away as Fort Collins to the south - and probably equidistant to the north - and driving into the path of totality on the morning of the 21st to see it.

The first city I visited was Torrington and I'm working on that destination guide and it will shortly be published at wyominginmotion.com.

It was a fun trip.

Torrington is a town of about 7,000 people, situated about 70 miles northeast of Cheyenne on Highway 85. (As such, it's about an hour closer to Cheyenne than Casper is. Casper is having a multitude of events on Eclipse Day - but there will be hundreds of thousands of people there, as it's a city with a population of 60,000 people with hotel rooms to match. I'm expecting just an extra thousand or so people in Torrington!)

Coming in on Highway 85..I passed by a couple of Welcome to Torrington signs but neglected to stop for photos. I'll do that tomorrow when I return to Torrington to take a few more photos before heading west to Glendo.

The first thing I did was drive around just to see if I could see any great big signs saying "We're in the path of totality!" I didn't see anything - but later on when I parked and walked around, there were signs in practically every window advertising events.

I'd intended to stop in at a local restaurant for some food - and later to write a review of it - but by the time I'd finished my initial recce I was hungry so I just stopped in at the local Maverik station for a piece of pizza.

Sausage and pepperoni pizza prepared daily at Maverk station by their "Bonfire Grill" people

I will review it, even though Maverik is a chain of gas stations rather than a local restaurant, just cuz. In fact I'll give my review right now - I was so hungry that I ate it all up, even though it had a spicy tomato paste rather than tomato sauce, and it was a bit spicier than I like. I only drink Pepsis in cans and they only had the very tall cans of Pepsi, 16 oz rather than 12, but I bought one anyway. A filling lunch for those who are hungry and want to get back on the road...or in my case, want to satisfy their hunger cravings quickly.

After seeking out the library - I love libraries, I parked on Main Street and sought out their Post Office. In the Maverik I had seen the Torrington newspaper which on the "top fold"  had a photo and headline of a woman who had designed a special cancellation for their post office for the "Big Day." I hadn't read the caption closely enough - it was actually for a different city some 20 miles further north, called Jay Em, not Torrington. But I'll be driving up there "on the day," after the eclipse, to get a postcard cancelled.

I then walked up and then down Main Street, taking photos of restaurants and other businesses, and saw T-shirts on display in front of an H&R Block outlet.

Sally Rose and her eclipse T-shirt designs

I talked briefly with Sally Rose, who works at the H&R Block outlet (which is owned by her sister). Sally used to own a T-shirt shop before going into the tax business herself, and decided that she'd create some unique shirts for the Great American Eclipse.

T-shirt designs

I was tempted to buy one at the time.. but then I decided it would be more meaningful to actually buy it on the day of the eclipse, not before.

Sally was interesting to talk to. Their H&R Block outlet is open year round - though only two days a week when it isn't tax season - and that if someone has a tax question Sally and her sister or whoever is on duty that day will be happy to answer questions, even if it's just from a visitor to the town and not a resident. That's customer service!

Quite a few entrepreneurs are gearing up for the eclipse in every city in TPOT, of course.

Even restaurants/diners/cafes are getting into the act. The Bread Doctor, an artisan bread and sandwich shop that is only open from Friday through Sunday, will be open on "the big day."

The Bread Doctor

I'll stop in there for a sandwich or something on the day, or at least stop by and hopefully see that they are jam-packed to reward their initiative!

I took photos of quite a few of the restaurants on Main Street. Quite a challenge as cars were parked in front of every single restaurant, but I'll be sharing the photos anyway just so my readers can get an idea of what the restaurant-fronts will look like.

Cars in front of every restaurant...

On the corner of 21st and Main - Torrington Visitor's Center and Chamber of Commerce

The place to go first, for visitors to Torrington interested in history, is into the building that houses the Java Jar, on the corner of 21st Avenue and Main Street. Inside, past the Java Jar, is the headquarters of the Torrington Chamber of Commerce and Visitor's Center, and there's a nice History of Goshen County  display. (The building is bigger on the inside than it looks on the outside.)

Goshen County History inside the building housing The Java Jar and the Visitor's Center

All in all, a pleasant little town, and I'm looking forward to returning here on August 21 for Eclipse Day.

Fort Collins Lincoln Center: All Shows Go on Sale Today

The Fort Collins Lincoln Center is located at 417 W. Magnolia Street. Phone 970-221-6730.

They've just announced their 2017/2018 season, with tickets going on sale today.

Here's a list of their shows: (To purchase tickets check out: http://www.lctix.com/17-18-season?page=1)

Musicians/Dance/Standup

2017

Bela Fleck & Abigail Washburn (Sep 7)
Jim Breuer (Sept 15)
Black Violin (Sep 30)
Martha Graham Dance Company (Oct 3)
Kris Kristofferson (Oct 11)
Moon Mouse A Space Odyssey (Oct 14)
ArtWear Fashion Show (Oct 20)
Mike Birbiglia: The New One (Oct 21)
PUBLIQuartet (Oct 24)
Take Me to the River Live (Oct 26)
The Moth Mainstage (NOv 5)
RMorgenstern Trio (Nov 14)

2018

Canadian Brass (Jan 19)
PostSecret: The Show (Feb 9)
The Magic of Bill Blagg Live (Feb 10)
KEIGWIN + Company: K+C Celebrates Bernstein (Feb 14)
Siro-A: Techno Circus (Mar 4)
Shuffle (Mar 5)
Celtic Nights: Oceans of Hope (Mar 6)
Arturo Sandoval (Mar 22)
Borromeo String Quartet (Mar 23)
Parsons Dance (Apr 3)
Antony de Mare: LIAISONS (April 17)

Cheyenne is 150 years and 1 day old today

On Tuesday, August 8, 2017, the city of Cheyenne celebrated its 150th birthday.

The state of Wyoming is 25 years younger, by the way.

Cheyenne was first founded as a railroad town, to serve the workers building the Union Pacific transcontinental railroad. Within just a few weeks it burgeoned from a few hundred people into a few thousand, becoming known as the "Magic City of the Plains."

The 150th anniversary is an important milestone for Cheyenne - or for any city..and they had quite a few celebrations on Tuesday...

But...I wasn't here.

Yesterday there were 13 days to the Great American Eclipse, and I've behind time in writing profiles of the cities in the middle of the state (Casper) and on to the east (such as Torrington) which are in the Path of Totality.. 

I decided it was more urgent to get to Torrington and take some photos than to go into Cheyenne to record the celebrations.

The Wyoming Tribune Eagle, Cheyenne's newspaper, has been sharing information about the history of the city throughout the last month, and I'll go through these papers and report on them in this blog after the Great American Eclipse is over.

But for the next 12 days, I'll be covering how to see the Great American Eclipse in Wyoming.

To that end...for the last four days ...and even longer...even through Cheyenne Frontier Days, frankly, the days have dawned cloudy and gray and at times foggy. Beautiful, in one standpoint, but worrisome for August 21.

Just before noon on August 21, when full totality is supposed to take place. 

Of course the clouds and fog are in Cheyenne...Casper is a bit more than 2 hours north of here on I-25 and Torrington is about an hour northeast of here on I-85, so weather patterns may be different.

But everyone is hoping August 21 dawns bright and clear and stays that way.

So never fear, I will be covering Cheyenne's 150th birthday, but just a little bit late!

The results of the Cheyenne Frontier Days PRCA Rode, July 30, 2017

We've just published a report on the final results of the Cheyenne Frontier Days PRCA Rodeo, which ended on July 30, 2017.

http://wyominginmotion.com/results-cheyenne-frontier-days-prca-rodeo/

The 121st Cheyenne Frontier Days is in the books, and the volunteer committee has already started planning for the 122 Cheyenne Frontier Days, which will take place over the last full week in July, as usual.

Attendance seemed a bit down this year - or more people were taking advantage of the Park-n-ride, leaving plenty of parking spots on adjacent residential streets and in the parking lots of Lions Park.

However, for Saturday and Sunday that wasn't the case - every parking lot was chock full, so the Park and Ride was probably the way to go.

I attended every event of Cheyenne Frontier Days except the Thunderbirds at Laramie County Community College - unfortunately on the Wednesday that they were to perform the ceiling was too low.

Reports on every aspect of the Cheyenne Frontier Days will be forthcoming to help people plan for next year!

Meantime, if you're interested in more rodeo, there's plenty going on in Montana, Utah, Texas...as well as such states as Louisiana!

http://wyominginmotion.com/prca-rodeo-schedule-montana-august-2017/
http://wyominginmotion.com/prca-rodeo-schedule-utah-august-2017/
http://wyominginmotion.com/prca-rodeo-schedule-south-dakota-august-2017/
http://wyominginmotion.com/prca-rodeo-schedule-idaho-august-2017/
http://wyominginmotion.com/prca-rodeo-schedule-nebraska-august-2017/
http://wyominginmotion.com/prca-rodeo-schedule-wyoming-august-2017/
http://wyominginmotion.com/prca-rodeo-schedule-colorado-august-2017/

3rd day of Cheyenne Frontier Days report (Sunday, 23 July)

Actually, nothing to report today. I have tickets for Cinderella: The Slipper and the Rose in Johnstown, Colorado, about a 90 minute drive from Cheyenne at the Candlelight Dinner Theater.

When I get back home I have to write up some articles on the last three days!

Day 2 Report for Cheyenne Frontier Days (22 July 2017)

Today, Saturday, was the 2nd day of Cheyenne Frontier Days.

I spent the day taking part in free activities - first I attended the downtown parade which took about 90 minutes and was a lot of fun, and then at noon I went over to Warren Air Force base for Fort DA Russell Days.

I had never seen re-enactments before, so these were interesting. First, a World War II minor skirmish, and then the Buffalo Soldiers.

I had wanted to stay for the Revolutionary War reenactment, but the WWII event had run long, so the Buffalo Soldiers ran long, and I had to go.

Will be adding photos and more text tomorrow.

Day 1 Report from Cheyenne Frontier Days

Friday, 21 July, 2017. The opening day of the 10-day-long Cheyenne Frontier Days. 

Early Friday, until about 10:30 am or so, was overcast and cool. Lovely! It started to heat up as the day went on and for a while even the clouds went away, but by 7 pm the clouds were back, and it was a lovely 75 degrees. Unfortunately, by 8 pm it had started to drizzle and by 8:30 pm it was raining quite hard.

I'm not sure if the Brantley Gilbert concert, scheduled for the opening night of Frontier Days, was cancelled. When I left at 8:15 pm - I was in Lions Park checking out the acoustics from the adjacent Frontier Park - I could hear the singing. I live 8 miles out of town and the rain was torrential when I got home - but sometimes it can rain in town and we don't get a drop at our house, and vice versa.

There was no lightning last night - which I think is the only thing that will stop a concert.

According to today's weather forecast, it's cloudy but shouldn't rain. Temps aren't expected to get higher than 83 degrees.

The concert tonight is Little Big Town with special guest David Nall.

Park n' Ride at Cheyenne Frontier Days

The directions for the Park n' Ride say simply that it is at the corner of I-25 and Happy Jack. That isn't true.

If you're on I-25, take the exit for Happy Jack. But then, you need to stay in the left hand lane, and follow Happy Jack to the west for a mile or so. You will then see the vast parking lot on your left.

It is a secure facility - they have security guards there, as well as over 20 school buses to make sure that there is a constant stream of buses to and from the Park and Ride to Frontier Park and back.

The Park n' Ride lot doesn't open until 10 am.

That means that you can get in line to get *into* the lot, but they actually wont' let you pay and go through until 10 am.

I didn't realize this. I was about the 30th car in line - stacked up to almost the turn-in entrance and by the time 10 am rolled around there were about 10 cars behind me.  (A bus of 48 people left, I was on the second bus, when we finally got underway at 10:15 am).

I would have thought they'd let people park and get in line for the buses before 10 to prevent a long build up of cars prior to that time, but that was not the case.

Once we were allowed to park, it did go pretty fast.

The line at 9:40 am. 

Two lines of cars waiting to get down to one line, to pay for parking. It's necessary to be polite and let in one car at a time 

48 people allowed on each bus

Plenty of buses in reserve - and drivers have radios to communicate with each other

$7 to park, $3 admission fee

There is a $3 admission fee to get into the Carnival Midway at Cheyenne Frontier Days. If you go to the Park 'n Ride, therefore, you are only paying $7 to park. You receive an admission ticket also, which is that additional $3.

Ten Minute Drive

Once the bus finally got under way, it was about a 10 minute drive from the Park 'n Ride to Cheyenne Frontier Park. It's not all that far away - without traffic probably no more than a 5 minute drive.

Decanting from the bus and heading into another line to get into Frontier Park

Since the Midway didn't open until 11:00 am, everyone on the bus, except me, got into line to get into the Midway.

I decided to check out the parking on 8th Avenue and in the Lions Park lots. There were a handful of spots left on 8th avenue, and at least three empty lots inside Lions Park.  There's no fee to charge in the Lions Park lots.

8 pm in Lions Park

I returned to Lions Park at 8 pm to find that there were still three empty lots (admittedly the furthest from Frontier Park - but, not very far to walk at all). The Daylight Donuts shop on the corner of Warren and 8th Avenue was offering parking for $10. A good deal...except there was all that free parking in the Lions Park parking lots.

Since I didn't go inside Frontier Park I don't know how many people were at the Brantley Gilbert concert, but I suspect that the reason why there were so many parking spaces left was because people had checked the weather report and knew there was a storm coming in.  With 9 more days of Frontier Days to go, many people probably decided they'd just wait for an evening when there wasn't going to be torrential rain. (The concert may have gone on as scheduled but I doubt if the rides were still running. I'll have to check that today.)

STILL TO COME FOR TODAY'S REPORT
1. Indian Village setting up. No performances until Saturday.
2. Frontier Town open for business. Characters wandering around
3. Chick-Fil-A
4. Cheyenne Botanic Gardens open
5. Lions Park open
6. Hydrate, wear a hat and wear comfortable shoes!

Cheyenne Frontier Days, Day 1

It's 7:13 am on Friday, 21 July 2017.

In just 4 more hours, Cheyenne Frontier Days 2017 will officially open.

For the next 10 days, the Wyoming Tribune Eagle will be publishing a supplement called Frontier Daily, which will feature articles and interviews with CFD participants, as well as a calendar of events.

They also publish a poster each day (printed on regular newspaper paper). The first one, published today, features a woman barrel racer.

"Lassoed by the Lens," is the title of the poster, which features Fallon Taylor of Collinsville, Texas in a photo taken by Blaine McCartney of the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.

These posters make inexpensive souvenirs of the event.

What's happening on this first day of Cheyenne Frontier Days 2017?

7 am - Team roping slack (free)

8 am - 6 pm - Cheyenne Frontier Days Western Art Show and Sale at CFD (admission fee)

9 am - 4 pm - Fort DA Russell Days living history demonstrations at FE Warren AFB. (Normally civilians can't get on the base, but for this weekend they are allowed on and shown a specific place to park near the front of the base.)   (free)

10 am - 4 pm - Food vendors at Fort DA Russell Days

10 am - 8 pm - Western Experience offers interactive Western experience at Frontier Park ($3 admission fee to Midway).

10:30 am - 8:30 pm. Old Frontier Town opens. Frontier Park.  (Free)

10 am - noon - "Michael Martin Murphy and friends" will perform at the Sidewinder Saloon at Old Frontier Town.

10:30 am - 9:30 pm - CFD exhibits open.  ($3 admission fee to Midway).

10:30 - 12:15 am - CFD Carnival/midway areas open  ($3 admission fee to Midway).

11 am - 4 pm - Various live entertainment at The Garden in Frontier Park.

11 am - 7: 30 am - Indian Village open. Frontier Park. (Free admission)

11 am - midnight - Buckin A Saloon opens. Sean Curtis plays from 5-7 pm and 10 pm - midnight

12:15 pm. Cinch Rodeo Shootout. Frontier Park Arena. Invitational style rodeo tournament of champions.

4 - 7 pm - Michael Martin Murphy and Friends will perform at Sidewinder Saloon at Old Frontier Town.

5:30 - 8 pm. Clara Rae at Frontier Nights Pre-Party in the Garden.

8 pm. Brantley Gilbert with special guest Tyler Farr. Grandstands open at 7 pm.

Cheyenne Frontier Days: "The Slack"

The 2017 Cheyenne Frontier Days begins on Friday, 21 July 2017. From Monday through Thursday, the Slack Rodeo is taking place which is free to all comers.  Entrance is through Portal 1.

You've missed it for the 2017 Frontier Days - but it happens every year in the four week days leading up to the Friday on which the CFD starts.

Before Cheyenne Frontier Days officially starts - which it does on the Friday before the last full week of July, several rodeo events are held and the public can attend these for free.

These events are called "The Slack."

They are held from Monday through Thursday, starting at 10 am,

The name comes from the fact that there are dozens of cowboys (and a few cowgirls doing barrel racing) and not always time for them during the afternoon rodeo. So to "take up the slack," many events are held in the morning. (Another origin for the name is that the week before the "main" rodeo begins is a "slack" time, with rodeo contestants arriving but not having anything to do, so this event was created.

If you'd like to see "The Slack," go to Frontier Park and park in the main parking lot. (The gates to the parking lot will be open).

You won't see a sign pointing you to "The Slack," but simply get to the sidewalk (weaving past any CFD volunteers putting up display stands) and head to your right until you get to Portal 1.

Entrance to CFD Carnival Midway.

From the parking lot, you'll see the building in the photo above on your LEFT. To the right of this building will be the Ticket Office.

CFD Ticket Office

Again, from the parking lot, these two buildings will be on your LEFT. You will walk to the right, following a brown fence, for a couple hundred yards, passing Portal 2, until you get to Portal 1, which you will follow down behind the grandstands for the rodeo.

Portal 1, with a volunteer seated there to answer people's questions

Rodeo participants awaiting their turn for the calf roping competition

New feature: Brochure box

Whenever I visit a Welcome Center - whether it's a state welcome center or one for a city, I see hundreds of brochures available for things to see and do - as well as commercial brochures for hotels, restaurants, etc.

Until I can visit all these sites and write articles on them all - which will take years - I decided I'd share the brochures at least. That way people looking for things to do and see from their home will have access to these brochures and can plan a trip before they even drive past a Welcome Center. (Although, as I repeatedly advise, it just makes sense to stop into Welcome Centers and talk with the volunteers and take advantage of their knowledge of the area, the state - and the real-time traffic problems you might encounter.)

Here are links to the Brochure Box brochures I've shared to date:

Dinosaurs

http://wyominginmotion.com/brochure-box-dinosaur-diamond-national-scenic-byway/
http://wyominginmotion.com/dinosaur-brochure-box-dinosaur-national-monument/

Colorado Cities
http://wyominginmotion.com/loveland-brochure-box-buckthorn-northern-railroad/ (Loveland)

Wyoming Cities

http://wyominginmotion.com/evanston-brochure-box-evanston-in-winter/ (Evanston)
http://wyominginmotion.com/evanston-brochure-box-evanston-in-winter/
http://wyominginmotion.com/brochure-box-evanston-mirror-lake-scenic-byway/
http://wyominginmotion.com/evanston-brochure-box-railroad-history/
http://wyominginmotion.com/evanston-brochure-box-summer-in-evanston/

Historical Markers at the Cheyenne Depot

The first few articles I wrote for the Wyoming in Motion web magazine focused on historical markers around Cheyenne.

I started with the batch at the Historic Cheyenne Depot.

http://wyominginmotion.com/cheyenne-historical-markers-at-the-cheyenne-depot-part-1/

http://wyominginmotion.com/cheyenne-historical-markers-at-the-cheyenne-depot-part-2/

Creating back links

I have two Facebook accounts. Quite by accident. I hadn't intended to, but when I got my second smartphone and started setting it up I wasn't sure if I could be logged into the same Facebook account - in order to upload photos and video in real time which is important for a travel blogger - so I just created a new account.

But as a result of having two accounts, I'm able to give myself two backlinks per Wyoming in Motion article published, because I share it on both accounts of course.

Each account is a legitimate account, I hasten to add. I used my real name and contact details. It's possible to hire people (at Fiverr.com, for example) to share your posts on their social media, but I don't have the means to do that and I don't want to, anyway.

I want to see how far I can take my social media and the Wyominginmotion.com travel webzine legitimately, without employing any tricks.

That's not to say I may not pay to advertise the site in future...I am undecided about that. Right now I'm still building up the article base and attempting to recruit other writers - which is proving to be harder than I expected.

I posted an ad in Craigslist and, before it was taken down for some reason that was never explained to me, got 3 responses. But when I sent the info they requested, and pointed out that it was an unpaid position, I never heard back from them.

Which is silly. These days - in fact, any days! - most people don't get paid for what they write. You do not get paid to write for a blog unless you are a big name and it is a big blog that can afford to do so!

But what you do get, by contributing to such sites as The Daily Meal, Senior 55 Plus, etc., is exposure. Then, when you approach a venue about sponsoring you for free for a meal or a room or even airline tickets, they see your portfolio online and they say, "Sure, here's your comped trip."

But if you have no portfolio, no clippings, that will never happen.

So it just makes sense to contribute articles to travel webzines, even if unpaid, because you're building your portfolio online. And the publishers of those travel webzines (like myself) will then work to approach people on your behalf to get you those comped trips.

It's a win-win!

Welcome Centers

I am catching up on some articles I should have written last month.

I love to stop in at Welcome Centers - whether for a state or a particular city - and pick up brochures and even souvenirs.

Some Welcome Centers, also called Visitors Centers, have small gift shops. That was the case with the Loveland Visitors Center and the Colorado Welcome Center in Loveland.

Others have displays of various aspects of the state- such as the Southeast Wyoming Welcome Center, situated just outside Cheyenne on I-25.

So here are the Welcome Centers I've done to date.

State Welcome Center - Colorado

• Colorado Welcome Center at Fort Collins

City Welcome Center - Colorado

• Loveland Visitors Center

State Welcome Center - Wyoming

• Southeast Wyoming Welcome Center

Book: The Organized Traveler

I've just started work on a book - more of a monograph, really - called The Organized Traveler.

One of the goals of Wyoming in Motion and this blog is to not only help tourists maximize their experiences, but also to help other aspiring travel bloggers to make their mark.

The Organized Traveler is therefore being written for two different types of audiences...we'll see if they mesh or if I end up breaking it into two different topics, one for each audience.

Cheyenne Little Theatre's Into the Woods

I went to the Musical Into the Woods last night, at the Mary Godfrey Playhouse here in Cheyenne.

The review is posted here:

http://wyominginmotion.com/cheyenne-little-theatres-into-the-woods/

Boating in Wyoming

A couple of days ago I had gone to the Southeast Wyoming Welcome Center to take some photos, and talked with the Wyoming Game & Fish representatives there who were conducting boat inspections.

Goal - keep quagga and zebra mussels and other invasive species out of Wyoming waters!

http://wyominginmotion.com/boating-in-wyoming-boat-inspections/

Restaurant Review: Renzios Greek Food in Cheyenne's Frontier Mall

I've been catching up on my restaurant reviews. I had a chicken gyro at Renzios Greek Food in Frontier Mall a few days ago - pretty sure it's the first time I've ever had a gyro.  I enjoyed it.

http://wyominginmotion.com/fast-food-review-rienzos-in-frontier-mall-cheyenne/

There are several fast food restaurants inside Frontier Mall, I'll be reviewing every single one.

I do restaurant reviews different than everyone else - or at least I attempt to do so. I still haven't gotten my Checklist down pat and forget to check out things I mean to include.

Women's Restrooms
The only restrooms I can check out, obviously!

I think people would be interested to know if the doors to the restroom are incredibly heavy - such that someone in a wheel chair or an elderly person could never get them open to begin with, let alone get them open to get back out! - or if there are no doors to have to deal with at all, which is usually the case when one is in a mall where there is unlimited space to provide a short "corridor" from the entry way into the bathroom itself so that people don't have to deal with doors and yet still have privacy.

What's Around the Restaurant
Is it in an area that just has office buildings, or are there other restaurants around it, or touristy spots to see.

And of course, appearance and cleanliness of the restaurant itself, whether or not the staff is friendly, and so on.

Manifesto - 7 May 2017

I am the publisher and chief writer of Wyoming in Motion (WyominginMotion.com).

In this blog, I'll be documenting the growth of Wyoming in Motion - which covers not only things to do and sites to see in Wyoming, but also in the states surrounding Wyoming - Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah and Idaho.

Goals are to:

1. Provide backlinks to Wyoming in Motion for SEO purposes.

2. Give a behind-the-scenes look at the life of a travel writer.

3. Share information about how to become a travel writer.