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.
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| The line at 9:40 am. |
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| 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 |
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| 48 people allowed on each bus |
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| 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.
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| Decanting from the bus and heading into another line to get into Frontier Park |
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!
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