Where the Wild West runs rampant

If you’ve ever wondered if time travel is possible, look no further. Buffalo, Wyoming holds a secret key to the past that only the wayward traveler gets to experience. This town is where the Wild West runs rampant — you can feel yourself step back in time the minute you step foot on Main Street.

To get there, be sure not to blink too fast while driving past it on I-25 because you just might miss it. It seems to be quite content resting in the shadow of its ritzier, big sister city Sheridan, Wyoming (just 36 miles to the north). The wide open spaces in front of and behind you will surely make you think you’re in the middle of nowhere. But that’s just the thing — you’re not in the middle of nowhere. You’re right at the base of the Bighorn Mountains and you have access to some of the best outdoor recreation in the entire state of Wyoming.

Buffalo’s “off-the-beaten-track” allure keeps the “on-the-beaten track” tourists at bay. It makes more room for those of us who want room to breathe and a whole new kind of experience that you can only find in Wyoming. I'm just fine keeping it that way.

Our most recent stay in Buffalo was a Friday night layover before embarking on a backpacking trip to Cloud Peak Wilderness. We wanted to show our out-of-towner friends from California what quintessential Wyoming is like without all the touristy hullaballoo. Boy, did we deliver.

The real coup-de-grace of our time in Buffalo was enjoying the evening at the Occidental Hotel and Saloon. Forget the Old West you’ve come to know from Hollywood. This was a remnant of the real thing.

I bet in the Old Timey days people drank just as much whiskey as these two.

I wish I could say we stayed at the hotel but alas, summer is peak season so the prices were astronomical. Instead, we made our way to the saloon portion of the Occidental and put a pretty good dent in our trip budget with a helluva bar tab. But it was worth it.

My favorite thing about the Occidental (other than the lady bartender who's just as drunk as her patrons) is that the whole thing is fully restored to its Old West glory. Walking through the front doors is like being transported back in time — you can almost hear the player piano and smell the whiskey in the air. There are even gunshot holes still in the walls from the days when the West really was “wild.”

Aside from the booze, the best part of our visit to the saloon was the the Bittercreek Band. These guys play every Friday and Saturday night and are every bit as good as a professional band from Nashville. There’s never a cover and you can drink/eat yourself into a coma if you really want. And the local residents really know how to dance so it's worth the watching.

People know how to get down and boogie in Buffalo.

All in all, the experience was a good reminder as to why we ditched the hullaballo of California for the down home goodness of Wyoming. I look forward to heading back to beautiful Buffalo again someday. Maybe next time we can get a taste of the “Bordello” room at the hotel and cap it off with a T-bone steak at the Virginian.

If music be the food of love, play on

I've started my hand at writing for a local travel blog with the intent of it lighting a fire under my ass to write more for this one. Not sure how long I'll keep up with it but we shall see! So if you notice a slight change in tone to some of these posts, don't worry. I may add back in some of the flair (read: expletives) from my usual style of writing. For now, here goes contribution #1 that was published on the Wyoming In Motion web magazine a few days ago...


With a well-established live music scene just south of us in Colorado, Wyoming is starting to develop its own brand of music for those in search of something fresh and markedly different. There are several well-trafficked events throughout the summer (see Wyoming Public Radio's 2017 lineup here). There is so much music to choose from and so few weekends to fit them all in, so this year I'll have the fortune of sampling from some of the state's lesser known festivals. I'm setting up in hopes of getting up-close and personal to some amazing artists from near and far -- and hopefully right in our backyard.


The Roaming Buffalo Music Festival in Casper (coming up August 12-13) is one of my targets this year. Bret and I stumbled across the inaugural festival in 2015 on a whim. After hearing that some of our favorite musicians were playing there, we packed up the car and the dogs last minute and ventured up to Casper to see just how easy it would be to crash a two-day music festival. We were surprised to find that the Roaming Buffalo was way more accessible than we had thought. It has a strong draw of talented musicians from a wide spectrum of genres including bluegrass, folk and americana. Moreover, it was easy to get to, the acoustics were great, and we ended up having such a great time that we vowed to go back if they decided to keep it going.

This year I'm happy to report that the emerging music scene is alive and well in the heart of Wyoming. Just like what we found in 2015, Casper is popping with new kinds of music venues. If you're tired of the usual 80's cover band in some dingy dive bar you can be rest assured there are pretty neat options off the beaten path in Casper.

One such place is the Keg and Cork, an Irish pub in East Casper. From the looks of it you wouldn't think they'd be a good venue for live music. Surprisingly, there's an entire outdoor stage setup in the back complete with two-level seating.

In June the Keg and Cork hosted a heckuva lineup as a "teaser" for this year's upcoming Roaming Buffalo Music Festival. We were drawn there to see the headliner who is a musician that came out to play at the festival in 2015 and absolutely killed it. (check out Joseph Huber. He's originally from Milwaukee who was first branded as "insurgent underground country and bluegrass" but has eventually evolved to have a sound unique and all his own. He usually plays throughout the country for pretty affordable ticket prices.)

It was a great show. Not only were we able to see Joseph Huber perform for free, we were easily able to get front row seats to enjoy the view. The Keg and Cork has a pretty widely ranged menu lined to the brim with the full spectrum of food, beer, wine, whiskey and cocktails. Needless to say, we ended the night fat and happy (the Moscow mules are robust as they come -- I highly recommend them as long as you're ok putting your driver's license down as a deposit for the copper mug). All in all, it was a great Friday night and I'm looking forward to more music later this summer...