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The road from Lander to Cheyenne is about 275 miles long and
we were on our fifth trip recently in a month on that route.
During the
winter, I favor the northern route through
Riverton-Shoshoni-Casper-Douglas-Wheatland-Cheyenne. It takes about 40 minutes longer but I get to
avoid the fun weather events at Beaver Rim, Muddy Gap, Separation Flats, Elk
Mountain, and the Summit. Plus I am not
sharing the ice-packed highway with 10,000 semi-trailer trucks.
But I digress.
On this latest
trip, the wind was blowing near 70 mph between Wheatland and Cheyenne and it
felt like a hurricane.
Wheatland is
one of our favorite towns and we stopped at Interstate Conoco to drop off some
books. Brian and his staff do a great job selling all sorts of wonderful
products. We had a nice lunch at Western
Skies restaurant next door, meanwhile looking out the window at the swirling
wind.
Once in Cheyenne,
Nancy and I attended a couple of legislative receptions and caught up with some
of our state’s lawmakers.
Sen. Eli
Bebout (R-Riverton) joked that he was convening a meeting of cancer survivors
when he was chatting with Sen. Cale Case (R-Lander), Rep. Jeff Wasserburger
(R-Gillette) and Sen. Michael Von Flatern (R- Gillette) at a get-together at
the Old West Museum, sponsored by the Wyoming Education Association. Case runs
a hotel restaurant operation in Lander. Eli operates an energy company with his
brother Nick in Riverton. Von Flatern operates an airplane charter service in
Gillette.
Bebout has
recovered from bouts of throat cancer and esophageal cancer. Case is in remission from a bout of melanoma
from a few years ago. Wasserburger is responding well to treatment for lung
cancer. He never smoked and said his
treatment is going well. When not being a legislator, Wasserburger is the
principal of the largest junior high school in Wyoming in Gillette. Von Flatern
had prostate cancer but is doing fine now, he says.
Nancy and I
were attending the annual Governor’s Tourism Conference, the biggest event of
the year for the state’s second largest industry.
I have been attending this event for 30 years.
The Newest trends are the emphasis on digital marketing and how the whole world
is a market.
Had a nice
chat with former legislator Pete Illoway and his wife Chloe. At 78, Pete looks hale and hearty.
Two of my
favorite people are Sen. Hank Coe (R-Cody) and long-time tourism activist Kari
Cooper of Jackson. They recently got
married and carry on a long-distance relationship.
Lander is 160
miles from both Jackson and Cody so Hank and Kari get together an often as
possible in my hometown.
The venerable
Sen. Charlie Scott (R-Casper) took issue with my question about increasing
transparency in Wyoming government. He said legislators have gotten pushback
from smaller governmental entities that contend they cannot afford to comply
with requests about their financial affairs.
I told Sen. Scott
other states have systems where this does not require special effort. What
Wyoming needs is a culture where all things are already transparent. This is
good government.
Chris Brown
does good work as the main lobbyist for the tourism industry. This industry is going through its most
dramatic transformation when it comes to funding its national and international
advertising and promotion campaigns.
For decades,
the Department of Tourism has been funded directly from the general fund. Now a program is being considered that will
call for a five percent statewide lodging tax, which will generate around $14
million per year to promote Wyoming tourism. As I write this, it looks like
this great program will pass.
Enjoyed eating
a meal with Doug and Kathleen Campbell of Saratoga. They won the Big WYO award
last year and are long-time tourism promoters as owners of the historical Wolf
Hotel. Congratulations to this year’s winner, Rick Hoeninghausen, who heads up
marketing for Xanterra, the Yellowstone Park concessionaire.
Tom Hirsig,
the CEO of Cheyenne Frontier Days, was there promoting his event. It will celebrate its 125th
anniversary in 2021.
Wendy Volk was
beaming. Her project is promoting the
new Cheyenne-Dallas air service. We flew
that service over the holidays. It was convenient and a great deal.
Rachel Girt, the
new communications director for Gov. Mark Gordon, was coordinating his visit
with tourism folks.
Sen. Ogden
Driskill (R-Devils Tower) was holding court. As vice-president of the State
Senate, he has a lot of responsibility and says the session has been busy.
I love
visiting Cheyenne, especially during legislative sessions. You can just feel the energy. Nothing quite
like that pulse.
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