Landing in Denver, Colorado, added another state to my US tally. The next morning, we picked up our hire car and set off on our three-week road-trip: first stop, Laramie, Wyoming, which immediately added my second new state. As we crossed the state line, we spotted a beautiful modern visitor centre which turned out to be one of the best I’ve ever visited. Not only did I get the chance to consign John to jail, about which he doesn’t look too happy, but I was also able to indulge my interest in women’s history.

Go to jail!

Women of Wyoming

Women of Wyoming were the first in America to be granted the right to vote – in 1869 – well before this became part of the US Constitution in 1920. When we got to Laramie, we discovered that the first woman to exercise that right, 70-year old Louisa Swain, did so there in 1870. The town is proud of this and commemorates Louisa with a statue and an entry in its sidewalk map.

“The Franchise” by John D. Baker

Sidewalk map

The building behind Louisa is Wyoming Women’s History house which we tried in vain to visit on the morning we left Laramie. The leaflet we picked up at the visitor centre said it opened at 10am, but the notice on the door said 11am and we didn’t have time to wait. Almost three weeks later, we passed through Laramie again  – only to find that the museum had closed for the season at the end of August, and by this time it was September. Foiled again!

However, we enjoyed walking round the town which was colourful and aromatic – check out the wall growing herbs. Also, if you enlarge the picture with the yellow awning you will see that it is a microbrewery called The Library. Along the awning it says “Don’t lie to your Mom. Tell her you’re at The Library”. A sense of humour too!

Library Microbrew

Johnson’s Hotel

Wine Bar

This wall grows food

Mural

Ghost sign

We stayed in a comfortable B&B called the Mad Carpenter Inn – when you see the pictures you’ll understand the name. Lawrence and Danny Rue were wonderful hosts and the breakfasts were delicious. Our room was a separate little cottage called The Dollhouse (seen with our hire-car outside it), which was great for my jetlag because I could go downstairs to sit and read without disturbing John. The stained glass panel is in the bedroom ceiling. If you ever go to Laramie, stay there!

Dollhouse

Dollhouse

Dollhouse

Dollhouse

Even better, I discovered that Laramie has an entirely vegetarian restaurant, Sweet Melissa. I hardly ever get to choose from the whole menu and, fortunately, John liked it as much as I did so we ate there both nights of our stay – and went back for lunch the day we passed through later in our trip.

Finally, Laramie is near great hiking trails which I’ll tell you more about in my next post. We left wishing we had more time there, but we said that nearly everywhere we went. The next question was always – what would we have cut out to compensate? To that we never had an answer. There’s always something to go back for!