wyoming, windy

With the upcoming caucus/convention in Wyoming only three weeks in the distance, a long-time friend and I found our way up to Cheyenne, WY to lend a hand to the newly opened Obama campaign office. This is a state in which the democratic party was so broke that they couldn't afford a venue large enough to hold the caucus. Money was, however, no object at the grand-opening of the office when 60 or so people pulled together a little over $2,000 in under five minutes. After the convention center was booked, people signed up to volunteer and gone home, the campaign office felt more like a mountain town in Colorado. Every vehicle parked in the front was a Subaru with Colorado license plates and Obama stickers

It seems I am striking out big time when it comes to picking travel destinations as of late. Cheyenne is the antidenver if ever there was one. The entire state of Wyoming has fewer residents than Denver alone. While knocking on doors and visiting with randoms, we encountered hundreds of locals, yet we encountered no more than six or so folks in their early twenties. After spending a few hours downtown it became painfully clear why we were hard-pressed to find many people under the age of 35. The cultural scene is abysmal. The coffee shops close at four p.m. A local bar had the weather channel playing. The thrift stores were lacking. Even as the state's capitol, Cheyenne is more bucolic than it is urban and more small town than it is big city.

This is not to say that Wyoming is all bad. People need a place to call home when they retire and this state is a tax haven (there is no state income tax and sales tax is just four percent).

The exodus of young people aside, these people have some character. Harp playing pseudo-scientist Michael Riversong lives about an hour outside of Cheyenne and rents an office out of the same building as the Obama campaign. Rancher Don produced some of the most lucid statements I have heard regarding politics in a while. Keith, a 40 some year old member of the Unitarian church is delving into the world of home music recordings. Katherine, a recent implant from Texas can not live without her NPR. No matter the locale, people in Wyoming have just as much to bring to the table as anywhere.