A Wyoming Reception (Part III)

Oh yes. I'm back with one more installment of the Wyoming reception. I thought I was done, but then I decided I had better fill you in on a few more details of Centennial and the surrounding area. I hope you don't mind.

(Even if you do, I'm still writing this post. So there.)

On Sunday morning, after a tasty breakfast at the Mountain View Hotel and lots of goodbyes, the folks that were left split up. One crowd went up the mountain for some snowshoeing. The other crowd, including Bentley the best bulldog ever, moseyed on down the street to the Beartree Tavern.


Only it wasn't open yet, so they moseyed back to the Mountain View, picked up a cooler, and went back to sit on the Beartree deck and enjoy a few beverages until the bar actually opened. (You can spot them moseying behind the Trading Post Saloon sign if you look closely. Bentley is leading the way, but he's white so he's rather hard to spot.)

This is how we do in Wyoming, folks.

The snowshoeing adventure was a brief one, but it was a gorgeous day. Uncle H and Auntie R tried snowshoeing for the first time (apparently, they don't have many opportunities to snowshoe in Georgia—who knew?). My Dad, My Mom, and Auntie L are snowshoeing pros.


It was a beautiful trek. The only bummer was that at the elevation we were at, a lot of the trees have been hit by bark beetles. The beetles kill pines by boring into them to feed and reproduce. The good news is that the infestation may be slowing in this part of the state. The bad news is that it's slowing because the beetles are running out of trees.

But enough depressing talk. Let's get back to the fun.

Once the snowshoeing adventure was over, we headed back down the hill to Centennial. Thankfully, the bar was open, so the crowd had moved inside and forsaken their cooler.


There were a few locals there (who had actually been at the Trading Post Saloon the night before and were quite the characters), but mostly we had the place to ourselves. So we fired up the jukebox and got rowdy the way you get rowdy on a Sunday afternoon in a Wyoming town of 80-some people.

I found the trip to the Beartree to be rather educational too. For instance, did you know you can't have fireworks in the building? Who knew. And bears are dangerous. This is very important.


To protect yourself, the owners recommend learning about the differences between grizzly and black bears. I took notes.


One last thing I must tell you about the Beartree. When you go (you're going to Centennial soon, right?) you must try the green chile pizza. That is all.

Now say goodbye to Centennial, for real this time.