Coal Creek Coffee Company - Laramie, WY

We left Denver with tears in our eyes, and enough food in our laps to feed us for the rest of the week, thanks to Mama Caroline. Carl’s tears were most likely from his allergies, but mine were genuine. Luckily, the road to Laramie was distracting enough to take our minds off of what we left back in Colorado.

There are 2 main routes from Denver to Laramie (we were told), and our GPS directed us on the most scenic of the two (thank you, Garmin!). For most of the drive, we crept up and down hilly terrain with the Rockies in full view. For us Midwestern kids, gaping at the mountain range was as enthralling as finding a zipper is to an Amish kid. We just couldn’t stop looking.

We pulled into Laramie in the mid-afternoon, and headed directly to Coal Creek Coffee Co., the venue of the evening, to take a peek at how the room was set up. We were greeted by an enthusiastic barista pulling shots from an espresso machine that looked older than the industrial revolution.

We indulged in some non-caffeinated tea (since we knew we’d have an early start the next morning, and wanted to get a good night’s rest) while longingly gazing at that espresso machine, and we spread ourselves out at a window-side table.

My eyes may have wandered onto a street sign propped right outside of the window, and this is what I spotted:

Quality spelling for a quality musician. The funniest thing about this sign is that on the other side, my name was spelled right. Maybe they were just trying to cover all of their bases, like those who pronounce Missouri as "Mizz-er-uh" in one sentence, then "Mizz-or-ee" in the next... I don't know.

After a few hours of solid work and reading, we ventured over to our hosts' home for the evening, Renee and Matt. Matt was watering the lawn while his son Emmitt ran the length of the yard a few times as we walked up to say hello. We were welcomed into their lovely two-story home and promptly greeted by a friendly dog (they were just babysitting the nice pup for the week), along with Matt’s wife Renee. Renee introduced us to their adorable daughter Julep, but Julep wasn’t in the mood for socializing, so the two of them scooted off to a quiet room for a while. We sat on a comfy vintage couch in their living room, and engaged in delightful conversation with them, learning a little bit more about Laramie and the eclectic crowd that has migrated to the University town. We couldn’t chat for too long however, because Jubilee Days (the biggest and best festival to happen in Laramie during the summer) and our café show awaited.

The show that evening went well. It started raining right as I strummed my first chord, so the rain pushed a fair amount of people into the little café. From that point on, the crowd size stayed consistently large as people trickled in and out over the course of the evening.

Coal Creek Coffee Company supplied a photographer for the event, who ended up taking some fantastic photos. As a fellow red-head, I had an instant affection for her. It’s just something that happens with us red-heads. I like to call it "the red-head connection." It’s a deep understanding of another person’s childhood without even knowing them; it’s an ability to look at someone, and know right away that they’ve been the brunt of many-a middle-school joke, countless-a high-school prank, and even through adult life, the continuous subject of distasteful stereotypical comments. OK, so maybe I’m blowing that entirely out of proportion, but I can honestly say that fellow-ginger Faith took some stellar pictures. She currently runs a photography company called Honey Bee Photography (check it out here), and as a small business loan officer, it was wonderful to listen to her story of how she fell into the field, how she decided to register her business, and has near-future plans of hiring staff. She’s energetic, passionate about her work, and delivers a fantastic product quicker than the average event photographer. Carl and I were shown the pictures that were taken that very evening as they were being published on her Facebook page, only moments after the show was finished. If you’re in the Laramie, WY area and you’re in the market for a high-quality photographer with Midwestern charm you can’t deny, look no further than Honey Bee Photography.

Here are a few shots from that evening:

We packed up and called it a night after attempting to give captions to Faith's photographs, something which she insisted upon. We headed back to Matt's and Renee’s, tip-toed straight to our pillows, and instantly lost consciousness. We were only able to keep the dreadful thoughts of our 5:30 AM start-time the next morning at bay for an hour or two, before the nightmares of sleep-deprived drivers embarking on an 11 hour drive arose, accompanied by the sound of our alarm clocks.

Driving Music:
Bon Iver - Bon Iver, Bon Iver
Bowerbirds - Upper Air
Blind Pilot - Daytrotter Session