Sunday Road Trip Up I-25
My wife and I decided that we were going to explore our newly adopted state yesterday and took the opportunity to drive a couple hours north up I-25. Part of our decision was due to wanderlust and not knowing what was north of where we have lived for four months, and the other part was...we knew there was a brewery in Douglas Wyoming, so hey, why not?
We left a little later than we had originally planned, not blaming my wife, but she works late usually on Saturday nights, so the extra sleep she got was necessary. We had planned on stopping by Fort Laramie on the way back, but due to the late start, and a couple of other encounters, we weren’t able to make it on this trip.
As we drove north on I-25, the terrain from Cheyenne changes drastically. As we made it about 45 mins, we found how different Chugwater looks. The range there was so different looking, as a Kentucky native, and someone who has lived on the east coast my whole life, it was exciting to see. Further north we made it past Glendo and saw a beautiful body of water that we had missed seeing, growing up on the Ohio River.
We turned off the exit to Douglas Wyoming. As we made our way off the exit, we were greeted by two antelope eating grass next to the road, near a gas station. We drove through the cute town to their downtown area to find the brewery that both Google and Facebook had assured was there. Unfortunately, the door was locked as we reached the front door of HeadStrong Brewery was not opened. My wife, savvy with her Iphone, checked Facebook and informed me that we were two hours early.
With our trip altered, we decided to grab lunch, being Sunday, a lot of businesses were closed, so we decided to check out the Plains Motel & Trading Post. The building was very rustic and made you feel like you were in the West more than I’ve felt since moving here. The menu had information about the founding of Douglas, which was pretty cool to read!
After lunch, we still had an hour to burn, so we decided to head to Glenrock and check out Cowboy State Brewing. We’ve had their beers from spots in Laramie, but wanted to try it straight from the source. Glenrock is a very small town if you’ve never ventured there, we followed Google Map's instructions but were not able to find the brewery! No signage or anything! Did we just strike out again on getting a local brew? We could see three fermenting tanks that seemed to belong to the brewery, so we knew it had to be in this liquor store building. We parked the car and walked in a side door, on entry, there was a partitioned wall that separated the liquor store from a bar. We walked around looking for a taproom that wasn’t there, just a small bar area with a pool table and dart boards. I peeked through a door and saw beer brewing equipment. As I was spying, a small woman spoke up, “Can I get you anything?” So we sat and enjoyed a beer and couldn’t quite wrap our heads around what we were seeing. Most breweries have distinctive tap rooms, so this was different.
We made it back to Douglas for the opening of HeadStrong Brewery. This place looked like a brewery, or what you would more expect one to look like. We talked to one of the owners, Renee, she and her husband own the place, she showed us only two of their beers on tap, with a bunch of guest beers. Renee said that due to Covid, they were shut down for a couple of months, and they haven’t been able to get their grains that they use, which come from Europe. We tried both of the beers they did have on tap, and I’ll tell you this much, look for the review I’ll put out later this week. They make really good beer. More on that later.
So, we made our trip back home, looking at the different terrains all the way back to the front range. It’s really fun to be a tourist in your own state, and seeing things that you’d otherwise not get to see, due to a little Wanderlust.
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