Fall means cooler temperatures and shorter days.

If you're like me, fall is your favorite season. I love all that fall brings, like cooler temperatures, pumpkins, falling leaves, the start of the holiday season, football, and more. I always feel like I'm coming alive in the fall after summer has beat me down with its heat.

Side note: I don't do well in the heat.

Woman hiking at Artist's Bluff in autumn
haveseen, ThinkStock Images
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But the approach of fall is always a sign that good things are coming. I've noticed a little difference in the way the air feels and how the light looks. I've also noticed that there is less light these day.

The days are getting shorter and if you've picked up on that, you are spot on. Of course, I did mention that the days were getting shorter to a friend the other day and she looked at me sideways. I guess I'm forever the fall optimist and I'm always looking for the first sign in the change of season.

Luckily, I have the National Weather Service to back me up.

fall leaves in idyllic landscape
winyuu, ThinkStock Images
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Recently, their branch in Fort Worth, Texas confirmed not just that there is less daylight each day, but we've already lost a lot of it. The summer solstice was on June 20. That was the longest day of the year and the one with the most amount of light. Since then, we've already lost one hour of daylight in each of our days.

This is happening all over the country.

Their findings were based on simply looking at sunrise and sunset times each day. These times are moving closer to each other the closer we get to fall. And currently it's an average of two minutes of daylight we're losing each day.

You can keep track of this yourself, if you wanted to. That way the next time you point out the shorter days and someone looks at you in a funny way, you'll have proof. For now, you can rest in the fact that I believe you and know exactly what you're talking about.

CLASSIC CHEYENNE: The Cole Shopping Center

In December of 2020, Blue Federal Credit Union completed its new headquarters at the corner of Converse and Pershing in Cheyenne. Well, it’s not so much a ‘corner’ as it is the smooth edge of a roundabout, but anyway. Before Blue FCU built its new campus, the site was at one time a premier shopping destination for Cheyenne. From the 1950s through 2016 it was Cheyenne's Cole Shopping Center.

Local businessman Frank Cole bought the land that would become a Cheyenne gathering place in the 1950s when the corner of Converse and Pershing was the edge of town. Starting in 1952, three different Safeway grocery stores called the Cole home over its half-century of existence.  A plethora of other stores served the neighborhood too. From the movie theater to Blockbuster; there was the Cole Department Store, the fabric store, the East Branch of the Carnegie Library, and so much more.

As Cheyenne grew and changed, the Shopping Center fell into decline. Stores closed and new ones didn't take their places. The anchor of the area, Safeway, closed for good in 2016 with much of the rest following. In 2018 the buildings were demolished and the new construction began. 

The Cole was so integral to the neighborhood that when we asked on social media for folks’ memories we were flooded with hundreds of responses. 

Check out many of those memories below, along with several pictures of the Cole Shopping Center, mostly from near the end in the twenty-teens.


How Many Medals Have Wyoming-Born Athletes Won at the Olympics?

Wyoming isn't represented on Team USA for the 2020 (in 2021) Olympics in Tokyo. But, athletes born in Wyoming have competed for the gold a handful of times over the last century.

According to the folks at BeenVerified.com, seven Wyoming-born Olympians have competed on the world's largest stage.

Since the 1932 LA games, these competitors earned four Olympic medals; one gold, two silver, and a bronze. Wrestling, Track and Field, and Rowing are the evens where Wyoming-natives have shined.



Wyoming Restaurants Featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives

It's hard not to take this a little personally. Guy Fieri of the Food Network's Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives has visited the Cowboy State a few times. Yet each time he stays close to Jackson. The show takes us on a culinary voyage across the U.S, but he's never stopped in Cheyenne, Casper, or even Chugwater.

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