A Long Day in the Smith Sherlock Company Store and Cowfish for Dinner

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Cowfish Restaurant in Lander, Wyoming 
Our favorite restaurant in Lander.

Today started off as most days do, with Gator and I taking sarsaparilla over to the Miner's Exchange Saloon. Then, to the archives. I spend one morning a week inventorying files in the archive. I select a file and enter various pieces of information into an MS Word document. Eventually, the information will be used to populate a database. Today is a slog. Most of what I entered were letters written to and from one individual. Here is the problem.  Almost all, of these letters will also be in files devoted to the persons writing or receiving these letters. Once the database is populated, these will be duplicate records and deleted.  Oh, well.

At noon, I opened the Smith Sherlock Company Store. There were two people standing in front of the store, reading the descriptive material in the window, so we all went in together. Early in the afternoon, a young girl walked into the store, came up to me and asked my name. I told her my name and then asked her's- Calissa. She then started describing the store and its contents to me. She had been on a school tour of the store last year, in 4th grade. A couple of minutes later, her grandparents walked in and she gave them a tour. The saw that there were other children panning for gold in Willow Creek, across the road, and ran off. I gave her grandparents a bit more information about the store. 

The day was modestly busy. but from 1:30 until close to 3:00, no one was about the site. I relaxed and read. We had a nice rain shower, which cooled things down a bit, then the clouds departed, the sun came out, and the humidity jumped up a bit. The late afternoon was quite a bit warmer than the early afternoon. 

From 3:00 to 4:00 there was a steady stream of visitors, but no big rush. A little before 4:00, a couple came in who were interested in some of the items on the shelves, so I told them a few "stories" behind the brands. While I was speaking with them, a lone visitor came in at 3:58, and listened to my conversation with the couple, who left about 5 or 6 minutes after 4:00,. But my late visitor just hung around. I spoke with him a bit, but he was awkwardly silent, then would get talkative, then silent. We finally ended up outside the store at about 4:30 and I locked the store. He was not yet ready to move on. Connie had come by to see why I was late and we sat outside the store with our visitor. 

While we were there, another visitor came by and looked into the store windows. I told him I could let him in for a few minutes. He was glad to get the chance to take a few pictures inside. "Take pictures? That's a great idea," exclaimed my new best friend. So, into the store he went. Connie and I sat outside. After about 12 minutes I went in. My friend not only had an even newer best friend, but he was giving the other guy a bit of a tour of the store and telling the stories he had heard me tell earlier. By body language, I kind of let them know it was time to move on. The late visitor saw this as a chance to escape his new best friend and he did so. Everybody's best friend followed him out. I locked the door and Connie and hurriedly walked off before conversation could start. I enjoy talking with visitors, even this guy was fine, just a little awkward and evidently lonely, but I really wasn't interested in seeing how much longer he might go. Plus, I had eaten my lunch a bit early and I could tell my blood sugar was low- I get a bit cranky.

In all, 38 people and two dogs visited the store. Today was notable for the number of people who expressed a lot of interest in, and appreciation for, the exhibit.

Back to the trailer! Connie and I changed and then drove over to Atlantic City to get supper. The Grubstake was closed for a private event and the Mercantile was open only for reservations. So, off to Lander. Heading out, we saw eight pronghorn antelope in the sweet clover fields I stopped at and photographed last week. We went to the Cowfish, a restaurant/brewery that we like. Dinner and a couple of beers and things were much better.

After dinner, we stopped by Safeway to buy a few things so that I would not need to come into town tomorrow. Then, we drove back to SPC and did a little reading.  

 

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