Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Plains Hotel, Cheyenne Wyoming

This past weekend in Colorado and the West we experienced the spring snow storm. The weekend of April 18th was fun and exciting. Where I live in Colorado, there was very little snow. However I just had to travel a few miles north and I was able to see the snow in all its glory and splendor. So what does the snow storm have to do with the Plains Hotel? Plenty!

The murder mystery we were to have performed at the Briarhurst on April 18th, here in Colorado Springs was cancelled due to the weather. That was not the case with the murder mystery taking place in Cheyenne. Fortunately the roads were passable on the 19th and with the exception of the "white out" due to snow, rain and back splash, the trip to Cheyenne was fairly uneventful. It took about three hours to make the trek. When we were outside of Ft. Collins the roads were dry and the ground green. Going up in altitude the ground again became covered with the white stuff. Absolutely beautiful. We arrived in Cheyenne at the Plains at about 4pm. That gave us time to review the script and get into costume.

The murder mystery was a new one for Red Herring. It was a script I wrote based upon a fictional murder that took place just prior to the sinking of the Titanic. We were blessed with the addition of Margaret Browns' great grand daughter who also performed in the show. Helen understandably took the part on Mrs. Brown. What a great job she did on such a short time for rehearsal.

The Plains is a historic hotel in downtown Cheyenne with great character. The service was wonderful and if I had closed the blinds in the bath room I would have been able to sleep past sunrise. Oh well! (The sun came in through the window which faced east. I could have closed the bathroom door a bit more also.)

The show concluded on Sunday morning with the guests arriving at the solution as to who was the actual murderer. By this time the sun had arrived and the snow was melting. Melting except of course where my car had been parked the afternoon before. Fortunately the two gentlemen who were riding back to Colorado Springs with me were able to give my little car a push and we were off and driving. The return trip took slightly over two and a half hours at which point I arrived home, fed the pets and headed back to Denver (Just east of Golden) to do yet another murder mystery.

All in all a great weekend, with a chance to meet many wonderful people and hear their stories. There was also a lot of drive time, which for me is think time. I worked through thoughts for the upcoming newsletter in my head and tried to stay awake. Since this is being written I was successful in that endeavor. When the issue of the newsletter comes out, we will see how successful that was.


3 comments:

Mary E. Trimble said...

Doris - It sounds like a wonderful weekend and one that encourages creativity.

Write on!

Mary Trimble

Anonymous said...

Mary, what a terrific experience, and you're courageous to brave the snow, but then you folks out in the Rockies are accustomed to snow, I reckon.
I know you must enjoy getting into these mystery weekends. Like living in a book.

Anonymous said...

What a fun adventure! Your performance sounds wonderful--you are so good at that!

Heidi
http://heidiwriter.wordpress.com