Mile: 1,468
The Beartree Tavern and Cafe in Centennial, WY will forever hold a special place in my heart. After being in Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest for somewhere between 48 and 72 hours, cooking for myself, hiking, fishing, and being in the wilderness I was ready for a cold beer and a hot pizza. And to be brought to me at that. There’s something special about having a hot meal brought to you when you’ve been cooking/making everything you eat for 2-3 days straight breakfast, lunch and dinner. I left Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest and headed back south to Centennial. When I passed through the town a few days before at 10:00pm there was one bar with an, “OPEN” sign out front. It had two signs. One said, “OPEN” and the other said, “BAR”. But I passed by it and didn’t stop since I didn’t know where I was going to be sleeping that night I figured I should probably press on. But on this night I was not going to pass it. In fact, that was my one destination. Hot pizza and a cold beer. Little did I know that was going to lead me to a 3am morning. Which frankly, is outrageous. I haven’t seen 3am in years. I mean, years.
This good ole boy from Kansas sits down next to me, Josh is his name. “Hey my name is Mason, are you from these parts?” I start out. “No sir, I’m from Kansas, and tonight I don’t have kid duty.” He said back. I started to wonder why he mentioned kid duty in the first sentence of conversation but I soon found out why. “Tonight is my one night of freedom on this trip. My wife and I have five kids, and my best friend is with us and they have four kids. That’s NINE kids under the age of eleven. Tonight the ladies are watching them, tomorrow, I have all nine.” He took a sip of his beer. Ahhh it made sense now. I have watched four kids by myself before and the oldest was ten years old and was already taking care of smoke of the mom duties of her siblings. I can’t imagine nine kiddos. Geez. But Josh is a buck farmer. I find out he is responsible for raising big bucks for a few farms in southern Kansas. In fact, I learnEd more about Kansas that night than I’ve ever known. It seems he was pretty proud of his state. Hey, I don’t blame him. Anytime you’re from a state that catches some flack for one reason or another you have to be the one that brags about it.
Then next to Josh was Bill. Bill is what you may call, a character. He has four teeth, hair like Doc Brown from Back To The Future, and keeps talking about his years living on Venice Beach in California. My first take of Bill is that he used to play in a band that made it to the mid levels but not big enough to not sleep in your van when you go on tour. Hey trust me, I’m not judging, I’m living in a van for goodness sake. So his band played around the US and took him all over but never made the big times. But that said, Bill kept mentioning his paintings. Yes, his paintings. “You’ll like my portraits I’ve done, you should come check them out.” He kept saying. The bar tending giving us side glances motioning, “no, don’t do it.” So Josh and I kept changing the subject anytime it came it. I think if you had the time, Bill could share some stories that would make you think you had entered an alternate universe. He was something else.
Then we had Alma. Alma Russ. When I walked into the bar / restaraunt she was up on stage playing her guitar and singing. Then she was playing her banjo and singing. And at some point even the fiddle came out. After her set she came and sat down next to us. A true southern bell. She was from North Carolina and drove out to Oregon playing music and to find adventure.
It wasn’t long till Bill said something unsavory towards Alma and the way she responded I just knew that she knew Jesus. I didn’t say anything for a while but it was just one of those things that you can tell. We laughed and told stories until we closed the bar down. Maybe better said, Josh closed the car down and we were along for the ride. Josh was running the show and at times it seemed like he was the only one in the show. He was the opening act, the main show, and the closing act. One of a kind he was. After a while the Beartree closed up and we headed to the “local” place called the Trading Post. There a couple musicians were taking their turns grabbing the guitar and playing a few songs. Alma was cheered to the stage by all eight of us and she took her turn as well. Nights like that will not be long forgotten. Such a memorable night in a podunk mountain bar in Wyoming with some live music. Good times.
Somehow before long it was 3am and WELL past my bedtime. Alma was traveling in her Prius. Impressive with all the storage space those are! She had her instruments and belongings for two months in that thing. Blew my mind. She pulled up behind me in the parking lot in the back of a bed and breakfast there in Centennial and we were car camping neighbors for the evening. After we made coffee and breakfast the next morning she headed south and I headed north. And there the end of Centennial came to be.
Hang out with some of the local musicians and I feel you’ll get to know a town much deeper than you would just passing through.
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