Happy Hour in Wyoming was just confirmation that pretty much all there is to do in Wyoming is drink or wander around the mountains. During winter, Wyomingites tend to turn more toward the booze than the great outdoors, unless they are off snow-mobiling, hunting or ice-fishing… come to think of it, booze are involved in these activities as well, so winter basically just equals booze.

Friday happy hour was the most celebrated, and at a time in my life where I found myself limited on friends, I thought I might find at least a short conversation or two down at what was, pretty much, the only bar in Lander, the Lander Bar.
It was late October, and the weather was what Texans would consider to be completely inhospitable, but for Wyomingites meant we started to throw an extra layer or two on. I ordered a burger and a beer as soon as I walked into the crowded bar and sat at a wooden table. Eating and drinking, I watched as the crowd mingled when I saw a man at a high top table with a wool vest, bright red wild rag and a little red healer dog labeled ‘service animal’  at his feet. He was seated with his long hair spilling from beneath his cowboy hat to his shoulders as he hunched over, sketching the cover image of a Western Horseman magazine of a man on a bucking horse.

I thought, “I bet this guy could tell some stories.”

He just sat there quietly  working on his sketch while his dog lay asleep at the base of his stool. I finished my burger and hauled by beer to the back patio for a cigarette. We had a pretty nice little snow and it seemed to suit the beer choice I had made. The stranger artist strolled up with his dog and as he got his cigarette lit, I said to him, “Hey man, those are some cool boots.”

He looked over, somewhat noncommittally and said, “Thanks, got ’em in San Angelo, from a place called Leddy’s.”
M.L. Leddy’s is one of the finest boot makers in the country, and for a rather homeless looking cowboy artist to own a pair, as well as have what I had just recently noticed to be a total of about 4 teeth, was surprising, yet intriguing.

“No shit!” I replied, “I’m from a place near San Angelo and I had a pair of ML Leddy’s too, until a dog ate ’em, by the way I like your dog!”

He introduced himself as Austin, then to his dog, Delilah, who wasn’t really a service animal he told me, he said he’s just been in jail less often since he put that “service dog” badge on her, with no further details. He told me he was a traveling artist, mainly based out of Colorado and invited me over to his table to show off his artwork, which I accepted. His sketch work was all very Western, mostly livestock imagery or portraits, a lot of them were of the bar scenes that he was sitting at and observing. He sat at bars to solicit interest from nosy passers like me who have literally no filter as to who they will and will not speak with. Austin would engage people like me in conversation with a practiced heir of odd stories while asking for beer in a sort of panhandler kind of way. “I’m low on cash, gotta pay my phone bill, couldya buy me a beer or two?” He drew with a Bic pen and was like an alcoholic cowboy savant, he could take one look at the entire room and draw it to almost perfect detail. He even showed off a bar scene that had been framed atop the liquor shelf in the Lander Bar from a few years back.
“So how long have you been in Lander?” I asked, as there was practically a siren that goes off when a newcomer arrives in town, everyone knows within a few days.