Overall a friendly community and for me the re-opened motel was fine.
Interesting history behind the town. It was incorporated in the 50s and served as a base for uranium miners. When I was there in ‘00 you could still see the army barracks-like housing where some miners lived. The town started to go down hill when the uranium market crashed in the early 80s.
I spent time in that bar talking to a one-legged woman whose husband had worked in the industry. She said they moved there because people were promised jobs for life. At one point a man wearing dirty coveralls stumbled in drunk, bought more beer then stumbled out and got back in his truck.
The wind there can definitely be brutal. While walking from the motel to get lunch I felt like I was leaning at a 45 degree angle to keep from getting blown over. A local told me it wasn’t even that strong that day.
As for the church, several years ago someone from the church posted on ACA’s forum announcing it would no longer host people. The woman declined to say exactly what happened, but some cyclists committed some serious rules violations one night. It was really sad. She basically wrote “We had only a few simple rules, but those people couldn’t follow them.” It may be that the place has since started hosting again because I seem to remember reading a post from someone who stayed there after the incident. Or maybe a different church started hosting.