Aug 19th

Bob and I took a ride up to the Snowy Range the other day. Our friend, Tom Craig, from Quartzsite is the campground host at Lincoln Park campground off the Snowy Range Road. As we were driving up there, we noticed closer to the top of the range, the beetle kill was playing havoc with the pine trees. Instead of the beautiful green trees, you will notice the brown infested trees.

Also, as we took off toward the campground we spotted this sign. There are a lot of moose in the area.

Further down the road, someone had decorated a pine tree with Christmas decorations. I thought it was a bright spot in the road for August.

Snowy range pictures!!!

Ron and Terry (hitchitch.com) came from Iowa and landed at Woods Landing on Friday night. We had them for supper last night, along with my folks from Cody. This morning, my folks and my sister and family from Laramie met me at the cafe here and we had a nice breakfast.

My family, left to right--Jim, Dave, Donna(sis), John, Shirley (mom)

We have been getting afternoon thundershowers almost every afternoon. Sure does cool it down nice after being in the 80's in the morning.

Aug 9th

Bob and I headed to Sidney, NE to shop at Cabela's last week. Bob got some fly fishing equipment (rotary vice, mag light, fly fishing vest), plus a few clothes. I got a couple of outfits too. We ran into a friend and took him to lunch. It was nice to see him. On the way home that afternoon, we encountered heavy rain. There was about 4" of standing water when we got back home.

A Wild West Relay happened over the weekend. 1320 runner ran from Ft. Collins, CO up over the mountain to hwy 230 and back down to Steamboat Springs thru Walden, CO. Our store at Woods Landing stayed open till 2:30am. The cafe and bar stayed open till a little after midnight. People flew in from Nevada, Michigan, Calif. and several other states.

Bob went with Justin, Karl and Charlie to a sporting clay shoot at a beautiful ranch on the North Platte River just north of Encampment. He won some wonderful door prizes. Best of all out of 100 shooters, Bob's group placed 1st!!! He was very happy. The night before they had a BBQ along with a calcutta.

My nephew, Barry, his wife Kerri and 2 children, Landon and Avery visited from Orlando, FL last week. They headed over to Yellowstone park to spend time with my other nephew Rob and his family, my sister, Donna, brother in law, Jim and nephew Dave. Barry and Kerri are expecting their 3rd child in November!

After heading back to Florida, Donna, Jim and Dave went onto Jackson Hole WY. They spend a few days hiking in the Tetons. After 10 days of enjoyment they are back in Laramie. They saw all the animals you could see in the parks, grizzly bear, black bear, elk, deer, buffalo, coyote and wolf. Quite an adventure for them.

George Eppler and his son Harley were guests at the campground. They have a business in Glendo WY. On this business trip, they headed up to Jelm Mountain and closed some abandoned copper and gold mines. They will be back later on this month to do more work. Here's a picture of George!

We are anxious to see Ron and Terry. We talked to them yesterday and they will be leaving Iowa next week to head west. They will spend a few days around our area.

If you ever go on the hwy 287 from Colo to Wyo (Ft Collins to Laramie) make sure you use the bathroom facilities before you stop at Tie Siding WY. We stopped there yesterday on our way back from Red Feather Lakes, CO and found out they charge 50 cents to use the restroom. What a ripoff!