X-Country Skiing in the Big Horns

Last weekend Bruce and I and several of our friends from Cody (Val and Lee Haines, Kathy and Howard Thompson, and Wendy Schneider) drove two hours east to The Passage Resort just south of Burgess Junction in the Big Horn National Forest. As you can tell from the pictures, the weather was gorgeous all weekend (high 50s). We hadn't realized that the resort was a veritable magnet for snowmobilers--there were hundreds of machines zipping all around the lodge. I've never been a fan of snowmobiles (noisy and invasive), but everyone we met was very friendly and chatty. We took to the snow (some of us not as smoothly as others) for several hours Saturday morning after water aerobics in the indoor pool led by Val and a huge buffet breakfast. I and two others turned back when the going got too hilly...I hadn't been on a pair of cross-country skis in 20 years and felt that sticking to the flats was much safer for life and limb (I could also get out of the way of snowmobiles more quickly should one come too close, which fortunately didn't happen). After naps and reading, we all gathered again on one of the decks in the sun for drinks and snacks. At 4:45p we headed down the mountain to Shell (about 30 miles) for dinner at the Trapper Creek Lodge. Terrific setting and meal. Bruce was designated driver so limited his alcoholic intake to one small glass of Coppola Claret. When we arrived back at the resort we played some board games...with much hilarity and more wine, finally calling it quits at 10:30p we were all so tired. Sunday morning we had to check out by 10a. On our way back through Shell we stopped at Dirty Annie's Restaurant for another huge breakfast--yummy! We made it back to Cody by 2:30p.

Visit to Nashville

Well, it's been months since my first (and last) post. Sorry about that!

I've spent the past four days in Nashville visiting my parents and helping my dad celebrate his 84th birthday. My older brother Doug is up from his home in Huntsville, Alabama. Rain, rain, rain those four days...today (Sunday), the weather is cloudy but thankfully no rain.

We've spent time chatting, cooking, eating, playing with the Wii (Sports and Fit), and just generally having a great time. Another entertaining activity is just sitting at the kitchen table and watching all the birds that come to their three bird feeders. We don't have any birds coming to our feeder in Cody, Wyoming (at least not yet).

My flight back to Cody leaves at 3:15pm this afternoon. I'll get back home around 8:30pm.

November Morning

This morning we were surprised to see five deer (a four-point buck, two does and two young) grazing in our backyard, which is at the edge of the golf course. The deer are growing their winter coats, and are beautifully colored with dark fur edging their large ears with small tufts of black at the tips.

Tuffy, our 12-year-old Westie, wanted to go outside and investigate. He normally doesn't see anything larger than a rabbit in our yard, although a neighborhood cat often stalks by our front door to tease him. I didn't want Tuffy to scare the deer away, so he had to be content with just watching them through the living room windows with me.

They continued to nibble grass in our yard for several more minutes before wandering off out of view. Upon letting Tuffy out securely hooked to his zip line (we don't have a fence around our yard), I saw the deer unexpectedly reappear and quickly trot back into our yard to check him out coming to within about 15 feet of our patio. His barking didn't seem to faze them at all and they continued to approach us. Not knowing if Tuffy would become impaled on the horns of an unpredictable buck protecting his family, I quickly brought him back into the house. Tuffy seemed relieved to get back inside and out of harm's way!