Middle of Nowhere...

Hello....Happy Monday!!

One week of school done, and all is well. Brennen did great last week! He has already more or less switched his printing from the D'Nealian he was taught in Peoria to the more traditional printing this school uses. This is huge as it was one of his greatest fears about attending a new school. He played each day with the other "Brennan" and a few other boys so he feels like he is making friends. He does mourn the loss of his days of play time, but that would be at any school! The school seems very strong academically, very organized. I think it's going to be a good fit for him.

Friday and Saturday morning we spent doing things around the house. Saturday right after lunch we left for Buffalo, a city on the eastern side of the Bighorn Mountains to the north of Casper. We dropped our stuff at a hotel and headed up the mountain to see what we could see. Brennen had fun using a sling shot to plop rocks into Meadowlark Lake and we stopped to visit with lots of cows. No deer, elk or moose to be seen however. On our way back down to Buffalo, Kindrid was sick to her tummy. She seemed totally fine after that, and she wasn't too happy with us that we made her lay low for a while. Later in the evening the kids swam and we had pizza in our room while we watched the Olympics. We all slept great!

Sunday morning we had breakfast and swam some more until check out time. I'd been studying the map and found some back roads that would lead us from the southern part of the Big Horns through some country we haven't seen before and, eventually, down to Casper. We stopped first to explore Middle Fork campground which my bro and sis-in-law said was an awesome place. They were so right! We played by the water for a long time and climbed on the hill for a little bit until we saw this fellow watching us from the top! It was a magical place with sounds of bubbling water, cool, shady places beneath the pines, and stones and logs in and across the stream just perfect for climbing around. We definitely want to camp there some time soon! Thanks, Nic and Heather!

Now, the route I choose for us to get home was, as Kindrid says, through the Middle of Nowhere. Really. It was good that it was dry as it would have been impassable in parts if it had been wet. It was rocky, bumpy, up and down, dusty, muddy and a GREAT drive! I loved it. Brennen complained that his Lego creations kept breaking due to the huge bumps. We did this for hours - a lot of concentration for Todd. We had lunch on the top of the world with views to the west of mountains across a basin, to the east of rolling, pine-covered hills and snow capped mountains to the north. Brennen built a cairn to remind us of this place.

We drove and drove, seldom seeing anyone. Here and there were sheep wagons (follow this link if you don't know what a sheep wagon is...sort of an early RV used by, you guessed it, sheep herders when in remote places), http://www.wyomingsheepwagon.com/gallery/sale.htm a few cabins, RV's seemingly used by the ranchers that lease grazing rights to tracts of this public owned land. We saw just a handful of other vehicles and none the further south we went. Late in the afternoon we did see a truck parked off to the side of the road with no one around. We commented aloud, wondering where its owner was as there was no one in sight. Three miles later we came to a major junction and paused to consult the map to make sure we took the correct fork. We decided on the fork to the right and got a block or so down it when we saw a man and woman walking. Remember what I said Kindrid calls this area? Well, to see folks just ambling along with no packs, no vehicle, like it's a Sunday stroll is very odd indeed. We stopped to ask them if all was OK. The man in his hat calmly said, "Nope, it's not." They were the owners of the truck we'd passed miles back They had taken their 4-wheeler out to check on fences and their cattle. The 4-wheeler died and they'd been walking for an hour and a half seeing no one and with only a bottle and a half of water between them. It was beginning to get late in the day, and they were glad to see us!! Todd left me with the lady (wish you could have seen us sitting by the side of the road in the M. of N. in camp chairs chatting away like old friends) while he took the man back to his truck.

When they came back, we followed them back all the way they'd walked so Todd could help the man load the ATV. We felt like we had backstage passes getting to go through gates and on the OTHER side of the fences!! Turns out the man really didn't need much help as he had (DAD, are you paying attention??) a COME ALONG!! This device is one of the world's greatest inventions allowing one person to move huge weights with a sort of ratchet/winching motion. http://cvfsupplyco-store.stores.yahoo.net/hanpowpulcom.html It's long been one of my dad's favorite tools, and he's used it along with patience to move some pretty amazingly heavy things all by himself. (Of course I put a link to it...once a teacher, always a teacher!!)

Soon the ATV was loaded and we were all on our way once again. We hope to meet up with Sonny and Marlene Hoburka some time again. They were jolly and fun and friendly and chalked this up as just one more adventure in their world of ranching. It was an adventure for us too. Nice people, beautiful country, a hand lent, memories made!!

Oh yes, and rush hour traffic on the range...

After this small hiccup, we still had hours of going left before we finally hit a "real" road and got back to Casper far later than we'd planned. It was a day full of images of beauty and remoteness. We know yet another part of this incredible state we now call home.

We stopped at a campground for a quick picnic supper...the kids climbed the rocks...

Have a great week!

Christy