Friday, September 16, 2005

Hastings Nebraska, more than corn

This is a storm that sent down loads of hail here in Hastings Nebraska in May of this year 2005! Wow, imagine having this spinning overhead!

We are enjoying our visit with Ron's Brother Dan and his wife Susan. Lots of wonderful vegetables from their incredible garden every night! And music and entertainment due to their involvement in the community as musicians and professor/teacher.

Thank you Dan and Susan for a wonderful visit!

Friday, September 02, 2005

Camping with Erica,Picking up Internet on the street in front of a bank in Saratoga, Hot Springs and Snowy Mountains of Wyoming

Erica arrived home to Colorado after a summer studying invasive wetlands plants in Mississippi. We were excited to be spending 8 days of camping in the Snowies of Wyoming with her, since we hadn' t seen her since she and Benjamin visited us in Sausalito about a year ago (while we were traveling down the coast in Batwing). First stop was Rob Roy Reservoir for 2 nites, and thanks to Howard G. we found a secluded dispersed campsite in a very prime spot.
While we were gone we had to monitor email as she was expecting word on an apartment that she and her friend Summer were hoping to obtain for their school year which starts in September in Bellingham WA.
Finding internet access in small Wyoming towns was going to be a challenge. We found that the library in Centennial had wrless access(deliberately mispelling to stop spiders from sending ads) and two very nice computers for public access (even though the library was about the size of a one car garage!) No word of the apartment--yet. So on to the next campsite just over Snowy Mountain Pass. Cool nights, warm/cool days. Just what we were looking for. After a few days of hiking and campfires, we desperately needed showers, so on to the Saratoga hotsprings we went and enjoyed 2 days of soaking and showering. Yes! Clean again!
It was also time to check email and after discovering that the library in Saratoga did not have wrless, we cruised town with the computer on, monitoring the software to see if we could find a hotspot. There it was, out in front of the bank, a weak but usable signal. So we crept up next to the curb in front of the bank, car running, stealing wireless internet access for at least 10 minutes. Mission accomplished, we made a quick getaway and headed up into the mountains once more to enjoy a 7 mile hike to some of the beautiful mountain lakes of the Snowies.

These pictures show our camps, hotsprings, hike