Fall with the Floyds

Yikes, once again I have been terrible about this blog, I don't have any excuses, except we have been having lots of fun.



My sister died suddenly in May of a heart attack. I miss her terribly. She and I had gotten very close over the last several years. She was 7 years older than me. I went to AZ along with my two nieces and helped my brother-in-law go through her stuff and get rid of a lot of it. Not an easy trip. Then they came back to WY with me and we scattered her ashes on the lower ranch where we lived until I was in 3rd grade. That was the place we both always considered home.



We spent the summer at Devils Tower KOA Campground. We worked 4 days a week and for the most part, had a great summer. We met lots of great people that worked at the KOA , also workampers, and renewed friendships with old friends. It was wonderful to be back home for a while. Opal (my Mom who is 87 and lives in Sundance) was very happy to have us around. As well as working at the campground, we also got some sorely needed upkeep done on our house in Sundance. In Sept. I worked the bar for a week in Sundance while Bev was on vacation so Barry got to scrape and paint the trim on the house. Actually I scraped the week before while he was in Montana hunting grouse with Jeff Robertson.



Barry also went to OK to his nephew's wedding this summer so he got to see his siblings. He also attended a gun school in Casper and had a great time doing that.



The high light of our summer was, for sure, the big fat party we had Aug. 23 at the KOA. We had decided to celebrate our 60th birthdays we were going to have a great big party. We planned it at the KOA so people could come and stay and enjoy that beautiful place. There were about 100 people at the party on Saturday night. We invited Chad Lore, a one man band from Casper to entertain us, and boy, entertain he did! He was fabulous and everyone loved him. We had many friends and family that came and camped at the campground for the weekend. Jay and his family came, as did my niece Stacey from Gillette, our Grand daughter Shayne from MN and of course my Mom. Old friends from Minot, Dickinson, Colorado and Casper. Joe and Bonnie came for the party from TN but arrived Friday and left Saturday as they had an appointment in NM on Monday. Anyway it was a most wonderful time, we are so blessed to have so many good and dear friends and such a great family.



The sad note of our summer was losing Sara. She had a heart attack in August and is now buried under a big oak tree in the shadow of Devils Tower. Tailer was lost without her for awhile, as I think he always thought she was his mother.



We did enjoy most of the summer. Rally was down considerably this year, however the bar revenues didn't reflect that, but over all it was off about 40%. I sold out of the bar in July so it was kind of nice not to have to work 18 hour days during rally as in past years .



In Sept. Barry got a new hunting dog since we had Pete put down last January. The new boy is named Duck, he is a 2 year old black lab, already trained to hunt. He does real well, has a few quirky habits but those should straighten out with time.



When we left Sundance we headed north and visited friends in Dickinson, ND on our way to MN. Barry hunted grouse with Mike Burton near Nisswa then we went on to Grand Rapids and he hunted ducks with Dick Birch. We left there and went south to Owatonna and saw Jim and Karen Killen for a few days. We hunted pheasants with them. We also saw Shayne at Mankato where she is a sophmore at MSU. Once again we headed south. We saw Travis and his family in Iowa, actually part of his family he and 3 of the kids met us for supper but the little one was sick so Candy stayed home with him. We had seen Travis and his family this summer as they were in Lead for a wedding. From Owatonna we continued south. We stayed at Wallace State Park in MO, (really a nice park) which is only about 50 miles from Kansas City. My old and dear friend Lynne and her fella live in KC and they came to Wallace and saw us. I hadn't seen Lynne for about 12 years, so that was great. She is Rod's high school sweetheart and she and I have remained friends all these years.



Also while we were at Wallace we sold the sports car. I had driven it this whole trip as we were going to sell it when we got down south as it is difficult to sell a convertible sports car in the north in the fall. It was just too small for Duck and his crate too. We were going to buy a small station wagon or something like that to drive back to WY for Christmas but I think we would be better off to just rent a car for that trip. I'm not sure but I think that is what we will do.



We are currently in Branson, MO. Think we will stay here a few days, we found a nice cheap park to stay in. When we leave here we will go to Pangburn, Arkansas to see a friend of Barry's from Ducks then on west, probably stopping in OK to see his siblings then to Safford where my brother-in-law still has his house. He has bought a place in southern CO but hasn't sold the one in Safford yet so think we will hang there for the first part of winter until we go to WY for Christmas then to Pasadena for the Rose Bowl Parade. We will also stop at the Bosque to see old friends there.



So 'til next time, and I'll try to do this more often. See ya.

Finally, we are back

Well, this has taken forever hasn't it? Yikes. I am such a lazy lump! Don't know where the time has gone.

Will try to bring you up todate on our activities since last Oct.! My goodness! Only 5 months!

We wintered at the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in NM. We were among about 25 other volunteers there and we had a wonderful time. We worked 4 days a week at various things there on the refuge and enjoyed it so much. Some days we worked in the visitors center welcoming guests to the refuge, other days we worked in the gift shop, answered phones, or worked in the fee booth. We also did what was called roving maintainance, meaning we drove a van around the refuge picking up trash, making sure the porta-pottys had paper, glassing the birds and some days having a little nap in the sunshine!

For the better part of the winter there were about 40,000 snow geese, 20,000 sand hill cranes, and 40,000 ducks, along with other birds and critters that opted as we did to winter there. My sister and brother in law came and spend Christmas with us which was a real treat as I hadn't spent Christmas with my sister for about 30 years! Then some friends from Sundance came down and spent a few days over new years with us.

We made some very good friends during our stay at the Bosque. Steve and Linda Guthrie were volunteers there and they are from Libby, MT. We had a lot in common with them, they love to laugh as much as we do, as well as enjoy cigars and a cocktail now and then. The staff of the refuge was wonderful and worked very hard at making our tour there enjoyable. They offer an RV pad, full hookups, propane and laundry facilities to all the volunteers. It was truly very fun. We laughed alot about being nearly 60 and making a buck and a quarter an hour! Actually we laughed a lot for the entire time we were there. We were in the company of many many good cooks and the pot lucks were many and wonderous! Wonder we didn't gain 50 lbs. over the winter. Right before we left I did a Bag Lady performance for all of the crew there and it was fun and well received. I joked that we would have the rig hitched up and the truck running when I did it, as I am not always so politically correct! Everyone took it very well, even the federal employee I called an asshole! Actually he turned out to be a realy nice guy, we just all got off to a rocky start with him when he first got there.

About nine of us women made a quilt while we were there depicting many of the birds and critters on the Bosque. We had a great time doing it, and we presented it to the Refuge manager and his wife when we left. It was fun and turned out so nice.

The only bad part of our winter was the loss of our black lab Pete. He was 11 years old and his arthritic back finally got the best of him. He hunted right to the end, and loved every minute of it. He was a wonderful pet, we miss him alot.

After we left the Bosque we went to Las Cruses for a few days and I went to Mexico and had some dental work done. That worked out very well. Amazing how cheap that is compared to having it done in the states and seems to be the very same quality of work. After that we met Steve and Linda in AZ and spent a day in Tombstone, which I always enjoy. I have such an imagination when it comes to history. I loved having a drink in the Crystal Palace where Wyatt and Doc often drank and gambled. We went from there to Tucson and stayed at the Gilbert Ray RV Park southwest of the city. What a great place to stay. It is out in the desert and very very nice. We took in the Desert Museum while we were there and enjoyed that as well.

Barry has been doing some work on the trailer. We have been very fortunate since we have owned it and have had nothing go wrong with it to speak of. We are coming up on 2 years and one of the levelers malfunctioned and the gate valve for one of the gray tanks also demanded some attention. Barry fixed the gate valve and we have a guy coming to fix the leveler next week. The only bad thing about this full time RVing is if you have to take your rig in for work, you have no place to live!

I flew back to Casper in January for a Nickie's 50th birthday. The party and the whole deal was a huge surprise for her. I got to spend a little time with Jay and Kristy and the boys. That is always so fun. Gavin is just a scream, and comes up with the darnest stuff. One night Jay had promised the boys an oreo blizzard after dinner and he and Gavin had gone to the grocery store for the makin's. Before dinner Gavin came to me and said, "Gramma can I have an oreo?" I told him to go ask his dad, he said "no, I already ask him and he said no, so can I have one?" He is a character. Jevin is kind of quiet and pretty bookish! Loves to read although he enjoys his sports too.

Right now we are in Safford, Az hanging out at my sisters, waiting for the weather to get better up north. We are going to summer in the shadow of Devils Tower at the KOA campground there. Friends of ours own it and we thought it might be fun to do the summer there as we know the fishing is good around there. We plan to have a big party there the weekend of Aug 23 so come if you can! Barry and I both turn 60 this year, he in June, me in Oct. so we are just having a big fat party in Aug. We hope all our friends and family can make it.

We will leave here around the end of March and head back for WY..we are hoping their nasty winter weather has passed by then! We will keep you posted!