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.