Headed east yesterday morning. Drove up to the trailer storage place outside of Longmont, Colorado early in the day and got Esmeralda all hooked up and ready to go. Only a few problems, mostly brought on by myself, including having dead batteries because I had accidentally hit a light switch in the bathroom last time I was up. Lucky there still wasn't anything in the fridge/freezer cuz it shuts off when there isn't enough juice to signal a need for more propane to run it.

    The biggest problem is that my electric jack in front doesn't work either. There is of course a way to do it manually, but you have to hunt around for the right size socket and a wrench to turn it. Or you can just back up close enough to hook up the electrical cord to the truck and wait a couple of minutes.

   A nice day for travel. Still grey and cloudy from the day before when a weather system blew in to the area and dumped a couple of inches of rain. It was certainly welcome relief to the fire fighters who have been battling blazes for the last month and a half. At least two of the biggest one's along the eastern slope of the Rockies are now pretty much out. Of course now there will be problems with flash floods in some areas, but still better than the fires.

    Travelled pretty much due east until I hit Sterling, CO, then it was SE on into Imperial, NB where one of my sisters and her husband live. Good to see the two of them again after nearly 11 months, even if we do talk on the phone on a regular basis. Really not all that much new with them, or with me either, for that matter. Still; it was nice to sit on their back deck, drink a beer or two, eat some pizza and jabber on about everything and nothing at all.

   They are both still cursed with having to get up and go to work on most Mondays, so they were up and gone by the time I got up to go. It was nearly due north for about 60 miles first thing, then back a bit to the NW toward Sydney, NB. The goal was to reach the Cabela's store there and spend the night in their campground. For those who are not familiar with Cabela's it is a chain of Camping-Hunting-Fishing and Boating stores started by two brothers about 20 years ago in their basement. The Sydney store is the 1st one ever built and it is still fun to come and look at all the stuff. All of the stores now come complete with lots of *dead animals* on the walls, (taxidermy mounts), large aquariums and more stuff to tempt an outdoors man than should be allowed. In a word, Cabela's is a 'BAD' store. There is just no way to walk out of there without buying at least some little thing you never thought you needed.

    In my case it is doubly difficult because I carry a Cabela's credit card, among others, that earn *points* with every purchase. So I have about $500 worth of points to play with at the moment. The thing is that there just isn't all that much stuff I need any more. I do intend to buy a fishing license and parks pass while here, and the camping is free also, but there is only so much stuff that will fit in the trailer. You never know what will jump out at you when you walk in though, so who knows? I did manage to leave town yesterday with out throwing my fishing stuff in, duh.... goin to be pretty hard to fish with my nephews with out a rod and reel of some kind.

   So the plan for tomorrow and the rest of the week is to head on up to Chadron State Park tomorrow morning and pull in there for a minimum of two weeks. There are two nephews and their families in the area as well as a couple of friends from Denver who are coming up next week. A little fishing, some hiking a couple of plays out at old Fort Robinson, it should be a lot of fun. Also; this weekend is *Fur Trader Days* in Chadron. That will mean a parade down main street, a carnival, food and craft booth's and lots of people wandering around caring black powder rifles and wearing dead animals on their heads. Oh, also it will mean lots of eating, drinking, hootin and a hollerin.... how can any of that be bad?

    Finally; just a bit about the last couple of days in Denver. My friends there are just the best ever. Friday I ended up in Longmont doing some last minute trailer things, including leaving a light on, before heading for Boulder to meet up with a friend for dinner. Rained like crazy that afternoon and evening. It did manage to cool things off a bit, but the humidity during the contra dance was much higher than usual. A very nice dance all in all. About 100-125 people with music by Sandra Wong and Rodney Saur and calling by Ed Hall. All locals, but very good at what they do.

    A couple of additional friends, Deb and Bill came over to my friends house yesterday morning to do some more playing on some of Toms water toys. They were both trying out the wind surfers, rowing scull and stand up paddle boards. I did a little bit of the latter, but had been hoping the wind would come up enough to make rigging up and taking the sailboat out worth while. It never did, or at least not until it started raining again, but the morning was a lot of fun anyway.

    I drove on up to Fort Collins late in the afternoon, barely staying ahead of more torrential rains. I had spent a couple of hours over at the old house watering the lawn earlier in the day, so it was probably time wasted, but what the heck.

    The dance in Fort Collins was wonderful. Had thought it was going to be a pretty small turn out because of the rain, but in the end there was around 80-100 people there. Lots of fun dance partners and good music and calling. Stayed and danced every dance so it must of been okay.

   I always love the drive back to the Denver area after that dance. (except when it's snowing hard). I put some music on the iPod and crank it up, let a little fresh air in and then start to unwind as the truck heads south on what is usually a nearly empty highway. It's a nice way to 'come down' from the high of dancing hard and fast. It was nice to have a comfortable bed to fall into once I got back to Tom and Donna's.

   I see that there are still a few people from other countries that still check this web site out once in awhile. Often enough that it doesn't seem random any more. To all of you.... Welcome! I hope it is somewhat entertaining once in a while and that you aren't using it to learn more about the proper use of the English language. Believe me, you can do much better than this. I welcome  any of you to add comments or ask questions if you like. I would certainly like to know about life in other countries too.