We spend Thursday hanging out with Robin, meet her son Nicholas (I had seen him last as a child) and visit beautiful downtown Louisville. The three-block area that used to be occupied by dive bars is now mostly cafes and wine bars, and the weather is perfect.
Beautiful downtown Louisville
Robin and I discover that we had been at Barnard and Columbia at the same time…good to know you can be long-time friends and still discover something new! Of course we might have once known this and simply forgotten it over the years, but who wants to believe that?
Friday morning we’re off to Lyons, some fifteen miles north, to spend a couple of days with Arlene Brownell and Tom Bache-Wiig. Arlene was part of a women’s consciousness-raising group with Jan when we first came to California in the mid-seventies, and they’ve now discovered all the ways their careers have moved in parallel over the years. Connection Partners, Arlene and Tom’s consulting business, specializes in mediations, conflict resolution, coaching and facilitation. (Sound familiar??)
On Saturday they take us for a scenic drive north along the edge of the Rockies.
Tom & Arlene
Beautiful sunshiny day, with new and surprising sights around every bend in the road.
Saint Malo...but we're not in Britanny
The Saint Malo Retreat and Conference Center is almost painfully picturesque, certainly worthy of Walt Disney… and of a visit by Pope John Paul some twenty years ago.
We continue on and enjoy a leisurely walk around Lily Lake, home to one of the few remaining populations of Colorado’s state fish, the greenback cutthroat trout. There are several very serious-looking fishermen on the shore, who, of course, will release any trout they catch.
Lily Lake
Then after a visit to Estes Park and lunch, home again. It was wonderful to find that although years had passed, our connection to Arlene and Tom had not lessened. We’ve resolved to keep in better touch, and hope to see them in California when they visit.
Sunday morning we leave Lyons and move on to our next destination, Bozeman, Montana, with an overnight stop in Sheridan, Wyoming. We had actually visited Sheridan some twenty years ago, with ten-year old Dan and eight-year old Elizabeth, when we all spent a week with the Johnsons at a dude ranch in the nearby Big Horn mountains. The main street looks like a classic western town, very wide and open.
Sheridan
Jan remembered King’s Saddlery on the main street, which has been in business since the 1940’s. It’s a famous place, Queen Elizabeth shopped here. Well, so had Jan, but they probably won’t put up a plaque commemorating her visit, the ungrateful wretches…
Upstairs at King's...the museum.
Monday morning we’re heading north again through Billings, then west on to Bozeman. We arrive in mid-afternoon in plenty of time for a quick visit the Museum of the Rockies, which has an excellent exhibit on the Native Americans of the region. The exposition of their histories and interactions with the U.S. government is fascinating and far more extensive and frank than it would have been a few decades ago.
The museum is also hosting a temporary exhibit on frogs of the world.
Ribbitt...
Despite the searing heat, we can’t resist going outside to visit the 1889 log farmhouse which has been restored, inside and out, as closely as possible to its original condition. Several docents in period costumes are sitting in the kitchen ready to answer any questions we have.
Tinsley's Farmhouse
Log houses were considered poor folk’s lodgings at the time, but this two-story house includes four upstairs bedrooms and looks pretty comfortable and spacious. William and Lucy Tinsley, the couple who built it, had eight children and moved here from a one-room cabin, they must have felt it was truly luxurious.
Adele, Sandy & Jan
Then we wend our way up to Erik Drive to see Sandy and Adele Pittendrigh. It was Sandy’s sister Robin whom we had stayed with in Lousville, I’ve known all three of them for some forty years and attended Sandy and Adele’s wedding under the towering redwoods of Felton way back then. Sandy has barbecued a salmon, and we enjoy our dinner and an evening of catching up on the news since our last visit here sixteen years ago.
The Guys, happy to see each other again.