Sheet Music Of The Winds

My Mountain Boy and I have spent the past couple of days very busy with details.

Details involved in starting a new life.

I look at LC sometimes and guiltily realize that I have not made life easy for him this past 14 months.

Juneau was hard on his hard-living body.  Hard on his head.   Hard on his emotions.  Hard on his wallet.

He is 12 years older than me and as much as I yearn for quiet and peace, I know that he yearns for the same thing.

He hasn't had that for a while now.

I don't take ownership for the fact that Juneau (the job and the people, not the place) was not what was presented to me when I made the decision to move there.

But that does not prevent the guilt - knowing how challenging my decision to accept a position in Juneau turned out to be on someone who deserves so much better.

He understands and lovingly accepts, and we are continuing to forge ahead.

Setting up bank accounts and changing addresses and getting our taxes done and setting up utilities and buying home items to replace what we had to leave back in Juneau or even further back in Tennessee.

Trying to catch family and friends up on where we are and hoping that the US Postal Service can keep up with our address.

Before we left Juneau we submitted a change of address to the home of LC's brother in Minnesota because we had no idea where we would end up when we boarded the ferry on that cold Tuesday afternoon.

Another change of address submitted recently for here in Cody because it looks while we may be planted in one place for a while. 

And hopefully the USPS can keep up with us.........

This picture is actually an oil painting seen on the wall of a local bank.

I snapped it after spending an inordinate amount of time with a new bank employee setting up bank accounts...........

Metal sculptures in the parking lot of the bank.

There are many of these located all over town.

Most are not of the same exceptional and beautiful calibre as those seen outside the art gallery that I photographed last week, but they are lovely none-the-less.

They are all of elk and bear and mountain goats, and I love them............

We now live in high plains desert.

With mountains surrounding us in all directions.

And as such the weather is extremely variable.

The pictures of the antelope and sheep statues above were taken outside the bank, and five minutes later and only a mile down the road we were greeted with heavy wet snow, that did not stick to the ground because of the mild temperatures we have had recently...........

We had pulled the truck into one more parking lot because our whining dog needed to do what dogs who have been stuck in the back of a truck for too long need to do.

Five more minutes down the road towards an area LC and I are both beginning to love (South Fork - a community just south west of town) it had not snowed at all...........

Buffalo Bill Reservoir in the South Fork area..........

The clouds in the mountains in Cody remind me of the clouds in the mountains in Juneau.

I was compelled by the water and the mountains and the cloudy skies to stop and take these pictures.

Those mountains eventually lead into Yellowstone, which has received much much snow this year.

Looking at those mountains I knew that it was snowing out there yet again..........

LC and James patiently waiting for me to "take the damn picture already........"

Before we travelled down from Montana we rented a furnished cottage for a month figuring it would give us a chance to look around in comfortable surroundings.

We found a decent house to rent much sooner than we expected - small, reasonable price, four miles outside of town in farm country, so in effect can move in at any time.

We have this cottage until the 12th of April though, so.......sometime this week.......we will make the final move into the house..........but no rush.......

More pictures of mountains becoming increasingly obscured in cloud and fog.........

On the spur of the moment we veered off the highway and took an up-til-now previously unexplored side road.

Just to see where it led.............

Surprisingly and delightfully it led to Buffalo Bill State Park.

We did not see much of it but will make a point of exploring more another day.  I could easily picture kayaking here...........

Homes on the outskirts of the park...........

A pooch sitting at attention guarding his property caught my attention as we headed back towards the highway.

When I climbed out of the truck I caught HIS attention, and put the spunky little guy on alert...........

Some random thoughts:

I am out of shape and the workouts at the gym are helping.  My muscles are sore and it feels good.....

We are still moving too fast, trying to do too much, not relaxing the way we promised ourselves we would.........

I am looking forward to walking and bike riding outside.  Driving with LC is great and enjoyable and fun, but I want to slow down some more, burn some more calories, burn some more mental energy, not be in a rush to take pictures, spend more time by myself.........

Once we get settled into the house we will take some time to see other places in the region - parts of Montana and Colorado and Utah and Idaho.

Just because we can.

Just because we owe it to ourselves to be certain that Wyoming is right.

We'll make the drive and do some exploring.......but the more we talk to people here the more that Cody Wyoming feels right.

One thing I did learn in Juneau though is that if you have to work SO hard to make things right.......it's really not right.

We are working through a lot of details to get set up again right now, but I don't feel as though I am tying myself in knots to MAKE it work.  To make it fit...........

Who publishes the sheet-music of the winds or the music of water written in river-lines?......John Muir