Still..........

We traveled on Highway 14 to Ralston the other day to look at a house.

The house turned out to be a hot mess, but the trip was not a total loss because we came across some beautiful farm land in this early Spring in Wyoming.

Scenes from the highway on the way to Ralston which is little more than a community of farms and one likely very busy saloon.

I am still in awe of the scenery surrounding Cody.

LC always wanted wide open spaces and spoke of them often when we were in Tennessee.

I had never been out west before - had never seen states such as the Dakotas, Montana and Wyoming and remember standing high on West Glacier Trail in Spring last year in Juneau, looking out over seeming miles of ice field, small islands and channel.

I remember standing on the rock ledge at the peak of West Glacier and wondering if the sky was big enough there.

It was big enough for me, but after seeing what this place is actually like I realize that big enough and "big" are two entirely different things.

I cannot grasp the totality of the space here yet.

It is welcome and welcoming but I am still coming to terms to exactly how big and how open this place really is...........

After pulling off the highway and driving by a very unacceptable house LC and I took our time on country roads taking in scenes of farm land and blue sky.

We relished the quietness.

We enjoyed the beauty.

We found joy and comfort in each others company, and as we have so many times before we stopped and started the truck, took pictures and spoke of the future.........

My favorite picture of the day..........

While driving away from unacceptable-house we came across this place.

Driving slowly by the log cabin we stopped and regarded it in more detail.

The windows were all boarded, the door was open to the elements, and walking to the doorway and looking inside it was obvious that the cabin had been open to the elements for a very long time.

Still..........

We walked around to the back of the structure and that is when we saw that the cabin had been in a fire at some point in its life.  

Half of the logs from the roof down to the center of the back wall were charred black.

The roof was in awful shape.

Walking around to the opposite side of the house we saw that it was also partially charred black.

It was obviously abandoned and had been so for a long while.

No idea who it belongs to or what the story is on the place or whether or not it would be retrievable or better to tear it down and start new.

Interesting and compelling place with a host of problems.

Still............

Still.

These wonderful structures were in the yard to the side of the problem-filled-log-cabin...........

We took time a day later to move some of our still remaining belongings from the storage shed to the house we are renting a few miles outside of Cody.

After unloading our junk I took only a few pictures of some of our new surroundings.

Emus of all things walking slowly and methodically in a field close to the house.............

The house is located squarely in farm land.

Rolling hills, sage grass, mountains in all directions in the background, horses and fences and cows and quiet.............

And it is obvious from which direction the wind blows.........

We will likely move into the house early next week and I will take many many pictures while walking and running and bike riding.............

More pictures of deer in peoples' yards within the city limits............

The surrounding mountains taken during one of our many drives throughout the area..........

Early Spring and babies being born everywhere..........

This morning, rather than going to the gym, my Mountain Boy and Jamie and I walked on BLM (Bureau of Land Management land, of which there are thousands and thousands of acres in Wyoming) right outside of town.

This is the same place where we enjoyed watching four wheelers and dirt bikers last week.

On this Friday morning we were the only ones walking in this vast place and we both greatly enjoyed the quiet and the solitude.

Our walk started in cloudy, but gradually clearing conditions, and by the time we were an hour into our walk the sun shone brightly and warmly...........

Our truck.

I always have mixed feelings about this kind of terrain and these types of pictures.

One part of me looks at these pictures and thinks that they look bleak, barren, brown.

Another part of me likes the Big Sky, the ability to see for miles and to walk for miles.

The one thing that remains consistent though is a growing awareness that this terrain is multi-dimensional.

In this area you can travel from desert-like moonscape to rolling hills and grassland to mountains and pine trees in only a few miles.

Flexibility and choices are a wonderful thing I think.

We have those choices here and I am learning to relish the beauty in each of them.............

Spring has many American faces. There are cities where it will come and go in a day and counties where it hangs around and never quite gets there. Summer is drawn blinds in Louisiana, long winds in Wyoming, shade of elms and maples in New England.........Unknown