Walking In The Hills

On an extraordinarily warm winter day early in January, Kory, LC and I hiked in the hills that surround the South Fork section of Buffalo Bill Reservoir.

There was no snow.

The sky was endlessly blue.

The lake was frozen solid, but the air was warm on this unusual January day in the Rockies.

Again I say.............I love living so close to the lake.

And although it has been very cold over the past week in Cody, if we are not going to get any snow, then it just needs to warm up and be done with this disappointing winter.

If we are not going to get any snow, then we need to call it spring so I can dig out my kayak and be on the water.

But I think I may be getting ahead of myself.

It is still only early February and winter will not actually be over for quite a while.

As we began our climb into the hills I looked back over the beige terrain, wishing it were white.

Our huge truck looking very tiny as we continued to climb.....................

Right now the water level is low.

In another few months we won't be able to drive this beach front.

In a few months this will all be under water.................

A few days ago we received a Face Book message from a lady we know in Florida.

She is the same woman who sent out a desperate message blast five years ago, hoping against hope that she would find someone to save a very sad and thin dog from being euthanized.

The dog was scheduled to be killed in two days.

A week later we picked Kory up at the Boise airport.

A few days ago our Florida friend was hoping against hope to find a loving home for a dog that was set to be put down in two days.

This time the dog didn't make it.

Nobody wanted it.

And so it died - along with the other 20 or so dogs that are put down weekly at this shelter - because the facility needed the space.

For more unwanted dogs.

Such a wretched place, made necessary because of wretched people.

I don't know how Kory survived there.

I don't know how she survived long enough to find us.

Long enough for us to find her.

But I'm glad we DID.

Find each other..................

She wanders.

She comes back.

She disappears.

She shows up again - always from some unexpected direction.

She loves, and lives for, all of these quiet adventures that we take together...................

Ice fishing in a cove...................

Wandering up and down a number of grass and sage covered hills, we eventually dropped down to the rocky beach and followed the frozen shoreline as it circled around and back to the truck..............

I've been thinking a lot about Chris recently.

He sounds so distant.  So disinterested.  So vacant.

He's sounded that way for a long while now and I can't do anything about it.

Is he OK?

I don't know.

What thrills him, motivates him, excites him?

I don't know.  

I remember when he used to talk about career and making money.  When he talked about starting his own business.  When he talked about buying property.

He doesn't talk about any of those things anymore.

He barely talks about anything of consequence.

Sounds disinterested in talking to me.

I remember when he talked about no longer dating the woman he was living with.

And yet he is still there.

Years later.

Is he OK?

I don't know.............................

BBCW Art Museum - Part 2

After a quick walk around parts of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West grounds with Kory, we stashed her safely back in the vehicle and (after kissing her on the forehead) headed towards the front doors.

LC and I are always excited to visit the museum, and at this time of year we had the entire facility almost completely to ourselves.

The occasional art lover.

The occasional elderly staff person.

But mostly just us.

BBCW is open seven days a week during the summer months, and at that time of year the place is a non-stop beehive of people, noise and activity.

Tour groups, campers and endless vehicles in the parking lot.

People walking the grounds, people filling the museums, people milling around everywhere you look - chatting loudly, taking selfies, drinking yuppie coffee drinks, talking in different languages on their phones.

Large numbers of staff and continual staff presentations both inside and outside.

All during the summer.

But the winter?

The center is open four days a week with abbreviated hours, the parking lot is almost empty, the inside is almost empty, and you almost feel compelled to whisper as you take in all of the exhibits because it is such a quiet place.

On this cold winter day we headed directly for the art museum.

It is an expansive space filled with art dedicated to stories about the west.

Art that is serious, that is whimsical, that is two and three dimensional, that is both historical and contemporary.

In places throughout the art museum the light was not good and too many of my pictures did not turn out.

But many did.

And we will be back there again soon.

These pictures tell (part of) the story of our art museum visit....................

A picture is a poem without words................Horace

BBCW Art Museum - Part 1

We were on the way back to Tennessee the first time we stood in front of this statue.

I had walked away from a well paying and high profile job in Juneau, Alaska.

A job I had been hired to do as a result of a national search.

They looked all over the country when recruiting for the job, hired me, treated me............badly, and less than 18 months after moving to Juneau I walked away.

I was exhausted mentally and physically, and an empty, shell-shocked woman boarded the ferry bound for the Lower 48.

Along with a man and a dog.

We were headed back to our lives in Tennessee when we (on the spur of the moment) decided to make a side trip to Cody WY.

To say the least, we were initially unimpressed.

It was March, there was no snow on the ground, and the beige and barren landscape surrounding Cody was uninspiring.

We drove through town and then found ourselves at the huge statue (above) of Buffalo Bill Cody.

Climbing out of the vehicles we walked up the stairs leading to the statue and I looked out at the hills surrounding us.

"It looks like the Afghan-Pakistan Border Region".....................

When we came back to Cody in late September of 2017 I looked at LC and said "This is the third time we've been back to Cody.  We keep coming back here.  We need to pay attention to that."

After being gypsies for too many years we've finally decided to pay attention to the place that kept calling us back................

Early in December we went to the Buffalo Bill Center of the West for a free visit.

A gift before Christmas, from the museum to the residents of Cody.

On that day we purchased a gift for ourselves - an annual membership to the museum, and since that day we have already visited three more times.

A couple of weeks ago I met LC outside the museum after my store closed.

It was a warm day and we briefly walked around the grounds of the museum with Kory before heading indoors.

There are bronze statues all over the museum grounds.

Many large.  Many small.  All related to the cowboy, Native American and wildlife icons of this western region...................

The walk outside was brief, and after loading pup back into the truck LC and I excitedly headed for the main entrance of the museum.

On this quiet afternoon, we would be wandering around the art museum.................