Two trips to report on and flowers.
One 1k mile round trip to Spearfish SD, and last week end in the mountains west of Colorado Springs about 60 miles from our door step. On the SD trip Avg MPG was 13.7 MPG. Strong quartering head wind and side wind on the blue hwy from Cheyenne to New Castle on the way out. Stayed between 60-65 MPH. No sway and couldn't tell any difference when met or passed by large trucks, except I was running top down and I felt the wind on me for sure. I didn't see any A/S on the hwy but did see two parked in driveways. Both were just North of New Castle WY. Is that you?
Two nights in the city camp ground in Spearfish. 10 feet from the small stream that is a diversion for the fish hatchery from the main stream. Really slept well with the sound of the water. Highly recommend the city campground.
City of Spearfish, SD Parks & Recreation - Campground
A couple from Canada, really nice folks, stopped to see the Minuet.
We talked for over an hour, they are using a pop up and in town scouting for manufacturing site for their business. I promoted Airforums of course. A 34 foot A/S triple axle pulled in late in the afternoon but I didn't get a chance to meet them. The Canadian couple went over to visit but came back to report that owners had set up a satellite dish and ducked inside. If you are forum members you really missed meeting some interesting Canadians. Across the road from my site was a another group of Canadians. They had ridden in on a mixture of Harley's and rice burners. Had a good visit with them also. They ride down to the Black Hills every summer for a couple of weeks. Only down side to the trip is that my bride had to stay home, camping without her is not as much fun. Three days, 1000 miles, and not a single photo, sorry I have no excuse.
Then last weekend Karen and I went to the mountains just west of here. Our 34th wedding anniversary. We found a fire ring on FS357 and spent two nights boondocking. The area is part of the Hayman burn so the trees are blackened toothpicks but the wild flowers were spectacular. That was the fire started by a distraught Forest Ranger, and was the largest in Colorado history, she is still in jail. The first morning there I noticed someone putting up a sign down by the road so went to investigate. I met Mike, he is with the Teller County Extension Office and was getting ready for a flower walk tour.
Karen and I joined in and learned a great deal about wild flowers in the next two hours never leaving sight of the Minuet. Mike proved to be an excellent instructor, I witnessed a true pro at work. He started with a quick tour near the meeting site, then we went to the tour site. What Mike did was get folks started then while he pointed out a few examples he let tour members discover most of the flowers so that he could talk about them. Kept everyones interest. It just doesn't get any better. This year I didn't take flowers to my bride, I took her to the flowers.
Four photos attached are some of the wild flowers in the area and one is of the Minuet, way off in the distance, tiny white dot in the center. Karen took all of the photos.
Congratulations!
Steph in MI Air# 6996-
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