June 17-26, 2026 Fort Collins, Colorado

 90 and sunny.

Our friend Bev is visiting us for a few days. She and John have know each other since he lived in Eagle right out of college. We had a yummy dinner at Blue Agave. 

Bev's new rig. She is traveling visiting her friends in Colorado. Including us.  Sunset. 

The crescent moon and Venus in sunset. John cooked Bev and I  a gourmet dinner of smoked ribs, corn on the cob and salad. Yum, yum.

I am finally getting used to the altitude and my new heart meds and went biking tonight. What fun. A deer along the bike path.

Got my heart  tests started. The top part is the sleep test, that was just one night, the bottom part is a holter monitor I have to wear for 30 days  to monitor my heart. I also had an echo cardiogram this afternoon. Hopefully find out what is actually going on with my heart. Sunset.

I put a couple of these in the  kiln. They are made with leaves and flower murrine I made. Will see what they look after being fired. I got this 30 lb roll of long leaf pine needles from amazon, Properly bundled and cleaned needles are starting to cost a fortune. $30-40 a pound including shipping. These are $1.80 a pound with free shipping. Of course I have to sort and clean them. Not all of them are useable, but a fellow basket maker says she gets a good portion of usable needles from these. A lot more work, but will see what I get. 

Sunset. After all my diagnostic tests today in the Denver area I had dinner with Katie and Katy. Bill, Katie's husband cooked this gourmet dinner for us. Yummy food and great to see them. 

There are fires in Utah, so we have smoke now, made a nice orange sunset. Bad air quality tho. And the same orange sky the next night.

Spent a day and half getting my art work ready to take to the Artisan Market on Sat. John made a crispy spicy cauliflower for dinner!

The aspens came out nice. Sunset. 

This is the Artisan Fair I will be in on Sat. I got us a new mattress for the bed at home. We had to take the bed apart to move it over a little, then the two delivery guys wrestled the mattress up the stairs and into the bedroom. Looks nice and feels wonderful. 

June 12-16, 2026 Snowville Ut to Fort Bridger, Wyoming To RAwlins, Wyo to Fort Collins, Colorado

 High of 77, sunny and windy.

Milky way over Snowville, Utah. I was looking for the galactic core, but it was farther to the south.

Some fuel prices. We had a tail wind, so got 9.7 mpg!! We are now in Fort Bridger, Wyoming. Here is the car at the Fort Bridger RV camp. Beautiful green spot. 6,700 feet. I am not acclimating well to the altitude.

The galactic core of the milky way. Part of the core is behind the trees. I have been working for over a year to get a photo of this.  You can only get a photo of it a few days in the summer, and you have to be where it is dark, the new moon, and a view of that part of the sky. Got most of those last night, could use a more unobstructed view. The next goal is to get a cool foreground. 

Horses in Fort Bridger, nice yard. The mosquitos almost carried us away here.

Old log cabin in Fort Bridger. Sunset.

Few fuel prices on the wat today. Wild iris and golden banner blooming in Fort Bridger. We spent the night at Western Hills RV park in Rawlins, WY 

John took me out to a wonderful dinner at the Aspen House in Rawlins. Beautiful historic downtown Rawlins, Wy.

This buffalo was in front of the RV park. John wouldn't get on it, but I did. 

A few gas prices, and we made it to Fort Collins! Sunset.

Woo hoo, home to my studio! The sprinkler system did not get turned on, most of our yard is dead except the really hearty plants. This is the lawn in the back yard. Boo. 

June 8-11, 2026 Wilder to Jerome, Idaho to Snowville, Utah

 High of 78, cloudy and rainy.

Welcome to Idaho. Fuel is much cheaper, so we filled up. At a scenic overlook of the Owyhee country. I had no idea that Owyhee was meant for Hawaiians. I thought it was in Indian name. 

We are not at River's Edge RV Park, right on the Snake river. Our view of the Snake River. 

This hops farm is right behind the RV park. We are in the hop capital of the state here. This squirrel was watching us eat dinner outside this evening. 

We went to Meriden, Idaho to tour Covington Engineering. The company that made my flat lap grinding machine. I even met the tech that made mine. Very interesting, lots of cool machines.  I am with Dan, the owner of Covington who gave us the tour. I met him at the Glass expo.

The fertile Snake River valley on the way to the RV park. This area is primarily agricultural.  A better photo of a hop field. Wilder is the hop capital of Idaho.

The dock at Rivers Edge RV park on the Snake River. Interesting graphic of Idaho, The Hop house, the bar in Wilder, red winged blackbird and the same pesky squirrel watching us eat again.

The Rivers Edge RV park. Sunset over the Snake River. The sun does not set till 930 pm, way late. 

Mayfly hatch o the river. Millions of them. Fuel prices from Boise to Twin Falls, Idaho. Welcome to Utah.

Last night we camped at the Jerome County Fair grounds. $20 a night. Venus and Jupiter in sunset. 

Tonight we are camped at the Hitching post in Snowville, Utah. It used to be an old ranch, so ranch decor. I finished this basket. It is made from dyed pine needles, polyester thread, glass and gem stone beads and the center is an ornament from Death Valley. It is 8  x 2 inches. 

They have the cutest cat and kittens here. There is one more, white and orange, but it is shy. Of course I played with them.