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Colorado

 Another travel day.  Not too far to go though.  All set up in time for a partner’s meeting with Ken at noon.  It went on all afternoon. 2015 summer trip map A nice long visit with Ken.  Dinner with Becky and Brian.  Conner played the saxophone.  Teigan went to be early.  Tony skyped us from Massachusetts. It’s good to be back. 
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Speaking of family

 Bill and Marge.  Family we got to choose. The first long-term friends we made in Colorado in 1968.  They were the first to come see us at the hospital when Becky was born.  Their kids, Donnie and Debbie were about 7 and 9 years old then.  Now Deb has her own kids and grandkids.  Don and Bill have separate farms, but they work together, sharing equipment, fields, and pastures.  We’ve been friends all these years; really more like family. They had a farm outside Broomfield in Colorado back then.  Marge worked in town where she and Judy met.  Now they have a farm outside Wheatland, WY.  And.  Could it be any better?  They have guinea fowl wandering about!  2015 summer trip map 
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I’ve been waking up ridiculously early

 It happened yesterday.  Then again today.  5:55am; why am I awake? Oh.  Wait.  We’re in the Mountain Time Zone now, and I forgot to move the bedroom clock forward an hour.  Nevermind. Another easy day driving; a tailwind making for a quiet ride.  Not even any wind noise in the cabin.  The mystery rattle/clunk long gone; fixed with the installation of new shocks.  Got great fuel mileage; drove two hundred miles and still have four hundred fifty miles left in the tank. No sign of a drought here.  This side of Wyoming looks literally lush.  Stopped for the night at Laramie. 2015 summer trip map 
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We don’t get much news on the road

 …but we didn’t miss the headlines about the county clerk who has gone to jail because it’s against her religious principles to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples. I don’t think she’s being asked to violate her deep religious convictions.  I think she’s being asked to do her job.  If it’s against her religious convictions to do her job, then she should have a different job.  Stand up for your principles.  Take a moral stand.  But don’t use a government position to advance an individual conviction. Extend the logic a little.  If a clerk can use a government position to impose a particular religious value on everyone else, then our entire government can be held hostage to any random religious conviction. But we could do that if we wanted.  We gather up all the religious convictions, throw out the conflicting ones, and impose the rest.  But wait.  Some are widely held; some are downright crazy.  We need someone to pick which convictions we impose; someone impartial, so one religion doesn’t get to dominate.  Hey, that sounds like me! I should be the one who gets to decide.  We’re stopped for the night at the Rock Springs KOA. 2015 summer trip map You might not think much of Rock Springs, Wyoming, but walk out the back of the KOA, up into the hills a little, and it’s a glorious high-desert scene.  
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Nevada

 We love driving the wide-open spaces.  Fast smooth road.  No traffic.  Passing the occasional truck.  Gobbling up the miles.  Not a lot of steering.  Not a lot of shifting.  Just let it roll and watch the world go by. A drive through a pastel desert painting.  Soft greens, shades of brown, a golden sheen of blooms on the rabbitbrush and sage.  Maybe a water color.  Maybe a chalk.  Black volcanic outcroppings.  A train on the horizon. We’re stopped for the night in Salt Lake City. 2015 summer trip map