Thr. 6-4 This Day for Chad, Marnee, Miranda, Spencer

2230, finally hit the hay. Time flies by so fast, kind of like life. At the end of the day I find it hard to get everything done. Whah! Whah! Suck it up Chief!! 0645 on the trail for somewhere east! The road from Mt. Home, east, goes up,up,up,up, for 30mi. The first 20 was 1-3/1-5 then eased up to 2-1/2-3. At 12mi. my ‘ol telescopic eyes started working again and I spotted 10 antelope across the canyon at a range of 1.25mi. Yep! There they were. 3 bucks, 4 does and 4 young ‘uns. I sure felt a lot better and later on I saw a muley sprint up the hill and a badger along the road. Whew! My vision returned. I was steaming up a 1-1 huffer and saw something I had not seen since I left Ellensburg back in ‘56. A real west cattle drive. I kept wondering as I weaved up the grade why there was so much fresh fertilizer all over the road. As I topped the hill, finally, I saw cows scattered along the road for 2mi. There were cops galore and real live cowboys on horses, herding these bovine along. I eased on by them and I think my bright vest kept them moving away from me. I wanted to take some pics but when I stopped to get my camera, one big ‘ol bull looked at me kinda sideways and so I moved quite quickly on up the road. At one grade, a cowboy was drooped over the saddle and was really laughing up a storm. I eased over and asked, “what’s up?” and he spit out a stream of skoal and said “man, ‘em dere cows ain’t nebberr seen anyone on a b’cycle.” He was still chuckling as I pushed on up the road and I had to laugh too. Something out of a movie. 5,212ft. was the summit and Gail caught my there. At 40 mi. the lightning, thunder, wind and rain dropped out of the sky and at 43 mi. we checked up at a wide spot and battened down. Wow! The weather changes faster then you can change a diaper. The radio weather reported winds up to 70mph and a storm watch was out. I guess!!! Din, shower, Nity Nite. Another night of rock and roll and wind whistling all around the trailer. Fun, Fun.
My nephew Chad: What can I say? If I could have a son, this guy would be him. While in K.V. he worked on a X-mas tree farm for Rod Skelton. He came to work for me at Rickabaugh Orchards and turned out to be my left and right hand man. While there, he perfected “That Cleveland Look” and uses it to this day. I missed him and Dana after they moved to WA. State but that was what had to be. He married a great gal, Marnee, and some summers they came back to Ca. and worked at Scotts Vly. We never went N. that we did not spend time with them. His mechanical skills are great and he is called on by both family and friends to get things fixed and he gets it done. Monumental memories of hunting trips, fishing, shooting, sharing a beer or two etc.etc. He works for Ok. Co. Marnee works at the hospital in the Rx. Dpt. Miranda and Spencer (Beau’s favorite Cousin) are in school. Chad got into competitive shooting and works with some youth clubs. We had many great times at the Omak Stampede and River Float. I could go on but heard someone say, hay, that’s enough, give it a break, chill. O.K. We always look forward to being with you guys. Love You Man, and Marnee and you lucky kids.