Red Bed Trail Hike

Yesterday's weather cooperated for a mid morning hike on the Red Bed Trail. Spectacular view and well worth the slippery, somewhat narrow at times trail! The red beds were amazingly vibrant in their color. Reminded me a wee bit of OK red dirt but these were truly vivid red and I remember OK red dirt as more orange.

Enjoyed a red headed woodpecker sighting while making dinner but other then that not much in the way of birds.

We are ND bound today after a short laundry stop. Devils Tower has been incredible but we are on to Theodore Roosevelt NP next!

Wednesday Words - Sharma

Never let the things you want, make you forget the things you have...

~Robin S.Sharma

Rings true, quite true indeed.

Devils Tower

Today we left SD for WY. The drive was scenic. We saw several more two prongs, more mountain bluebirds and a lot of beautiful countryside. Oh and a few cows and horses, too. The drive up to the entrance of Devils Tower National Monument was W.O.W. And the fact that we scored a shaded campsite at the base was bonus. After a quick grill meal of brats, taters and bean salad we trekked on up to the visitor center and set out to hike the Tower Trail. Oh my, what an amazing spectacular sight! Weather dependent we may hike the Red Bed Trail tomorrow. Praying for no severe weather while we are here for the next few days...severe weather scares me :( otherwise life is good! #DevilsTower

Wednesday Words - Lewis

Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less.

 

C.S. Lewis

 

We think we know you...

Hmmm, you look really familiar!

 

 

Yesterday, after the change of command a young officer approached MiRV and thought for sure several in the audience knew him so she kindly requested he join her and a group of others so they could figure out the connection. Didn't take long to pinpoint the location where they had crossed paths. His one year remote at the 379th. Even in retirement the USAF is a small world. Fun, huh?

#USAFretiredCCMSgt

Dontcha Know!!

We recently did a road trip to the land of youbetcha and we had a good time!

Neatest of all and the reason for the trip was to attend the Change of Command for our good friends. It was so nice to see them again! MIRV and Mr&Mrs Bud had not seen them since we left The Big O but I got to see them a few years ago in Vegas. My, oh my how those girls have grown! And it's just a good thing this was a summer event cause I don't think I will be a visitin' in any other season! 

What a neat reunion and special event to attend!!!

The fellas!

Bud got three new states-SD, ND and MN. The rest of us enjoyed adding a new check on the states visited list-ND. I'm now only short 5 (VT, MI, AK, WA & OR) more to have visited all 50! MiRV only needs two (UT & VT).

The ceremony was cool but the private tour of the Global Hawk afterward was the coolest! Oh my!

While it was a super fast trip and it would have been fun to do more sightseeing it was a fun, however; plenty of pretty orioles to see and be careful of mosquitos as they are VERY plentiful! The snacks they sent us down the road with came in handy on that long drive back!

Chocolate covered potato chips and leftover reception cakes...no complaints from the traveling crew!

#GlobalHawk

Wednesday Words - Wright

We're all starving for grace and at the same time, withholding that same grace from each other.

 

Christy Wright

Dad & Daughter D.I.Y.

It was a dad and daughter DIY! What a hoot to listen to these two measure, cut,  nail, sand etc to make this "sofa table".

While it's still not totally complete it's close and daughter will finish it up...well, at least I hope she will. It could be used as it stands so she may!

These two crack.me.up!
#yougoprouddaddy!

Another extraordinary evening!

Again, one of the top bennies of this nomadic lifestyle is being able to go and do pretty much as we please. We were already in MO and got the invite to attend the wing commander change of command at Whiteman AFB. While going to the CoC was neat...being able to see our adopted Eastsiders was the best part!

 Such a great evening on the back patio catching up over a bottle of vino! It was just like we were back on the Eastside!

Really neat to see how the oldest A-Team member has grown...we got to see the smaller one but she was not up for a picture as she woke up with teething discomfort...

 

 

Godspeed as you make your way to your new southern home in the next few days and who knows we may just show up in AL while you are there!

#EastsidersRule

Wedneday Words - de Saint-Exupery

Tell me who admires and loves you, and I will tell you who you are.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Twenty nine and counting...

Today marked 29 years that MiRV and I have been married. Not an easy feat with all of the things we have been through but we took our vows seriously and still do to this day.  It's not all rainbows and sparkly glitter but it's a lot of real life fun and we go to bed at night content with our life choices. We are not just what you think you see on the outside, we have had many ups and downs, we have weathered storms, we have  laughed together a lot, we have had spats and we can trust in the fact that when the baby needs to be called ugly we can do it and still love each other. It's work but it's rewarding work and worth it to keep our relationship together.

Today MiRV made a Facebook post and then we bantered a little back and forth throughout the day. His post is below.

Happy Anniversary!!!!!
In the past 29 years, we've traveled to 44 states and 16 countries while living in 8 states and 3 countries. I'm looking forward to topping that in the next 29 years and I could never imagine doing it with anyone else.
Thanks for the adventures!!! You are simply "THE BEST"
143

‪#‎lovemywife‬ ‪#‎lovetotravel‬ ‪#‎hittheroad‬ ‪#‎vandweller‬ ‪#‎militarymoves‬ ‪#‎ParliItaniano‬ ‪#‎NaoFazMal‬




My response was

It's been awesome good! Let's not forget those 3 states you have slipped into w/o me along with the 14 other countries and 1500 plus days you were away in these last 29 years! It's a good thing we have going, wouldn't want to be Living the Dream with anyone else but you!

He chimed in with this-

Living the Dream...with many more years (and miles) to go! 

And then popped back on to add this-

BTW: that's still about 9,000 days next to you smile emoticon #rightthere



My post to him was not so in detail, it simply said this -

Happy anniversary to myMxxxxx! We've definitely had the life and I look forward to many more years together on this road called life...what an adventure we've had!

We didn't have too big of a day. We did go to the movies over the weekend, Pitch Perfect 2 is hilarious, but honestly also somewhat crass; however there was lots of fun head bobbin' music! Tonight we did go to dinner at my favorite local Mexican restaurant. But the real pièce de résistance was me starting to burn the brush pile while MiRV was on the phone, I thought it would be our 30th anniversary before that thing was torched to the ground. It's so wet here, which is great and things are lush and green, but it made it hard for me to get the brush pile burning. Once he was off the telly he of course charged right over and started flames on the opposite side of the pile then made some adjustments to the flames I had going and before long he's got singed hair on various limbs and his head!! This man of mine certainly does nothing half way. After a nice bowl of potato soup for lunch we were going to burn pile number two. Easy, right? Yeah, no, he decides we will just move pile two over to hot burning pile one..UGH! Did I mention the yard is saturated? Yes, well, hey, there's been a lot of rain here and the yard is saturated. I did mention that about the yard being saturated, right? Sooooooo my shoes got soaked and my jeans were muddy but we moved that pile and got rid of three of the four stumps from a previous job we did.

It's been a fine day! Happy Anniversary to you myMiRV and to me, here's to 29 more!!