“Go West, Young Man!”  Horace Greeley is often credited with this famous quote.  It was actually made by John Soule, of the Terre Haute Express.  Along with being wrongly credited to Mr. Greeley, it has also often been misquoted. It was originally written as:  “Go West, young man, and grow up with the country.”

In 2006 Anne, Dave and I followed Mr. Greeley née Soule’s advice.  Dan, still in college, stayed in Saint Louis to work on his art, but after a line of thunderstorms knocked out power to much of the city, he ended up only qualifying for a I Survived the Summer of 2006 in Saint Louis t-shirt.  Plus, a week of oppressive Saint Louis summer weather, without air conditioning.

Anne, Dave and I drove west to Colorado.  After two and a half days of driving, we ended up in Durango, in southwestern Colorado.  There we met up with Carl, Jay, Rey and Ashlan, who had driven east from Seattle.  They had just finished spending a week with Carl’s folks, Good Old Doris (GOD) and Sweet Old Bob (SOB).  Hey folks, it you write in you Christmas letter, don’t be surprised to see it on the web.

We spent a week together in two adjoining cabins, on the shores of a beautiful lake.  Once a  flight of four National Guard C-130s flew in a tight low-level formation across the lake at sunset and me without my camera.  Better than cormorants, if you ask me.

While in Durango we rode the Durango to Silverton Railroad, had lunch in Silverton and then rode back to Durango.  We also visited Mesa Verde.  Now a National Historic Monument, it was once a thriving Pueblo Nation.  I even did a little biking.  Although, even the little mountains were big.  That was a nice vacation.

That was then, this is now.  This summer we plan on meeting at Yellowstone.  This year it looks to be Carl, Jay, Ashlan, Anne and I.  Rey, Dan and Dave are welcome, but their schedules may or may not permit?  Speak up guys!

I think that Anne and I will fly into Salt Lake City and then drive up to Yellowstone.  We still need to firm up the dates with Jay and Carl, just a little.  Anyway, all park lodging is already booked.  So if anyone has a steer for a nice near by place?  We would like to hear about it.  Everyone will eventually hear about it anyway.  I promise a whole week of blag-shit about it.  Heck, you’ll be lucky to get by with just one week.