Doug & Pat

We are now here at Mandy”s in Laramie, WY.  Yesterday we went over the Snowy Range to Saratoga, WY.  Doug already wrote about the hot pool there that he loves. However, yesterday it was too hot even for him. Mandy and the kids and I had planned to swim in the Municipal pool that is right next to the hot pool.  Strangely enough, the water was bathtub warm.  I guess some of the spring water was used to fill the pool.  The North Platte river runs right beside it.  The hot water runs into the river there and is more bearable. While wading in the river myself, I slipped and fell and threw my camera in the water.  I hope that it can return to workability. Here is a picture of the grandkids enjoying it:

When we went back over the mountains, we stopped at my favorite spot and hiked to the bridge.  A lovely creek of snow melt goes down the hill. I don”t have a proper picture of it on this computer. We saw some fairly large fish in the creek, but I couldn”t persuade the kids to get it and try to catch them by hand.

Our next trip was to Virginia to vist Jeff and Laura.  The weather was really nice for the first 3 days, and then the blistering heat came.  Jeff barbecued on Saturday, the 3rd, and some friends of theirs came to eat Sunday evening, the 4th, and we went to watch the fireworks from the parking roof of some building where Jeff works.  The fireworks on the mall (which was quite a ways from us) was not all that great and lasted only 20 minutes.  But there were fireworks surrounding us from different neighborhoods.  The day we had chosen to go sightseeing on the capitol mall was so, so hot.  We got to see 2 things that we had not before, up in the Washington Monument and in the Capitol.  The Capitol Visitor center is quite impressive, and Jeff was able to get us some last minute tickets for a tour.  Our capitol is beautiful, worthy of our country.

This room was the orginal House of Representatives meeting room, but it got too small.  Isn”t it pretty?

This was our next trip, camping in Arkansas in May with our friends Brenda and Tony.  The weather was just perfect and so was our campground.  Though we had been to Hot Springs before, we did some things that we hadn”t done before, like taking a Duck Boat tour. We panned for crystals (not all it”s advertised to be, but I did get some pretty ones), went up in the observation tower, found out that it was too expensive to go into the hot baths, played miniature golf in a creepy place, and picnicked in some nice parks.  The actual Hot Springs National Park is free and beautiful.  It actually had a nice campground with hook-ups, but we didn”t know that.  A stream ran beside it.  It was such fun with Brenda and Tony.  There was a super clubhouse in the campground, and we went over there every night to play Mexican Train or Phase 10.

Here we are going into the lake on the Duck Boat.  (Glad it didn”t do like the one in Pennsylvania that was hit by a barge.)

This is the stream in Hot Springs National Park.

I am long overdue for saying anything here.  We have taken 3 trips and I have not said a word!  The first was a 7 day cruise in April that went to Honduras.  We”d never been there before. One of their products is mohaganny.  We bought a beautiful ice bucket out of mohaganny.  One of the highlights was a visit to the oldest church building on the island. When a hurricane came through, it was the only things still standing.  A lady there told us the history and sang some hymns for us, acapella.  It was quite moving.

On our stop in Cozumel, we went to this museum that told Mexican history starting from the Mayan civilization.  They had replicas of the Mayan structures, then of the Catholic Churches that were built. It was awesome.

It looks real, doesn”t it?

I don”t write on this often enough, and I forget how to put all the pictures in my phto gallery.  I must do that later.

We took a seven day trip down to the Caribbean this last week.  The first stop was Roatan, Honduras, a lttle island just off the coast of the Honduras mainland.  This is a beautiful place.  Here is a photo of our ship:

The Voyager of The Seas

While visiting our daughter and her family in Laramie, WY I took the opportunity to drive (about 1 1/2 hours) to Saratoga, WY to visit the hot spring pool there.  Saratoga is a small town of about 1,200 people.  The pool has been named “Hobo Pool”.  I”m not sure why because I haven”t seen any “Hobos” there on any of my visits.  The water temperature varies from about 106 degrees to 110 degrees F depending on how close you are to where the hot spring flows into the larger pool.  I was told that the pool remains free to the public because it was a condition imposed by the local American Indian tribe that donated it to the City.  The pool is about 30” square and is open 24 hours/day.  There is no fee nor life guard.  It”s really nice to sit in the hot water while the local temperature is below freezing.  The hot spring flows into the pool and out into the adjacent river (North Platte River).  I really enjoy visiting this pool – Pat does not like the sulfur smell.