Today I had a relaxed morning, going for a walk on the path next to the irrigation canal that borders the retreat property. It was very enjoyable walking next to the burbling canal and hearing birds of all kinds around me. On the loop back I could hear a sandhill crane, I looked everywhere and finally found him up at the top of the hill! I’ve been hearing sandhill cranes the whole week I’ve been here, but had yet to actually see one. He was very tall and imposing. I got my phone out to take a video of it calling, but as soon as I did, it stopped and didn’t continue again until I was much further away. I guess it wanted to be left alone, fair enough. I ended my walk at the labyrinth, which is become my daily habit. One of these mornings I’m going to get up and walk it at sunrise. Speaking of sunrise, we had a crackerjack one this morning!
In the afternoon, I dropped Erin off in town to run errands, passing a small fairgrounds set up with carnival rides and I drove out South Fork Road to Shoshone National Forest. What an absolutely marvelous drive! The views of the surrounding mountains and land are just incredible. The ranchers out there have such spectacular vistas. I kept pulling off to take pictures and at one point I felt like I was in a TV movie, driving on an almost deserted road with these gorgeous mountains ahead and classical music on the radio. I stopped at the trailhead at the end of the road but didn’t go for a hike since I had not brought bear spray with me, and it definitely was an area that was frequented by bears. In fact, there was a sign with a notation from just two days earlier that ‘food-conditioned, bold’ grizzly bears were spotted in one of the local campgrounds. I kept my eyes open as I sat on the back of my car eating my lunch, staring up at the snow on the top of the mountains.
On my way home. I stopped by Cassie’s, a bar that’s been in Cody for 100 years. I didn’t go in, only took pictures of the signs, but I’ll check it out one of these days. Clouds were darkening, there had been some rain during my drive back and as I neared the retreat center, I saw several forks of lightning! It’s always such a thrill for me as a Californian who so rarely gets to see lightning storms.
