Wyoming Wind Gives Clues

I do believe I've mentioned how our yard catches everything the wind blows around our neighborhood. Our street is long and our house is situated where the road bends. Add to that the fact that THE WIND IS ALWAYS BLOWING IN WYOMING and the result is, our yard is kind of a collection area. Remember when I told you we bagged up over 60 bags of leaves this Fall? Most people in the neighborhood just had a few bags sitting on the curb the day the city collected them. It was a bit embarrassing, really.

Do you remember the week we found a crutch in our front yard? Could the wind be strong enough to do that? The answer is YES! The gusts that week were up to 90 mph!

This week we received boxes in our yard.  They were empty. Either someone told everybody that we were going to do the cardboard recycling for everyone or the Wyoming Wind has been leaving treats for us once again. Apparently someone in our neighborhood got a new table.  

Someone else must have received a new red wagon, maybe for Christmas?

The weirdest thing I found in our yard remains a bit mysterious.  I thought I had already written a post about this but when I looked for it this morning I couldn't find it. So, sorry if I am repeating myself. 

Some time back I found this driver's license.

It just suddenly appeared in my flowers one day. It is pretty old as it was to expire in 2007. It was a provisional license as the young lady was underage at the time. She would now be 26 years old.  The weirdest part was that it is a California license. Why would that show up in our yard years later?

What is It?

Anyone know what you are looking at here?

I will give you a clue. 

Although the photos don't show the color very well,

it was blue, pink and yellow.

I'm not making that up.

Leave a comment if you think you've figured it out.

I will give you the answer tomorrow!

That Sinking Feeling and a Mystery

After we left Independence Rock we headed toward Muddy Gap and Jeffrey City, Wyoming.  As it turned out, we didn't even stop at either place.  It was a lovely drive, though, with lots of space to view.   We talked about how sad we feel for people who don't ever get to see such wide open places.  There is such beauty!

We just kept moving on, enjoying the ride.

We decided to head on to Lander, Wyoming.  We'd been there before but it had been awhile.

Can you see that there is still snow on the very top of the mountains?

As we drove into Lander, Mike spotted a golf course.  I didn't mind exploring for a bit on my own so I encouraged him to go golfing.  Bode and I drove through Lander and then I decided to go out to the Sinks.

"What are the Sinks?" you say.

I was hoping you would ask.

Well, the middle fork of the Popo Agie River, flowing down from the Wind River Mountains, does a very weird thing just a few miles outside Lander, Wyoming...

 it disappears.  I am not kidding you.  It is called the Sinks, and this  is what it looks like:

The river just "sinks" down under ground at that point.

I read that spelunkers had tried to go down into the caverns to get an idea of where the river is going.  Can you imagine?  Who in their right mind would go down into that?  They didn't get far as it quickly narrows down into spaces too tight for humans.

The river resurfaces just 1/3 mile away.  You can follow a trail to where it resurfaces and it takes only a matter of minutes, even walking.  Along the trail is this dry riverbed that only actually has water when there is a water flow higher than The Sinks can handle.  I loved the big boulders!

Where the water comes back to the surface is called "The Rise".  It is a calm, pretty place.

There are a LOT of trout there.

No, they didn't come underground.  

They swam upstream to spawn but

 at that point they

could go no further.

They live out their lives there.

Some have grown to 8-10 pounds there!

The water continues on downstream and looked quite serene to me.

So, what is the mystery?

Well, remember that it is just a matter of minutes from The Sinks to The Rise.

Scientists, using dye, found that the water actually travels for 

OVER TWO HOURS

before resurfacing?

Where is it all that time?

ALSO,

more water comes out at The Rise than goes down at The Sinks.

From where is that extra water coming?

Inquiring minds want to know!

A Morning With an Old Young Friend

Saturday I enjoyed a delightful breakfast with my young friend, Laura.  We talked about serious things; we talked about nonsense.  We also talked about a lot of things in between.  I convinced her to allow me to snap a few photos of her as I sought her permission to mention her in my blog.  Those photos turned out to be of very poor quality; I must've been shivering when I took them.  However, I found a great photo shared on her FaceBook.  I don't think she'll mind that I share it instead...

To explain to you how I came to be friends with this young woman I think I should begin at the beginning...

Once upon a time we lived in Southern New Mexico.  When we moved there we met a family in the congregation who had three little girls.  The middle girl, Laura, reminded me so much of Laura Ingalls Wilder on Little House on the Prairie!  Remember her?  Well, this Laura was a pretty little brunette like her and had a similarly charming personality.  She just had a sense of FUN about her.  She was a 4th grader when we met.

We became friends with Laura's parents and enjoyed time with them.  Sadly, they moved away from New Mexico before we really got to know them as well as we'd have liked.  Their new home was in Iowa.  We kept in touch for a few years via Christmas Cards and such.  I'm pretty bad with the cards, though, and we ended up losing touch.

When Mike received an invitation to interview at a congregation in Wyoming we had a little mystery greet us.  People told us that just the week or so before Mike's interview, a couple with a tall, blonde teen-age daughter had visited the church.  When this small family heard the announcement that the congregation would be interviewing Mike, they'd mentioned to someone that they knew him.  However, no one remembered the name of the family and we just could not think of anyone we knew that fit that description.

Finally, while touring the church, we thought to read the guest book.  The family was, as you may have guessed, Laura's family.  We found out later they had just moved to this town in Wyoming.  Laura and her older sister, however, were in college in Iowa.  Her little sister was the tall blonde teen!  Ah, the lightbulbs came on!

Well, we again enjoyed getting to know Laura's parents and her little sister.  Laura's Mom became a good friend to me.  We did not live far apart and often shared rides to Bible Studies and such.  I found that she was one of the easiest people to talk with and we seemed to have a lot in common.

Laura ended up accepting a position working here and so we enjoyed reconnecting with her as well.  Sadly, her parents and sister have since moved on.  Happily, because Laura is here, they are occasionally back for visits.

 Laura was in a Christian group of young women that met for Bible Study and conversation.  At one point they all decided to seek out a mentor.  I was really honored when Laura asked me to fill that position for her.  That's when I really got to know her better.  I'm not always certain who is mentoring whom, but we share some good discussions and a lot of laughter.  We've become good friends and I really appreciate this young woman!

Do you have people in your lives that keep popping up like Laura's family?  Or maybe non-relatives that kind of feel like relatives?  For me, the best things in this life have to do with relationships.  I've been blessed with a lot of meaningful ones and for this I am grateful!

The Case of the Mysterious Crutch

It is really windy where we live.  No, I don't mean breezy.  I mean REALLY windy.  Some days it blows and it blows and it blows with a dreadful monotany, only to be interrupted by gusts of 50-90 mph.   A few weeks ago, while driving the 15 minute route to Cordy's house (Yes, Maria and Eric live there too but she refers to it as "Cordy's House" so now I do as well.) I came upon a semi that had been blown over.  Unfortunately that is not that uncommon here.

When Beth Moore was here she was telling the audience of her shock when she arrived at our airport and got off the little plane.  She demonstrated with her body how hard it was to just stand up!  She then commented that she was terrified it would blow the bleach right off her hair!

Well, after one of those really windy weeks I found this in our front yard.

We often have odd things blow up into our yard but this was surprising indeed!  I couldn't quite come up with an explanation for this.  If it blew into our yard, was there a limping person also blown off course?  Had someone left this in their yard and it blew down to ours?  I was puzzled.

But then it was suggested to me

"Maybe someone was healed!"

I'm going with that explanation!

 

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