Only three weeks after we returned from Africa, we packed up the Sprinter and headed up to Boston Mills, Ohio for an art show. The Boston Mills art festival was as fun as ever and we got to see lots of our collectors and friends. After stopping in Columbus to visit some old friends, we headed down to Dadville, Alabama to visit some dear friends that we hadn't seen in quite a while. That was a blast! Our friends, Tommy and Vicki invited a bunch of our old buddies over for dinner one night and we shared a lot of music together while we were there.
Just two weeks later, we packed up the Sprinter again with new Art and headed to Texas, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana to deliver Art, spend some time with friends ,relax, and have some adventures.
After stopping in Texas to visit, our friends, Dub and Sharon Bartlett, we headed up to tiny Jemez , New Mexico to visit the Hot Springs there and do some hiking. It's a small town near Los Alamos and we enjoyed spending a couple of days in the Hot Springs and visiting Caldara national Park nearby. Weirdly, we ran into some folks there who spent a lot of time in New Orleans and not only knew about my art piece, THE SINGING OAK in New Orleans, he had a tattoo of THE SINGING OAK on his arm!
From New Mexico, we drove up to Snowmass, Colorado to deliver a piece to our old friends Michelle and Dan Webb. After a lovely dinner and spending the night -we hiked together and then headed off to Grand Junction to visit one of the best fossil museums in the world. From there, we headed up to Vernal, Utah, where we rafted the Yampa river through split mountain national Park. Beautiful!
After a long day on the road, we got up to our "Home away from Home" at Thistledew cabin in Tetonia, Idaho. Thistledew cabin is a lovely little apartment over a garage and Art and Pottery studio belonging to our friends Leslie and Don Roth. We absolutely love staying there and getting to visit with Don and Leslie and our other friends in Idaho. Don and Leslie built Thistledew a couple of decades ago with their kids and we love staying with them. They have become dear friends since their travels and spirit of adventure parallels ours perfectly. They are avid outdoorsman ,and hikers and we love spending time with them. Often they take us for a boat ride down the Teton river, where we watch, moose, drank good wine, and picnic along the way. We can't overstate how much we love spending time with them.
Another aspect of Tetonia that we love, is spending time with my friend Dr. Susan Ehrlich at Earthfire Institute. I can ride my bike over to Earthfire and visit with Susan, and interact with the bears ,wolves and other wildlife that they have provided a sanctuary for. Earthfire Institute is a wildlife sanctuary dedicated to animal rights and working to protect wildlife and natural habitats all over the world. Susan is a world, famous author, speaker and expert on animal rights and Jim and I love visiting her and her staff. I get to spend time with the Earthfire Bears and wolves, and draw until my heart's content. Jim loves helping out over there with carpentry, construction advice, and cooking every now and then.
Two of our best friends, Steve and Yancy Sietz searched all over the West for a place to build a summer home and, coincidentally, ended up buying property only a mile away from where we stay and building a beautiful home. While they were building the home, we introduced them to some of our friends, and then since they completed the home and moved in, they have made new friends themselves, who have often become our friends as well. We especially love our Tuesday bike rides with Steve ,Yancey and our Idaho friends. Since they know the area, they plan a route that is absolutely gorgeous, surrounded by beautiful mountains, along sparkling creeks, and rivers, and through endless grasslands.
After a couple of weeks in Idaho, we drove up to Whitefish, Montana near Glacier Park to deliver artwork to the Dick Idlol gallery in Whitefish. We had a lovely dinner with Jennifer and Colt Idol, and then spent the day at one of the only ranches in the United States that raises Clydesdale horses. It's a beautiful area and we love to kayak, hike, and ride the gondola up to the top of the mountains nearby. On our way home, we stopped for one night in Kalispell, Montana, and took the ferry out to "Wild Horse Island "in Flathead lake. Flathead lake is one of the biggest lakes in the United States and Wild Horse Island was a place where Indian tribes sequestered their horses to keep them safe from other tribes. We spent the day exploring the beaches, and hiking around the island, looking for wild horses, and big horn sheep.
Then we drove to Bozeman Montana, where we stayed with our friends Charlene and Tom at the Howler Inn. We love the Howler Inn because they raise wolves there and you can spend time watching the wolves, roaming the property and even interacting with them on walks with Tom. Certainly one of our favorite places in the world! We dropped off some artwork at the Mountain Trails Gallery in Bozeman and managed a visit with the staff , who have become friends over the years.
From there, we headed back to Idaho, dropping off Art at the Mountain Trails Gallery in Jackson, visiting friends there, and spending the rest of the time having dinner with friends, hiking along trails to waterfalls, boating with Dan and Leslie, and riding bikes with Steve and Yancy and our other friends.
On the way home, we stopped off and visited with Ged and Theresa and their beautiful cabin near Crested Butte, Colorado. With them, we did an awesome ATV ride way up into the mountains miles, and miles from any civilization. It was a beautiful day, and although we didn't see too much wildlife, we had a wonderful adventure away from people.
It never gets old, exploring the beautiful byways of this great country, meeting great friends, finding inspiration around every corner! Don't worry, as time goes on we will complete the captions and information with each photograph. It's just a lot of time and work and we are just recovering and catching up back home- standby for more information on our adventures!
