Good bye and hello

On Monday we left Alpine and drove to Boulder. We said our teary goodbyes to Paul, Jenny and Max, and our cheery hellos to Rob and Betsey. We got up pretty early Monday morning - early for us - and did our final packing of the car which I had begun on Sunday. We also stripped the bed, and did some basic cleaning. Paul and Jenny went off to work, Hannah arrived to be with Max, and when all was packed, we slipped away. One last item we took that we had not brought was Ellen's dulcimer which she had left with Paul when she had moved back East from Jackson some 16 years ago. Could it have been that long? I guess so, because it was Ben's birth that brought her back, and I think he's sixteen now. So it is now wrapped in a blanket on top of everything else.

The packed car - that's the dulcimer on top of the blue suitcase. A lot of stuff!

We ate breakfast at the Coffee Cabin and we were on our way by 9:30 or so.

The Coffee Cabin

It's about a 540-mile drive to Boulder. Up through the canyon to Hoback, then over through Bondurant (tiny), Pinedale (bigger) where we stopped to mail cards, stopped at the Sublette County Visitor's Center where Ellen found nice post cards, and went to the Library for WiFi (the award-winning building was designed by Carney Architects when Ellen worked for them). 

Pinedale Library exterior

Library interior - main reading room

 Then on to Rock Springs,  where we stopped at a Taco Time - I had a taco salad; Ellen her usual rice and beans - then on to I-80 east across southern Wyoming to Cheyenne and down I-25 to Boulder. I read aloud from Arthur Ransome's Great Northern, we listened to a Guilford church service on tape - July 2, 1989 - Shirley preached on the theme of "God is the potter and we are the clay" from Jeremiah. She had visited a local potter's studio and learned a lot about what it's like to work the clay on the wheel. The potter - Ruth Tillman Osborne - told her that when all goes well, the clay "sings." Shirley liked that. Ruth also gave the church a vase she had made and that became the center of the children's story in which Shirley actually involved the children in working with clay! 

Ruth Tillman Osborne's Vase

The reading and the listening (and in my case some dozing) helped the miles speed by. We got a supper-snack at a Flying-J truck stop south of Cheyenne and arrived at the Shay's at 7:45 p.m., just 15 minutes later than the estimated ETA we had made on Sunday. Not bad! 

Our first week here, Emma, a PCA who is the daughter of Betsey's energy healer, Lyria Pascal, will still be helping out mornings, so our work will be lighter. More on that later.