We Land Cruise West

Leslie and Aunt Helen

After a great stay with Eric and family we headed West in our little Prius to Cody Wyoming. On the way we spent the night at Leslie’s Aunt Helen at Kearney, Nebraska.

Leslie's Neices and grandneices

 

the Cody gunfight begins

We stayed in Cody at Leslie’s sister Ally’s place and visited Leslie’s mother each day.

 

A chuckwagon demonstration at the
Cody Museam

 

They blast away in Cody

Carl mets a saloon woman

Leslie gets checked by the "doctor"

 

While there we got to see the nightly gun fight in Cody outside the Irma Hotel. It was a blast! The hotel was built by Wild Bill Cody for his daughter Irma back in the 1800s and has the “mile long bar” with the old brass boot rail. Cody is a great place! The museum is awesome and main street is old west blended with today. We visited the 1^st KOA campground as it was celebrating its 50^th anniversary.

Ally and Leslie at a fund raiser

there are bears all over Cody

While there we also visited the Buffalo Bill Dam, the largest dam in the world at the time, and Buffalo Jump Winery, the only winery in Wyoming. It was a great visit!

 

Annette and Markus

Main street Ouray from a brewery

 

We headed south to Ouray Colorado to meet our friends Annette and Markus. Ouray is a neat place with several micro-breweries and no stop lights! It is known for its 4 wheeling in the summer and ice climbing in the winter.

Inside a hot spring cave

Leslie and Annette in a hot spring room

 

 It also has a number of hot springs including a huge municipal hot springs pool and water park. There is also great climbing around the town including a trail all the way around the town Taking advantage of all these activities left us fully in awe of CO.

We hike the trail around Ouray

one of the water falls

 

 

 

 

 

 

Typical western building

A canyon with a couple of dead deer
at the bottom

 

 

 

 

 

 

moutain view fromTelluride

Sunset in Ouray

 

We took the free gondola at Telluride.  Visiting Telluride was an experience as CO.’s new laws with marijuana made for an interesting afternoon.

Open air music concert in Ouray

A well attended concert

the double RL ranch gate of Ralph
Loren

Marcus is working as a cowboy for the RRL ranch, which is a huge ranch owned by Ralph Loran. I am so jealous of his job! It is a real cowboy job, ranching and cattle herding and branding.

Carl hangs with the Duke

We visit Silverton

 

We crossed Red Mountain pass, a twisting hairpin turn road to Silverton for a visit before continuing south to Albuquerque.

 

Carl's niece Mallisa with husband Steve
and son Tank

Carl's cousins Sue and Scott with
their family Deenue and Chris and their
kids Caeden and Makenzie

 

At Albuquerque we visited my cousin Scott and I attended the , Single Action Shooting Society, End of Trail, EOT, shoot. What a great time! It was so much fun!  Everyone reverted back to being western cowboys.

Shooters get ready!

The custumes and gun carts were unique

There was music, dancing, raffles, shops and of course shooting. It was a great time! While Carl participated in the shooting events, Leslie ran a Victorian Tea House with Sunshine Belle .

everyone particapates

Leslie and Sunshine Bell

The Duke and Leslie

Hot Tomale not only built a stage but
had a magareta party as well

Us in our cowboy gear

The Long horns reminded me of the
Movie Blazing Saddles

They had stage coach rides

More of Sue and Scott's family
Chris with Hynlee and Sydnee

At the end we spent the weekend with my cousin Scott and his family before heading back to St. Louis for 4^th of July with Eric and Aron’s families. It was good to have everyone together. Then it was off East to visit family and friends.

Carl's uncle George and his friend
Loretta

More family Joel and Katie

More family Hailee with Piper and Hynlee

We are all together 4th of July

 

The Sea Cruise Ends and the Land Cruise Begins

Erin, Leslie, and Randy on their boat

There are pirates in Nassau

We hung out and said farewell to our Nassau friends on their beautiful boat. If you go to Nassau take a day charter on Barefoot Charter.

Atlantis in Nassau

Disney Cruise coming in

We left Nassau and avoided the incoming Disney Cruise ship to start our cruise to and across the Bahama Bank. We crossed the bank at night and, just after dawn, we sailed around the light house at the south end of Cat Cay.

We round Cat Cay

 

Bahia Honda

 

The beach at Bahia Honda

We continued on crossing the Gulf Stream that day and sailing down the coast of the Florida Keys in the Hawk Channel all night to anchor early the next morning at Bahia Honda. It was a good sail with good weather and the anchorage was off a park so there was a beach and stores on the beach. 

We needed to get to an oral Surgeon friend to get Leslie’s tooth repaired. So we left Midnight Rambler the next day, saying our thanks and well wishes for a good final cruise to Tampa to Aug, Peg, and Bobby. We then caught a bus to Key West.
We had e-mailed our sons Eric and Aron at the beginning of the trip to tell them of our plans to come to the mainland and stay there until January when we would go back to the BVI to continue cruising. Apparently that had triggered a conversation between them discussing what we would do for those 6 months because when I called Aron from Key West to tell him we were in Key West the following conversation occurred. “Hi Aron it’s Dad and we are in Key West.” Aron’s guarded voice replied, “Hi Dad, what are your plans while you’re in the states?” Carl playfully responded, “I thought your mother and I would spend 3 months with your brother and 3 months with you.”A horrified voice stated, “ NO DAD! NO! Not 3 months!” Carl let him up saying, “Just kidding.” We told him we plan on driving around to visit friends and relatives, and fit a trip to Australia to do the same, but we plan to spend 2 or 3 weeks with him over the period.

Our digs

Key West

 The bus dropped us off in the middle of town where we walked to our nearby accommodations. We were surprised after checking in to find the pool and hot top clothing optional! Carl loves this place!  

The famous Mallory Square

Key West is a busy fun place and we caught the sundown at the bar and visited the Mel Fisher Museum, along with a number of shops and stores, before we rented a car and headed up the Keys to West Palm to visit my brother and his family.

The story of the Conch Republic

Bret's family and friends

Bret's family

Over the next week we traveled north on our way to our friend the oral surgeon and getting Leslie’s tooth repaired. On the way we stopped to visit my brother and his family, my cousin Anita and her family, and Aron's family.

Anita and her husband Paul

They have a car like ours!



Leslie, niece Juli, and friend Apple

Strawberry fields Madison and Cole

Cole in the Car

Madison and Katie dance through the
fields

Dave's girls

The waterfalls

Monday, Memorial Day, we arrived at Eric’s friend Dave, the oral surgeon. Since office was closed and it was early, we went hiking at one of the many nearby parks. We hiked up a river with his wife, Jessica, their three young daughters,and his little son, Davidson, to a big beautiful waterfall. A fun day was had by all!


We walk along the stream

Davidson shares his cowboy hat



Leslie recovers from the tooth

Tuesday Leslie started her three part procedure and had her tooth extracted and the socket filled with bone material. Now she waits for 3 months to have the metal post put in and then another 3 month wait for a crown.

Tali does a nice cartwheel

Tali gets her gymnastic metal

We drove to St. Louis to visit Eric, Kelly and the girls for Leslie’s recovery. Next is on to the West!

Tali ready for her recital

Tali and Cloe at the club pool