Idaho, 2015, Days Five and Six

Day Five we spent lollygagging in Denver while Wade and Barbara were visiting with family who were in town. 

Paul and I went to see Jurassic World and were less than amazed. Spoiler Alert:  Take the first Jurassic movie, change the actors, shift a few relationships around, make the park bigger, and you’ve basically got this movie, minus some of the humor in the first one.  Like the guy in the outhouse when the T-Rex is on the rampage.  That was funny in a sick, twisted sort of way. 

In the evening we walked a few blocks down the street for a root beer float and some ice-cream and that was about it for the day.  I feel like I’m finally relaxed enough to start my vacation.

Day Six started with a walk to Einstein’s for bagels.  Back on the road, the scenery is becoming more and more spectacular with snow-capped mountains barely visible on the horizon and a sky that looks so much bigger and so much bluer than at home.  A rare house here and there on an occasional hill in the distance are the only signs of life other than the traffic on the highway.  The speed limit is 80mph.  I finally feel like I’m west of the Mississippi.

Tonight we stopped in the only town of any size we have seen in hours.  Buffalo, Wyoming is a charming place with quaint shops along the historic main street, unfortunately all closed since it's a Sunday evening. We found a very nice hotel with the appropriate name of The Buffalo Inn, looking fairly new and decorated with, you guessed it, buffalo paintings and such.  The very pleasant clerk told us there’s nothing much to see around here except the old brothel in town and there’s nothing much open for supper on a Sunday evening except the Boseman Steakhouse.

We searched out the steakhouse and were soon getting to know our waitress who has lived around these parts her whole life and “loves it.”  Her name is Jordan, she told us, because, “My mom loved Michael Jordan and I was supposed to be a boy.”  Petit and blonde, she is neither a boy nor in any way reminiscent of His Royal Airness.

I’m not sure how it happened but she told us all about herself and it felt rather like a compliment, not like too much sharing.  Her mother family had ten thousand sheep and her father was from a long line of cattle farmers.  And yes, their union was not blessed by either side at first. It seems the dogs from her father’s side kept coming over and eating the sheep.  Well, killing them at least. Eventually, it all came right though and now they “all get along fine.” Then she he told us about recent tragedies, deep and painful things, in a matter-of-fact voice that made it even more heart-wrenching.  She had a ready smile and self-pity never surfaced.

 I’m not sure how our conversation progressed to such things but it wasn’t awkward like one might suppose.  And I hope we were encouraging somehow. I left feeling thankful for all the sorrow I have not had to face.  And praying she would not doubt God’s love for her.  We never know, do we, how chance encounters might change a person’s life.  If not hers, than ours.