Elaine's Friend

Two weeks ago, I wrote that it was Elaine and my wedding anniversary. I didn't write much about the planned and unplanned celebration of the anniversary.

The planned part of the celebration doesn't sound like much of a celebration to most people. We planned on driving two and a half hours to a Colorado mountain town to have lunch on our way to a Wyoming mountain town to have an anniversary dinner in a historic hotel.

We have made this exact trip before, I can assure you it is not as boring as it sounds. I like to play with my cameras and Elaine has motives of her own.

We found this biker bar/restaurant during the beervirus closures. This place refused to close when the governor mandated the closing of all non-essential businesses in Colorado. I kind of like Renegades, so we have associated the restaurant several times since.

We left our home later than we had planned causing us to get to the biker bar exactly at noon. A couple of burgers later, Elaine's had mushrooms and Swiss cheese, which I found disgusting, but everyone gets to choose in this relationship, we were on our way to dinner at the hotel.

We still had a long drive ahead of us, but that said we were going to be at the hotel well before dinner. I thought there would be things to photograph along the way. (Secretly, I was hoping to get a good photograph of a male moose. I have taken many photos of females, but never a big male.) We were driving in the heart of moose country and I planned to take my time.

Elaine and I arrived at the town with the hotel way too early for dinner. She jumped out of the car and marched to her favorite store in this town. It is a hunting/fishing store that happens to sell furs. Not like fur coats or anything like that. I mean animals that had the misfortune of getting shot and then having their fur/skin sold in this store in Wyoming. In less than ten minutes, Elaine found a badger fur and a coyote fur that she would attach to a scarf or two she had woven.

It is now about ten minutes after three.

Elaine: I'm done, let's go home.

Me: What about dinner at the hotel?

Elaine: I'm not hungry, let's just go home and maybe we will get hungry on the drive back.

We headed for home. I can't say if it was a gift from God or a gift from Elaine, but on the drive back home we came across a bunch of cars parked on both sides of the road. I mentioned to Elaine, "There is either a car wreck or something is happening on the side of the road." It was my gift. Standing in a pond ten feet from the road were two male moose eating willows and waiting for me to photograph them. My trip was complete.

There is a wonderful steakhouse about fifty miles from our house. Elaine said, "Why don't we stop there for a bite to eat before we go home?" This place has wonderful steaks. Elaine orders first. A glass of merlot and an order of deep-fried mushrooms. She obviously doesn't know frogs sit on mushrooms. In my mind, I quickly changed my steak order to a shrimp cocktail. No steaks that day.

Driving the rest of the way home we decided to do an anniversary dinner sometime in the near future. We decided that what we really needed for our anniversary was a new ceiling fan. I checked silver was for twenty-five years of marriage. Gold is for fifty years. Ceiling fans work for any of the late forties.

Elaine checked the websites of The Orange Depot for ceiling fans. I was picturing in my mind the story of Goldilocks and the three bears. This ceiling fan is too big. This ceiling fan is too small. This ceiling fan is brass. We never found the fan that was just right.

I suggested we check the website of the superstore in Wyoming. I think it is called Menudos, or something. They have a huge selection of ceiling fans. Another road trip is planned.

We found a ceiling fan that worked. Elaine said, "Let's go have our anniversary dinner!" We went to some Chop House place where Elaine ordered steak and, yep, you guessed it, mushrooms. We had a great time.

While waiting for our check, a young teenage girl asked if she could remove our plates from the table. I excused myself to the restroom, (TMI?) but when I came back the young lady had not removed our plates and was still at the table talking to Elaine. I sat down and listened to the conversation. Elaine and this young lady were talking about fishing. I knew the young lady enjoyed fishing because she had a fish hook through both of her nostrils.

Young lady: I love Wyoming. I get to go fishing and hunting with my family.

Elaine: I loved to go fishing when I was young.

Young lady: I would love it if you could go fishing with my family and me. It would be so much fun.

Elaine had a new best friend. This kid was so nice, I almost couldn't see the hook in her nose.

Buy some yarn. God Bless, love ya

Our crazy lives!

Monner