I think this is my favorite picture from the trip.

Work continues to go to hell in a handbasket. I’m not looking forward to going back tomorrow. Dread doesn’t even begin to sum things up.

Both my parents sick diagonally as far across the country as one can get. Mommy in hospital, finally released… Saturday? Doing much better.

Fireworks — well, we all still have all our fingers, toes, eyes…

Bear in the woods. I think the (brown) bear was also having a crappy time of it. We all three stood there, way up & out in the woods & looked at each other with the same “Aw, shit” expression. P turned his back & started back the way he came, the bear turned tail & heffalumped off, and I turned and followed suit. No fear, just, aw, shit. I looked up when P stopped & thought, ‘oh, cow.’ We’d heard some 15-20 minutes earlier & we were in the grazing part of the national forest. It was about the right size, shape for a cow. Until the shaggy fur & pointy nose started registering in my brain as ‘not cow!’ Later I told P it must not have been interested in our pickanick basket. Usually they see/hear you long before you see/hear them & keep out of the way. That one, not so much.

On the way home we took a new route as the one we’ve taken the prior 15 years is under construction. Took us a half hour less time & for the first hour & 20 minutes or so there was one car that passed us in the opposite direction. We followed a car for about ten minutes, but largely we were out there alone. I think that may be our new way back.

Tried to convince P that we should retire *now* & become beekeepers. I think he still thinks I’m kidding.

That’s good enough for the nutshell. I’ll post some pix of the more fun stuff later, when they’re uploaded from the camera.