Home on the Range with Les and Barb

We left Jackson Hole and headed down the highway for destinations unknown when our good Chicago friend Charlie called and was checking in on the “Sun Chasers”. We were just about to make a right turn toward Salt Lake City when Charlie asked if we had called his sister Barb and her husband Les. We ended the phone call, got their number, called and was invited to visit the fine town of Pinedale and Charlie’s Wyoming connection. Immediately we turned left and headed down to the ranch on the range. We arrived about an hour and a half later and was welcomed as if we were long lost friends. Although I felt I have known the Askey Clan for decades I had not yet met his sister Barb. What a treat. I did meet one of their son’s, John who played professional football with the Atlanta Falcons. Charlie had taken me to a game to see him play. We fell right in with these fine folks and spent a day of education as a Cowboy and resident of a rider of the range.
Our first order of business was to enjoy a rum and coke and then to tour their 25 acres that held moose, antelope, deer, and who knows what else. We did see a playground of cliffs (Indian Cliffs) and rivers and streams that their sons, Ben and John played in and around while growing up. Then it was off to have a fabulous dinner at the lodge on the lake with huge Teton-looking mountains as a backdrop. We were like sponges soaking up all the knowledge of living on the range, and art, music, wrangling cows, and horticulture that one could consume. Late into the night we shared music, photography and art that Les and Barb had created. Then journals of their lives for the past forty years that Les had created. We put our heads together to see how to convert these historical pieces into a book. We worked till 1:30 in the morning and had put together a cover for their book and a means to put their lives on paper for others to enjoy.
That morning Norma and I said goodbye to Barb as she trotted off to her first day of school. Then after a brief lesson for Norma from Les on art technique we drove down the driveway from this paradise to our next stop at Hill Air Force Base in Salt Lake City, Utah. We have only one more Askey to meet and will also visit the Matriarch, Gladys sometime in September in Los Angeles.