Back again

We're back from our little trip, a little worse for wear but very glad we went. We had a great time, it was just that on our way home we had a little incident that sort of took the 'glow' off. We hit a coyote. Driving at night. (Us, not the coyote. We don't know what he was doing but it was clearly not a good idea, whatever it was.) It was bad for the coyote. It didn't do our brand new car any good either. Very upsetting.

But we had such a nice visit, and were even able to drive into the hill country and to visit to the artisan store we always like. Since we really enjoy the drive across Washington, Montana and Wyoming besides, it was all a success. Except for the coyote business.

I remember commenting, after the last trip in that direction, about the Pine Beetle and the destruction it is wreaking on the forests in the mountains of the Northwest. As we first started to drive east, I thought there wasn't much more evidence of the spread of the problem, but boy was I wrong! Whole mountainsides of evergreens are dying all along the way. Devastating. And it is happening all the way into South Dakota. Nature is certainly taking its course, and I think we will be sorry we let it do so.

I never seem to get really good pictures on pure road trips - mostly because of having to take them while barrelling down the highway at 80 mph and trying to take pictures through car windows with bug splatters on them. We didn't have a lot of opportunity for scenic turnouts. Alas. So we'll have to make do, this time, with the evidence of the pine beetle devastation and documentation that, to the pronghorn antelope in Wyoming at least, it doesn't really matter.