Summer 2008: Day 16, The Goses

[Lander WY, 6 July 2008]--Today, after a good breakfast in Greybull's very smoke-filled "Uptown Cafe" (we almost walked out before ordering our meal!), we headed for Lander. First wife suggested (Grumpy always follows FW's "suggestions"!) that, if it wasn't too much out of the way, we drive by Uncle Leonard's home and see if he was there.

Grumpy had a "marker" in the Garmin (GPS) where he thought Uncle Leonard's house was located -- on a county road a few miles east of Otto WY.

The Garmin said it was 12.5 miles via "shortest route". Shortest route turned out to be a poorly maintained (washboarded) gravel road, which we were on quickly. The First Wife suggested that Grumpy drive at a speed somewhat below our standard cruise control speed of 65 miles per hour. Grumpy wisely agreed!

Unfortunately, when the Lady Garmin announced, "Arriving at Destination!" it was not Uncle Leonard's house. In fact it was out in the middle of nowhere (a place of which Wyoming has plenty!). It turned out worse than Grumpy had thought when he decided to go West and South to the supposed location of Uncle Leonard's house -- Lander was also West and South of Greybull. Unfortunately, the roads (gravel and otherwise) from the supposed site back to the "fastest route" to Lander resulted in a net "out-of-the-way" of about 21 miles -- not quite the worst potentially 25 miles!
Re-programming Garmin to "Go To" Lander via fastest route, First Wife noticed two rabbits in the middle of the road to the right of the intersection at which we had just stopped. This almost made the side trip worth it.

However, even more interesting was the fact that neither rabbit hurried to get out of the way as we turned right and drove within 2-3 feet of the smaller rabbit (a cottontail?) that was closest to the center of the road. In my rearview mirror I saw some lethargic movement after we drove past! That shade must have felt awfully good!!

We arrived in Lander about lunch time, each of us having a hamburger at the Oxbow Restaurant next door to our motel. It being Sunday, we had to wait while numerous patrons ahead of us were seated. Instead of waiting, we chose to sit at the lunch counter where the harried cashier/waitress waited on us between interruptions.

We called the Gose residence, announcing our wish to visit this afternoon, a wish happily granted. We found Neil and Dyllis reasonably well, with son-in-law John providing medicines and meals to Neil who had had a health setback since our visit a year ago. His good humor and occasional contribution to the conversations a welcome assurance of better days ahead. John's wife, Dulcinda and daughter, , had left around midnight to catch a flight to San Francisco enroute to a youth adventure in Australia.

The Australian sheepdog, Shadow, and numerous cats greeted us -- only one or two did so willingly, including "Mama Cat", pictured. The now fully-grown kitten ("Tigger") of which Ramiro had made such an excellent pencil drawing when we visited three years ago, was totally freaked out by strangers in the house and never made an appearance, even when all the other cats heard the food being dished out.