Out West

 The next thing I knew, I was having a fantastic lunch with Katy.

Even their pickled vegetables had a western vibe.

That evening, Katy, Margaret, and Eric took me to a rodeo.

Margaret explained it all to me,

I was amazed and terrified by the rodeo, especially this part where tiny children rode sheep. Eric told me he wants to ride a sheep next year.

The next day, we went to the Jubilee Days parade, where I got to meet Cowboy Joe, the University of Wyoming mascot.

We were supposed to march in the parade with a float from the kids' school, but they never showed up. So we marched by ourselves, singing cowboy songs, playing the ukulele, and pulling the kids behind us in a wagon.

It was so cool to see downtown Laramie.

 And then we drove up into these gorgeous mountains.

 We went to a lookout post.

 Where Margaret took my picture.

And we looked at this incredible view.

After seeing this mountain lake ...

 ... we went to this river, which has natural hot springs.

 And we soaked in the springs. I even tried this pool, which is empty in this picture because it was so hot no one was going near it.

After my visit to Wyoming, I went to Denver to see Ursi and Andrea. It was wonderful to catch up with them!

We went to the butterfly pavilion, shopped for clothes, and went fishing. I couldn't believe we packed so much into such a short trip.