Now is the time

This week has been one of the nicest of the summer.
Even though it is now fall.
Our summer weather was odd.
And now our fall weather is odd - in a nice way.
The sun has decided to shine her smiling face and warm us up as we prepare for the cold.
Even though I would like to see the snow accumulating up in the mountains. I know it will come.
I'm trusting Mama Nature to do it up right this winter and give us a glorious spanking of snow on a daily basis. Please.

Out of respect for all of Miss Nature's efforts in boggling our minds with exceptional days, beautiful colors and nights that still beg for windows to be left open so she can wander in and out of rooms gathering a last glimpse before we shut our windows to Winter, I have been playing...

B and I took out the motorbikes and cruised 178 miles
Smiles and smiles all on dirt roads through the mountains

I took a day trip to a lake with a new friend.
No kids. Gosset champagne. Sunny skies. Warm gentle breeze.

She laughed when she saw me taking these pictures, but not as hard as when I pulled out the glassware. Silly girl thought we would be enjoying our beverage out of paper cups.
Ewwwwwww ~ Indeed NOT!
I may have been born and lived my whole life here in the sparse world of amenities and refinement. But I know how to have a good time and that we did.

The trees are just starting to show us their colors.
Disrobing just for us.
I tried not to stare, but that was hardly possible.
Such beauty all around us.
Each time we rounded another bend in the road and caught a new glimpse of the lake we remarked about the beauty of where we live.
Stunning really. Living here in this general place my whole life I forget to take it all in on a daily basis and revel in the place that is my home.

We sat for a long time talking and sitting in comfortable silence listening to the 'waves' lapping at the shore. I made mental notes to bring the family here next summer. Many times. It is so worth the drive.
We ate lunch at a great little dive restaurant with a quirky menu and an even more interesting wine list.
Made a quick stop into a brewery. Had the worst flavored beer I have ever tried. I just don't understand the whole fruit in beer crap. I'll take hops. Lots of them, please.

On the drive home got stuck for just under and hour as the brilliant ranchers moved several hundred head of cows across the highway (2 lanes) and then proceeded to have to chase several juveniles who had decided that they would skip out of the herd.
Perhaps on a Wednesday at 4:30pm is NOT the time to do this. There isn't a whole hell of a lot of rush hour traffic, but I'm thinking 1o:30 in the morning when school buses are not trying to take kids home and folks are not trying to get home from town might be a better option. Just saying. I'm no rancher, but...
This nutty mayhem resulted in my missing of my boys soccer game and my friend being very late to pick up her boy from his sitters.
Thankfully we were laughing the whole time. Not much else we could do. Getting all pissy wouldn't have helped the cows cooperate any better. So we had fun.