As Time Goes By

That title heads a lovely classic song made popular in the 1942 movie, “Casablanca.” The song is now the theme song for a British romantic comedy series first televised in the 1990’s starring Judy Dench. Dean and I enjoyed watching the show because it mirrors family life complete with adult children, etc. Our PBS station re-airs the series often and I love to watch it repeatedly as I catch one-liners I missed previously because of the British accents and my poor hearingJ

I'm waxing nostalgic  because the month of July deals with such things—my birthday—completing one year and beginning a new one, and Dean’s graduation to a new life when he left Planet Earth and got to meet the Lord and be reunited with many loved ones and friends.

To celebrate my birthday and Dean’s “graduation,” my boys and I decided to spend the July 4^th weekend in Rawlins, Wyoming, the town Dean considered his hometown. Rawlins was literally Brian’s hometown because he was born there and Jeff was only nine months old when we moved there in 1972.

We tried to go, do, or see the things our family typically enjoyed during our years in Rawlins, 1972-1983. Friday afternoon we picked Jeff up at the Salt Lake City Airport and stayed the night in Evanston, WY. Saturday, we got to Rawlins, bought some silk flowers and a little American flag and put them at the gravesite of Dean and Mom and Dad Diehl.  

We drove out to Bairoil, the (formerly, Sinclair) oil camp whene both Dean and his dad had worked as well as driving by our old neighborhoods (we lived in two different houses during our stay in Rawlins).

Aspen Alley

Belinda "riding" her log pony

Dean’s sister, Belinda and her husband, daughter and friend met us for the weekend which increased the enjoyment. We walked around the town, looking at the interesting architecture and then on Sunday we drove south of Rawlins to what is known as Aspen Alley and picnicked in the mountains above Encampment.   

After lunch we drove down the other side of the mountain and toured the Encampment Museum guided by a very knowledgeable young lady.

Jeff & Gidget-2 story Outhouse

A Forest Ranger tower has been moved to the museum grounds so most of our group (I had to hold GidgetJ climbed the 75 steps up—and the 75 steps down. Since most of them looked a little green when they got back to terra firma, I was glad I had been the designated dog-holder.

To get back to Rawlins from Encampment without backtracking you have to go through Saratoga and it was a beautiful drive. It’s the Platte Valley with beautiful ranchlands—very easy on the eyes. The one thing we did not do as we headed out of Saratoga was go agate hunting which was a favorite weekend pastime for our family when the boys were little.

We had to travel back on July 4 so headed for Salt Lake City after a leisurely breakfast so Jeff could catch his plane back to Fort Worth. Brian and I got home before dark, all of us grateful to have travelled safely and glad to be home. I just finished reading Big Tiny by Dee Williams and this quote from her book is a perfect closing to this blog post: "...home was still the place we all fell asleep, even if some of us were missing.”