Wilderness Adventure

Dear Family

Last Wednesday (May 23rd), Robbie and I hooked up with Marv Curtis and Vern Dellapiana at Grandma’s house to start a weekend wilderness escape prior to Robbie’s induction into the Air Force and embarkation for boot camp at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio starting on June 3rd. We didn’t leave SLC until 10:30 PM, so we stopped for the night in Pocatello. The next morning we drove to West Yellowstone. After getting all our fishing gear in order we drove to a stretch of the Madison River between the Hebgen Lake dam and Earthquake Lake, formed formed on the night of August 17,1959 as a result of an earthquake that measured 7.5 on the Richter scale and caused a massive landslide that blocked the Madison River. Many of us remember that night because we were staying at the Homer’s in Idaho Falls, and the earthquake caused the water in their pool to slosh back and forth, nearly emptying the pool.

Thursday afternoon’s weather was wet and wild, with snow and sleet moderating into steady rain. The river was swift enough that to cross it safely in thigh-high water required us to form a four-man chain and inch across the mossy river rocks. That day’s fishing was Robbie’s and Vern’s first try at fly fishing and maybe my sixth or seventh. Marv is way past avid and proved it by catching at least 30 fish in four hours compared to one for Robbie, one for me, and none for Vern. Nonetheless, the scenery was beautiful, the air crisp and clean, and every cast an adventure for the three novices.

That night we drive into Yellowstone to observe the wildlife, the rebirth of the forest after the fire in 1988, and the geyser pools. Calving season just ended for the bison, and the meadows were full of calves, yearling, and mature bison. It’s amazing that such adorable calves can come from such mangy cows. We saw several herds numbering between 50 and 100. We also saw lots of elk, sans antlers and looking the worse for wear after a long winter. We arrived at Old Faithful Inn just before sunset, but decided dinner was more important that waiting for the geyser. Robbie and I tasted the bison at the buffet, but he elected (and loved) the elk medallions and the rest of us went mainstream with rib eye steak. The drive back was under a clear, moonlit sky as beautiful as the drive in.

We started early the next day, reporting at the outfitters at 8:00 AM to meet our guides for a float trip down the Madison past Quake Lake. It was snowing as we changed into our gear, but the weather cleared into a gorgeous but cold spring day. We floated from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM, with Robbie and I in one boat and Vern and Marv in the other. With expert instruction, Robbie and I increased our catch to between 15 and 20 landed fish, with numerous strikes that we weren’t quick enough to land. This stretch of the Madison is world famous for fly fishing and portions of it were in the movie “A River Runs Through It.” It has been a catch-and-release river for over 40 years and has never been stocked with non-native fish. The fish we were catching were consistently 14-15 inches. Marv probably caught a hundred and landed a 20 inch rainbow.

Saturday we helped Marv open their family cabin on Hebgen Lake, took a side trip to Mesa Falls on the Henry’s Fork of the Snake River, and drove home in time to catch the Jazz game on TV.

It was a great weekend for some male bonding before Robbie leaves for major league male bonding in the USAF. After six weeks of boot camp at Lackland, he’ll have his first posting at the Defense Language Institute at the Presidio of Monterey where he’ll train as a cryptologic linguist in either Chinese, Korean, Arabic or Farsi for 18 months. He won’t know what language he’ll be studying until he arrives in Monterey, but his aptitude tests qualified him for their hardest languages. After he fulfills his four-year commitment to the Air Force he’ll decide whether to pursue a career in the military or return to civilian life. We’ll keep you posted on his progress and will appreciate your faith and prayers for him while he serves.

Love to all,

Bruce

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New Cabin Blog

We now have a new page that will let you reserve the cabin online! You can now email the dates you would like to visit the cabin and Betsy will add your reservation to the calendar. As always, you can always call Betsy to reserve it. You can also see when the cabin is available on the calendar. Thank you Betsy for keeping up the new cabin website.

To visit the new website, click HERE.

There will also be current cabin news and an online wish list.

Question of the year...

What does this equation mean? If you know the answer post it in a comment below.

Nagel News

We're catching up on all of our cute grandchildren these days. In April John and I spent a fun weekend in the Columbus Residence Inn with Rebecca, Garrett, Josh and Cate while Jack and Jolene did a 1/2 marathon. Well, they didn't take the whole weekend to run, so we only got the kids to ourselves for a few hours. We managed to hit a great ice cream place a couple of times, take apart a computer at the children's museum, do the OSU tour with the best guide ever, and check out one of the Columbus wards.

As we write, Jack, Jolene and Cate are in Evansville, IN, looking for a house. Jack has accepted a job there and the family will be moving at the end of June. We are all excited for them to be finished with school, etc., and to have a real job.

Anna went house hunting last month. Or was it March? Anyway, she is in a classic bungalow with three other women on Sherman Avenue. They needed a lawnmower so they made a deal with Cindy's brother who lives across the street. They use his lawnmower and he gets free babystting once in awhile.

At the end of April, we got to have Miles and Owen for a few days while Matt and Sara went to Hawaii. Ask them for pictures. Harper stayed on the other side of the valley and we missed him. It takes a village to get Matt and Sara out of town. Helping me were Martha, Richard, Anna, Cindy and her whole family. Harper got passed around a bit, we hear. Quote of the week from Owen after being told that Martha was his second cousin. (Really his first cousin once removed.) "So who is my last cousin?" Cindy tried to treat them to a night out at McDonald's, but Sara has taught the boys that McDonald's is bad for you. It's true. So they told Cindy they didn't want to go. When I asked Owen how come they didn't eat at McDonald's he said, "Because we're Mormons."

Catherine and I spent a couple of days at the BYU Women's conference. Now we can both say we went to BYU. Highlight of the conference was Buffy's talk, of course. I'm not kidding. I think she should post the text on the blog.

We're looking forward to having all of our family together at Keuka Lake, NY, in June. It is one of the Finger Lakes. If you want to see where we will be, check it out HERE.

We hope it is as gorgeous as it looks on the web. John and I will go to his nephew's bar mitzvah in Toledo on the way to New York and to JB's wedding in NH after NY. Two days after we return to SLC, we're going to Cape Canaveral to watch Jeff's last five years of work rocket into space. If you want to learn a little about the DAWN satellite, click HERE.


We will also have a chance to spend some extra time with our cute Virginia grandchildren. When I can figure out how to post pictures on the blog, I'll send some beautiful ones.

This has gone on too long. Maybe I should make my own blog.
XXXOOOBetsy


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