Well, we made it to Denver. We got Eileen all situated in Detroit and headed off. She called the next day to say she was at home in the south of France. The airline had told her to expect to be delayed in France by a vigorous snowstorm. Sometimes you can't get away from the stuff.

Jim and I drove right into the snow. We have a diesel truck and were a little concerned about fuel gelling in the cold. So we decided to take the southern route to Denver. We dropped down to Dayton and headed west. The first night we made it to Highland, Illinois.

The weather became extremely cold but we got out of the snow as we crossed Kansas. We stayed in Manhattan the home of Kansas State, a Big 12 school like Iowa State. When we left the next morning it was negative 13.

As we continued across Kansas, the temperature gradually rose until it was just freezing as we got into Colorado. For the trivia fans, mile 381 on I70 in Colorado is at 5280 feet or one mile. It was an easy ride the rest of the way to Denver.

On Sunday, after church, we checked out the NWSS cattle show. It is certainly impressive. Our two cattle looked like a million bucks although I doubt they';ll bring that in the sale. The whole open area is like a giant beauty and barber shop for cattle. Everyone is blowing and clipping and trimming to show the cows to best advantage. Now we understand why our hometown barber reminisces about learning to cut hair with cattle clippers.

Then we drove up to Boulder about 45 minutes NW of Denver. We saw the University of Colorado. Jim says we are on a tour of Big 12 north division schools.,

Last night, there was a cattle sale in the hotel ballroom with about 20 animals. There was lots of plastic on the carpets and sharp eyed folks with manure scoops. The sale is somewhat controversial as it was put on by a splinter group of our Association. I think there will be lots of discussion about this sale at the Annual Meeting.

Monday, we did the grand tour. We are very impressed not only with the natural beauty of the area but the obvious prosperity. All without benefit of our Albany politicians.