A Tale of Two Chemists: Visiting Tasha in Lander, Wyoming

Thur 19^th – Tues 24^thOctober

I was only home for a little over 24 hours and we were back on a plane from Boston to Salt Lake City on our way to visit Tasha for a long weekend. It had been pretty tricky trying to find a time when we were all free, but we finally managed to work it out. As we made our way to Lander, Tasha flew back from Tucson having spent the previous couple of weeks instructing on a climbing course. Our flights went well and Gloria and I really enjoyed the 4 hour drive up to Lander from Salt Lake City. The countryside is mostly “high desert” and it has a really wild feel the area. We arrived mid-Afternoon on Thursday and it was fabulous to see Tasha again. It has been ten months since we were all together, although I saw her very briefly in Red Rocks, NV in March.

Tasha looks fantastic, fit healthy and happy, and we had an awesome weekend. She is now living in Lander having just started a full time job working for the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) in their staffing office. It’s 70% time in the headquarters and 30% field work, so in reality she will get almost as much field work as she did whilst working on contract for NOLS but with full employment the rest of the year!

Lander is a small town of some 7500 people just to the west of the Wind River mountain range. It’s actually quite lovely with wide streets and a sleepy atmosphere, and beautiful countryside on it’s doorstep. We spent time visiting Sinks Hole canyon State Park to the west of the town, did some hiking and rock climbing there, and also made our way up into the mountains behind. Tasha had to work Friday and Monday, but that meant we were able to meet some of her colleagues and see where she works. As you might expect we checked out the restaurants in town and had great meals at the local Thai restaurant and a place called Cowfish. One highlight was dinner round at Tasha’s on Saturday night where we also met one of her friends (SJ) from NOLS. Sunday evening the three of gathered in our hotel room and got a takeaway meal (from the Thai restaurant) and watched the Patriots game. It was lovely just to hang out together.

The time passed all too quickly and after lunch on Monday Gloria and I jumped in the car and headed back to Salt Lake city to catch our overnight flight to Boston. Gloria was teaching lab the following afternoon so it was a bit of a tough schedule for her. Our trip was wonderful and it was so good to see Tasha again. It's great that we can now picture where she is when we talk on the phone. Happily she will fly out to the Virgin Islands and spend time with us at Christmas and New Year.

Next blog – Mike heads back to Norfolk to move back onto Cotinga and prepare for the rally!