Laramie

A short drive on Tuesday, August 6, brought us to Laramie, WY, and the Albany County Fairgrounds.  The RV “park” itself is unimpressive; in fact, it could dissuade someone from staying there.  The sites are gravel, with no trees or grass.  However, there are so many good things about staying here that it’s hard to list them all.  

First, there are acres and acres of fairground where we could walk and the dogs could explore off-leash.  The corrals and stables adjacent to the arena can be rented as “horse hotels,” so each day brought several new horses to spend a day or two. Rue introduced herself whenever she had a chance.

There was also a pen with three 4-H show lambs.  Rue wasn’t sure they were sheep because of the funny little jackets they wore, and they had certainly never been worked by a sheep dog.  When we passed by, they came running out to touch noses with Rue... 

 and try to nibble her ears.  She wasn't thrilled about that.
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and showed this one her "border collie smile."

Kota was unimpressed with either the horses or the sheep, but she was totally into bunny hunting…and there were plenty of those.  

But John’s and my favorite discovery was the Albany County Shooting Range, which was built for the 4-H program’s shooting sports.  It’s a first-class indoor facility that is open to the public when it’s not being used by the students.  The best part is that the rangemaster, Roy Kern, is a former Olympic instructor and an expert in all kinds of firearms.  When we were there, hardly anyone else was shooting, and Roy spent his time working with both John and me on our sight alignment, grip, trigger pull and working with us to improve our marksmanship,  It was a real treat to work with him, and we are considering going back on our way to our RV rally this fall.

Oh, and did I mention the skies?  The wide-open spaces in the West not only give us great sunrises and sunsets, the skies are beautiful as well.