Today I did not go riding and sat and read as I wanted to acclimate to the higher elevations. So I sat and observed. So far I haven’t regaled you with any of the stories of the guests here. Last year when we visited they only had a few guests. The wonderful couple from Chicago, a man who published a magazine for private plane users, and one of Bruce White’s management team from White Lodging. Bruce and his lovely wife Beth are the owners. This year we were visiting in summer as opposed to after Labor Day so there were many more kids.
Kids are nice to be around, especially when they are yours. When they aren’t yours, and you are tall and not used to them under your feet, is is a mild discomfort. More than mild, when you end up tripping over them.
Now not only do you read my blog for the wonderful pictures of food, and Steve’s fish, but my loyal readers know that once in a while it is CRAZY GUEST OBSERVATIONS! Well you hit the jackpot today!
I can just see some of you rubbing your hands in delight. Well, I would if I were you!
One group was a man of 70, a woman of 40, another man of 40 and two pre teen age boys. Hmm, Grandpa invited the family for a dude ranch vacation! But then the 40 year old woman, a blonde of course, kept sitting on the old man’s lap and kissing him! Yes, I determined, she was the second wife (at least)! So of course I arranged to sit with them at lunch while Steve was out fishing all day.
Blonde bombshell was from Poland. She was not the wife of the 40 year old, but the wife of the 70 year old. The two pre teens were their children, and the 40 year old man was the son from the first marriage. She was at least the second wife. They flew in to Saratoga Wyoming on their private plane. They would be staying for the week. 
The old man walked with a bit of a lurch and was bent over. He had broken his back twice, once while horse back riding at their second home in Costa Rica (they currently live in Tampa). He broke his back the second time when a fork lift turned over on him.
I figured he must have been some kind of big real estate developer. It’s impertinent to ask specific questions about someone’s employment, so there is always a lot of conjecture on my part on what people really do for a living. The bride, as I mentioned, was quite attractive, blonde, shapely and came from Poland. All I could think of was mail order bride!
The next group of guests was a group of six guys from Houston, Texas. They were all in their late 40’s and for the last 15 years they have been riding their motorcycles together the first week in August. Their wives stay home. They fly to the city near to where they want to start their motorcycle adventure from. A driver is hired to truck their motorcycles to the rendezvous point and they ride from there. When the trip is over, they all fly back home and the bikes are sent home via the driver. The guys have all been friends since high school and had inherited family businesses. I am thinking oil drilling here, or oil drilling supplies. Of course, I could be wrong and they might have been convenience store owners, but I don’t think so.
My new biker friends had just come back from the big bike rally in Sturgis, South Dakota. The population of Sturgis, is around 6500 people The guys went to Sturgis before the rally started as it gets really wild there. Over 500,000 riders attend during the ten days the rally is held! At the 75th anniversary in 2016 they broke attendance records with over a million attendees!
When we had gotten gas in Saratoga our first day, we met a man with a Sturgis T-shirt on. Steve asked him about it. The man told Steve ” It’s a great place to get yourself killed by a stupid person!” Finest piece of advice I think I have ever heard!
I didn’t get a chance to talk more with my new biker friends as they were only staying one night. But they spent most of that night taking advantage of the open bar so I don’t know how they could see straight to go on a cattle drive the following morning, but they did , and found that great fun. The cattle drive is an add on option.
While I was observing , Steve fished. He caught eleven fish including one cutbow that was eighteen inches. The cutbow is a hybrid of a rainbow and cutthroat trout.
You will just have to wait until tomorrow for my tale about Micheal the guest doing yoga on the back of a horse!
Do you Net Jet?
Who is your oldest friend?
Do you actually have any friends?
Did you get that black eye in Sturgis?
