Now, these are happy poppies!
In the morning Laurie, Shannon, Mary, Meredith, Cathy and I went up to Jackie Blakeman’s and Neal’s place to look at the family photos that had been abandoned in Aunt Bean’s house, later the home of Steve and Elaine Welty. They are a stunning historical record of this branch of the family.
Help is needed to identify a lot of these intriguing images.
A lock of hair and eulogy.
Bryan and Marc were lucky enough to be able to sleep in Jackie’s magnificent tipi. It’s huge and beautiful and simple inside.
The perfect backyard.
Jackie was kind enough to take us on a tour of her beautiful home. My camera was drooling.
Bliss.
A bathroom to live in.
The weather was hot, so several minds turned to floating the Wind River. I brought up 4 inner tubes from previous trips to Dubois, but only two held air. Shannon brought two new ones, but one of them was faulty. Chuck and Nancy had two in the basement and the nice guy across the street who patched my tubes loaned us one.
Great fun commenced at the photos demonstrate.
Chelsea just sent this one of Vivi at the Wind River.
Noemie and Julian launch
Shannon and Tim avoid the rocks.
Marc cools it.
Bryan kayaks around Isiah.
Richard gives us a preview of his upcoming GQ spread.
Later, the Dubois 4 of July Parade assembled by the city park. Some went up town, others out to the curb to catch the candy and frisbees being thrown, and some of us took advantage of the cool porch and used a telephoto lens.
Low-budget political ad?
The hippy bus is alive and well.
The infamous Dubois Volunteer Fire Dept. dousing.
Later still we got a private tour of the Dubois Museum with the high point – Paul Hawley’s recently restored sheep wagon.
The new canvas would surely make Paul smile.
Meredith’s favorite hotel when she was a sprout.
At dusk all the relative descended on Chuck and Nancy’s beautiful vacation home for one final feast to clean out all the leftovers from the countless previous picnics.
Nancy, Cullen, Noemie, Cathy and Chuck ponder dessert on the deck.
Richard, Meredith, Fred, Isiah, Julian, Neal and Tim share stories to cap this amazing day.