With South Dakota less than a week away, I decided we should try out the new backpack Saturday morning. This backpack has a neat little slot where you can stash a small person, enabling us to go on some hikes that would otherwise be out of the question…assuming she will actually ride in the backpack.

First I set it out in the room and let Emma check it out on her own terms. She seems interested.

Then I sat her in the pack and Steph strapped her in place. She’s a little unsure but isn’t trying to squirm her way out – so far so good!

Finally I hoisted her up and we went for a stroll around the barn and garden. While next week will be the real test, I am certainly excited that she seems to be diggin’ the back pack so far!

Occasionally conditions are such that a rainbow forms. Generally this occurs when a late afternoon rain shower is followed immediately by clear skies. I suppose this could also happen in the morning but our weather generally comes from the west and in order to see a rainbow you have to be located between the sun and the rain. At any rate, rainbows are awesome.

This particular specimen was cool because it was a partial double rainbow. One side appeared to end near the big Bur Oak tree out in my field, and the other side (pictured) ended in the front yard of the trailer house across the street from me. I checked and there was no pot of gold or any Leprechauns under the Bur Oak so it must have been at the trailer. Dang the luck!

When I was on the way home from Cider Days I stopped along the highway and took a cool pic of the valley near my parents house. This year on the way home from Artsfest I was about a half mile from home when another cool photo presented itself.

I remember liking this stretch of highway even when I was a kid, long before I knew I would reside here. As luck would have it, I now travel this route constantly to get into town (Carthage) and also because Steph’s parents live about 3 miles up this way.

I like living on historic route 66. Most of the road itself isn’t anything special, but it represents an idea of nostalgia. Once a major thoroughfare, now it’s just an out of the way back road. But it’s famous and I think it’s cool having an address that is “Old Route 66″.

Lately Emma’s favorite thing to do is ride on the 4 wheeler. Whenever she wants to go for a ride she will grab my hand and start leading me toward the garage. When the garage is in sight she’ll point and I’ll say “want to go for a ride?” and she responds “ry ry” (ride). She also calls me “ry ry”, but i can usually tell which version of ‘ry ry’ she is using.

I tried to take some pics of her out in the field of tall grass but she wasn’t really diggin’ the grass gettin’ all up in her grill. But we still had a good time anyway!

Now that Artsfest is done, I am looking forward to the next big thing on the horizon – which is a road trip Steph and I have planned to South Dakota. For whatever reason most people seem to find our choice of destination a bit odd, but I am very excited.

The last time I was in South Dakota was in college when Grant and I weaseled our way into my grandparents trip to Yellowstone and the Black Hills. The four of us took their RV, staying in random small campgrounds along the way where we’d eat Granny’s home cooking and play cards every night. We saw a lot of sights, however most of the time was spent just enjoying each others company as we drifted across 3,000 miles of America’s interstate highway system. Over the course of those 8 days we saw mountains, geysers, and every waterfall between here and Idaho. It was one of the best weeks of my life.

So now here I am preparing for my first family road trip of my own. Needless to say, I am very excited and ready to hit the open road!

It is now May and Artsfest is officially over. In some ways I am glad to be done but in other ways I am already looking forward to the next festival if for no other reason than I enjoy spending part of 3 days with my dear friends Bridget and Andy.

This time around we made some significant improvements over Cider Days. The 3 biggest being that we each had own own space, new tents (with sides to protect our stuff from rain!), and I made some display panels from which I could hang some larger sized framed prints. I also brought more (and better) framed prints. I am still learning but this year was infinitely smoother than Cider Days. I was also excited to have won the “Best of Show 2D Category”. Personally I saw lots of other artists with stuff that I felt was far superior to mine, but nevertheless it was exciting and encourages me to keep doing it.

At any rate, Artsfest was a success and lots of fun in the process!!