Kerry Beck

Do you know what “nonage” means? I learned this morning because I signed up for daily words at dictionary.com. I thought one word a day might help my vocabulary.

Nonage means a time of youth or immaturity. Thomas Paine uses it here:

It occasionally puts children over men, and the conceits of nonage over wisdom and experience.
– Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man

This reminded me of the way our society views youth. Youth is elevated above anything else, especially wisdom and experience. When raising a true leader, they will seek wisdom and experience and not rely on their nonage.

We arrived at our home around midnight, but couldn’t get in the back door.  Ashley left the key in a lockbox for us, but I couldn’t get the door open.  Steve tried all the windows with no success.  We put our dog in the backyard and headed to a hotel.  Every hotel we tried was booked…absolutely no rooms available.  Finally, Hampton Inn gave me a list of 5 hotels that still had rooms, so we finally got one.  What a way to start back in Bryan.

On the original site of Cody, now stands a recreated road in the Old West.  They moved old buildings to this site and re-assembled them.  The coolest part of this place is the authenticity of the buildings.  They aren’t reproductions of the original buildings; they are the original buildings.  Some of them were cabins that the Hole in the Wall Gang used to hide; you know, Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid.  One of them was an old school building with desks and a wall size reader in the corner.  The graveyard has the actual remains of 5-6 men from that area.  They re-buried them in this location.  One of them is the guy from Jeremiah Johnson, a Robert Redford movie.

Once again, Steve had a blast.  He loves Old West history!

We finished our Cody visit by 11am and were on our way to Texas!

Steve is in heaven here.  We visited 3 of the Buffalo Bill museums.  Of course, the first one was the fire arms exhibits.  It’s the largest collection of fire arms, probably in the world.  We saw 1500 guns and the last sign said there were 1200 on the lower level.  Even Steve said he had seen enough…whew!

Buffalo Bill was an interesting character.  I wish Ashley had been here because she read a few biographies of Annie Oakley as a young girl.  There was an entire exhibit of her.

We finished our visit in the art museum.  My favorite were the Russell exhibits.  Some of the coolest parts were the letters he wrote to friends.  Each of them had a mini-painting or drawing on them.  I would love to receive a letter like that.  You can see an example on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Charles-Russell-Word-Painter-1887-1926/dp/0810937646

After the museum, we visited the Irma Hotel where a C&W band was playing on the front porch.  We spent a couple of hours listening to them.  It was relaxing and fun!  We even danced a bit.

Finally, we ended our day with a thick, juicy steak at Cassies, a building with lots of history.

I was surprised how fast Chipman Movers loaded the truck.  They were finished by 1:45pm.  By 2:30 we had signed all our papers and we were ready to go.  Well, almost!  We had to say good-bye to our next-door neighbors and get one last hug from their 3-year old son.

By 3:00 we were on the road, headed for Montana.  Tomorrow, we plan to stop in Cody, Wyoming.  Did you know they have the largest gun collection in the states?  Steve’s excited to see that collection.  I’m excited to see the original Remingtons & Russells.  I like any & all art.  (Well, except for modern, “look” art)

I’ll try and post some pics later.

One last note…if you ever need to hire movers in the northwest, be sure to call Chipman United Moving.  We’ve had the best experience with their company, from the sales person and office assistant to the packers/loaders and the truck driver.  They are extremely professional, courteous and clean.

Steve and I are sitting on the back deck enjoying the cool crisp morning. Actually, I’m wearing a sweatshirt because it’s fairly cold this morning.

As I type this post, Chipman United Moving is loading the truck with all our belongings. On Wednesday & Thursday, a crew packed our entire house into boxes…pretty amazing since we have a 4 bedroom, 2 office home. But they finished it by 3 pm on the second day.

Our kids flew home this morning. Grandpa will pick them up at the airport and take them home. Steve & I are driving the car (& dog) down to Texas. What’s wrong with this picture???

We are sooo excited to move back home. The only thing I’ll really miss is the cool weather for my morning walks. Other than that, I’m ready for Texas.