August 19- 21 - Converse County and Medicine National Bow National Forest

This is Katie. I have been looking forward to these few days for a long time now. Not exactly because we were doing the Douglas State Fair Parade but also because we would finally have couple of days to ourselves. On the 19th we spent the first part of the day in Douglas for State Fair events. Hillary, her fiance, Anders and I joined up with some volunteers to help set up the float and then walk in the parade. It was such a windy day, so much that it even sticks out compared to the regular Wyoming wind we experience so frequently. We brought "Freudenthal Fans" to hand out at the parade and I was surprised by the number of people who still took fans in the extreme wind! We found ourselves saying they would be good windshields and that the day will only grow hotter! Mom and Dad soon joined us at the float since they first went through the parade in official capacity on horseback. Dad always insists that walking closer to the people is much more fun and it gives you a better chance to say hello. We were kicking ourselves because after we finished the parade we saw a horse come by with a "Gov Dave" bumper sticker on his rear and we were all wishing our camera did not die earlier in the day!

After the parade we decided to drop by the fairgrounds and say hello to the volunteers at our booth, even though, since it was the last day of the fair, our booth along with other candidate booths were wrapping up. We walked around and saw a lot of people we knew. We took some time to chat and see the different exhibits. Whenever we are at the state fair, we always have to get the raspberries that are sold there. We were glad that they weren't wrapping up their booth and we were able to still buy some healthy snacks.

After our time at the state fair, comes the part of the trip I have been looking forward to all month. My birthday is on August 21st, the day before the primary, and my request was to spend a couple of days in the mountains. Fortunately we found a time in all of our schedules to have a bit of downtime together. We went to a friend's cabin in the Medicine Bow National Forest. We also took many beautiful four-wheeling drives in the mountains. Wow, has it been a while since we have done that! Here are some pictures of our four-wheeling adventures.