私のものがたりをたのしんでいただけたならさいわいです。- I hope you enjoyed my story.

This

is the final post about me attending the mountain festival last month.

I included some photos I could not fit in earlier. Those Old West characters were so fun to photograph! The town is home to a most wonderful museum consisting of a number of preserved buildings from the 1800s, most with complete interiors, making up an authentic town from the frontier days. I want to do a future photo story on this museum alone as it's quite fascinating to me. The whole story of American westward expansion and settlement is very interesting, just as it is tragic for Native Americans who were treated horribly and herded into reservations. The Native American story is at least just as interesting and goes back much further of course.

The fourth photo is an afternoon scene, two riders just casually making their way through town... :)

At the end of the day, we took a walk to a nearby creek and I was observing this birdhouse with two baby swallows peeking out. In this shot you see just one. I was waiting for a long time for mama to come back with food (I saw her earlier), but I could not get the shot...

Then, as I was coming home, I encountered some rain. The rain stopped once I got closer to home, but the skies remained stormy. The sun was setting against these thick clouds and created quite a memorable scene, which I simply have to share here.