Rock

When I learned that this week's MonoMonday challenge was "Rock" I thought about it for a moment and then, in a stroke of genius, I thought "I'll blip a rock!" But this isn't just any rock. NO! This is a rock I have had since I was 13 years old. And it isn't just a rock I've had for 55 years. NO! It's a rock I found beside a river when my family went to Cody, Wyoming to spend the month of August at a *dude ranch* called The Triangle X Ranch. And it isn't just any old rock from beside a river - the Southfork River (the south fork of the Shoshone River is what I remember), as it happens. NO! It is, I was told at the time, petrified wood!!! Not a large piece of petrified wood, but nonetheless...

Some rock, eh? Actually, I do think it's rather cool in and of itself, but it's even cooler that it has somehow managed to stay with me all these years. And that I knew exactly where it was so it could become a blip!

I have just spent some time googling and I find that there's a Triangle X ranch outside Jackson Hole WY, which seems to be a big fancy ranch. But it isn't the one we went to. I think I found ours here, and it appears to be, or have been, for sale. As I remember it, there was the dude ranch, and there was a working farm/ranch down the road a bit. We took part in a cattle drive at one point, bringing the cattle down from the mesa where they had spent the Summer, or some such thing. The family's name was Siggins. It was a lovely vacation and I enjoyed every minute of it. The two sons - who were about 21 (Ken) and 18 (Stan) to my 13 - basically handled the guests as far as taking us on rides and so forth. I think Dad's name was Don, but I don't remember his wife's name. Googling has turned up Stan as a real estate broker in Cody, and Ken as an artist still in the same area

Quite a little trip down memory lane! And all because of a challenge called "Rock." HA!