At the reception for Amber and Alex’s lovely wedding, we sat next to Bill Bahr, father of Ken, who’s married to Kristi Viehl Bahr. See the chain? Bill is a farmer, having retired from his work as a prison guard, and among the sweetest people you could meet. Lots of stories and advice. One, that we should under-water our new fruit trees a little, to force the roots to reach down for moisture from the earth. Guess we unwittingly succeeded there, although I can report that we now have water at the building site, and that the trees will be watered through the hot spell in that part of the world.

Bill has four acres and, he claims, 23 vehicles in his barn. Larry was — well, let’s do the math. We have one hundred acres. Extrapolating, we see that Larry could have 25 times as many vehicles in our barn. Better get going!

First, of course, we have to get home. Which is proving harder than it should. Here I sit in a motel in Frederick, Colorado. Dear God. Seems the Cheyenne mechanics aren’t authorized to do warranty work on the Lexus, and our new fuel pump is under warranty. Thus another tow ride for this vehicle (which we don’t count among the 23 X 25 to which we are entitled) down the highway to Colorado. We are not advised to drive the thing (duh), so followed in the rental car to which we treated ourselves.

These tow truck drivers are a colorful lot. The road from I 80 exit 20, Nebraska to Cheyenne driver in particular. Been out of the Navy 9 years, has a 9 year-old boy, Wyatt. “Me and my brother-in-law was just down the basement shooting bb guns at the wall, didn’t think nothin of it, just being dumb-ass guys. Then the cousins went down there and started shooting, but they was shooting at a barrel, and the shot ricocheted. Wyatt lost an eye.”

Whoa. Awful! “But he’s good with it now. Got a glass eye. Of course, the police had to get involved, it being a weapon and all, but insurance covered most of it. Know what a glass eye costs?”

Okay, so what about getting ourselves home? Just talked to Larry over at the Lexus shop. Mechanic there not optimistic that they can find the problem. Seriously, people, this is getting annoying! What to do? We are NOT going to drive a car that randomly shuts down across the mountains and desert. Could be miles from an off- ramp. Miles from cell coverage. Remember, I am a princess and while I’m proud of my composure through the tornado (did I talk about that? We actually just missed it, but it was a real, live tornado all right), through severe thunderstorms, through waiting for AAA for 4 1/2 hours in the Toyota parking lot in Cheyenne. Through yuck-o food at various chain restaurants, through, well, just being sick for home, I have to keep reminding myself that this is still all leaves-in-the-swimming pool. We’re fine. The country is beautiful (though the weather leaves quite a lot to be desired!).

So we will probably arrange to have it transported back to Portland, while we drive the rental. The Portland Lexus folks will have to figure it out, or eat it on a trade-in. Though it will be a while before we consider another Lexus! If all goes well, we hope to see for ourselves how the Hundred Acres project is proceeding by the end of the week.