August 10th through the 11th Bob got invited to be part of an exclusive conference at the Coeur d'Alene Resort in northern Idaho by a company called Lightcast. Part of that invitation included a dinner cruise on beautiful Lake Coeur d’Alene.
Lightcast is a labor market intelligence and data modeling company that Bob has worked with for years. He has regularly attended their conferences in the past but this one was quite different because it was invitation only and the company covered the cost of the room and conference fee. All he had to do was figure out how to get there.
With that, we decided it was a great opportunity to take a road trip together so Lisa too could enjoy this beautiful resort and its amenities and the amazing scenery between our home and Coeur d'Alene, while making a couple of key and personal stops along the way. Those stops included a visit of Lightcast's headquarters and Northwest River Supply (NRS) in Moscow Idaho, and the maker of a couple of Bob's favorite rifles, Seekins Precision, in Lewiston, Idaho.
Bob thoroughly enjoying our dinner cruise on beautiful Lake Coeur d’Alene.
On the deck of the Lake Coeur d’Alene Cruise boat.
A fun picture of Lisa sitting on this oversize Adirondack chair on the dock in front of our dinner cruise boat.
Lisa next to the Seekins Precision cut metal sign that welcomes you into the Seekins Precision manufacturing facility. Seekins manufactures high-end precision rifles, firearm parts, and accessories out of their facility in Lewiston, Idaho.
What really welcomes you at the Seekins facility are the people. Both of us were so amazed at the overwhelming hospitality of the Seekins staff. Leading that hospitaly was Jordan Garison with Customer Service pictured here with Lisa as he took us on a full tour of the entire facility.
Working at the State level in economic development for many years, Bob has had the opportunity to go on many business and facility tours and none were as great as our visit to Seekins. What a special surprise for our wonderful road trip through Idaho!
Our 2006 Toyota Tacoma has really served us well over the years and is still going strong. Bob often takes it out early in the morning to the desert to try out another rifle or handload when it is quiet and beautiful so he can focus and make shots out to 1,000 yards or more. It really is a special time for him as he slows down from the world of work to something more paced and relaxed.
Bob's desert shooting set up.
Bob also really enjoys taking friends out to the desert or range to go shooting.
Here he is with Sean Derby who he knows through his appointment as a Commissioner with Nevada's Division of Minerals. Sean works for the Division and runs the Abandoned Mine Lands program (AML). We first met Sean when Hannah was an intern with the AML program.
Sean had such a great time and was blown away (no pun intended) at the precision and accuracy of today's rifles.
The other fun thing we did the first part of August was to enjoy Bob's Father's Day gift from Hannah, tickets to the "Reno Phil" putting on a performance of Yacht Rock Classics in a program titled "Summer Breeze".
The Reno Phil's Yacht Rock Classics Summer Breeze program. Lot's of great songs, memories and fun. Thank you Hannah!
Bob made a second trip to Montana this summer to be with one of his best friends and college roommate, Pete Melniker, at the memorial of his wife Sharon who had passed on July 3rd.
This is a picture of Bob, Pete and Buck Brannaman. Bob met Pete over 40 years ago when they both cowboyed together on the Padlock Ranch in Wyoming. They attended Montana State University together and graduated in 1988 together. During there time together at MSU, Bob introduced Pete to Buck who has arguably become one of the best horse trainers in the world.
We are all still very good friends and always look forward to time spent together even at hard times like this when we get to hold each other up.
Pete, Bob and Buck 38 years ago at the college graduation party.
Bob with his Mom and Linda Ansotegui. Linda was the wife of Ray Ansotegui, Bob's undergraduate advisor and very good friend when he was at Montana State University.
Ray passed away March 2nd, 2023 and Bob had the honor of giving a eulogy at his memorial. As Linda so aptly put at Sharon's memorial, "going to these is hard".
Bob and Buck. Lots of memories...
Our second camping trip of the summer was to another one of our favorite campgrounds, Sugar Pine Point campground found in the Ed Z'berg Sugar Pine Point State Park.
As with our earlier camping trip in June to Fallen Leaf Lake, we pulled another great campsite reservation on the back outside loop for five days over the 4th of July weekend.
We had a wonderful time hanging out, taking long walks, kayaking in Lake Tahoe, and biking on the many wonderful trails that were once part of the 1960 Winter Olympics Nordic Trail system which also served as the site of the first-ever Olympic Biathlon event.
Our wonderful Sugar Pine Point campsite July 3rd through the 7th, 2026.
It was also great to have Caleb join us for 4th of July.
He has been very busy after graduating from UNR earlier in the spring and then starting his new job with James Hardie, so taking a day off in the mountains was good for him, and us.
Because Caleb was so busy in June we didn't get to spend Father's Day together, so he brought his Father's Day presents with him, one of which was a "James Hardie" baseball cap. Bob loves it.
The other Father's Day present Bob received was a double vinyl, greatest hits album of Creedence Clearwater Revival from Lisa. Bob really enjoyed that as well, but had to wait until we got home to actually play them.
And Chester is always in the middle of things when camping.
One of our goals is to cover every corner of the board which we did on the one but we also had some cool, high scoring words on the other, so Lisa insisted we take pictures of each for the record.
Nothing like morning coffee and a campfire!
We had to include this picture because of the story behind it. Because of the altitude change the potato chip bag had puffed up and Lisa thought it would be cool to put it between her knees and squeeze it to get it to pop open. The problem was the bottom seam popped open not the top one and chips blew all over the camper. Here she is cleaning up and laughing about the whole affair.
The three of us kayaking on Lake Tahoe near Emerald Bay. It was a beautiful calm day to be out for a paddle.
We also had a number of friends join us including Fred Steinmann who brought along two of his friends, Cortney Bloomer and Jeff Prater. This is a picture of Jeff having a great day on the lake.