Hi, I've just spent a couple of weeks in the desert canyons of Southern California -- what a great place! It's a vast area, with many rugged mountain ranges rising from the desert, and except for a few famous spots, nearly devoid of people in spite of the teeming masses just over the mountains to the west. When I left Colorado it was a snowy 5F, and to bask in 65F just a couple of days later was wonderful. The desert flowers were just starting to bloom, and in that stark background they are striking. Before this trip I made a longer one, to San Francisco to deliver furniture to an auction house and to visit several friends there, then to Portland to visit E.V. and Ben & Morgan and Mike & Susan, then to Missoula to visit Warren and Katie Guffin, and to Billings to see Mark Silver at the Wyoming Noxious Weed Control Symposium (which was very interesting). In Billings I also managed to drive my truck into a light pole in a parking lot -- the sun was in my eyes -- and fortunately I was going slowly enough that the truck was derivable back to Colorado OK and just needs $1800+ worth of new bumper and winch mounting assembly. Mark made a great recommendation to spend some time in the Cody area, so in addition to the huge Buffalo Bill museum there I enjoyed the surrounding country. Unbelievably, on the top of a ridge in the absolute boondocks (McCulloch Peak Road, in the accompanying photos) I met a man from the Isle of Skye, in the Western Isles of Scotland, and his wife from Tromsoe, Norway, both very out of the way places I know well but hardly what you would expect in remote Wyoming. In Colorado I have a great place to park my camper truck, in the juniper trees near Lee and Marsha's home, my brother and sister-in-law, next to my 16' cargo trailer 'homebase' which contains my overflow books, tools, and file-drawer and desk. With wires to their house for electric power and broadband internet, I am well set. In the trailer I have my old desktop computer and printer, and I've just entered the world of hi-tech by networking them to my laptop in the camper. Now if they would only hurry up with go-everywhere broadband internet for my truck -- actually, it is available now for $4,000 but that's not for me. After seeing a couple of digital slideshows, I realized this a much better way to share photos than my shoebox full of prints -- a back-lighted 8x12 is a lot nicer than a 4x6 poorly lit print. Not to mention how easy it is to transport a stack of photos over the internet or on a CD. I've put three slide shows on our local server, and if you are interested and have broadband internet you can view them. Using Internet Explorer you can just OPEN a slideshow file, then Right-Click to see the next picture, Left-Click to see the previous picture, and Esc if you want to end the show early. If you do not use Internet Explorer, or if you think you might want to view the slideshow more than once, you can download the file to your hard drive and open it from there. If you do not have broadband but would like to see the pictures, just let me know and I'll send you a CD. Incidentally, I avoided broadband internet access for a long time, resisting the hype in the magazines that 'you aren't really living' unless you are using streaming video and radio and a lot of other stuff on broadband, but once I had it at my brother's I was immediately converted. Not only for photos and downloading updates, it just makes jumping around the internet looking for information or products so much more pleasant that it seems well worth the difference in cost between dial-up and cable/dsl. And you can use your phone again for talking! The address for the slide shows is http://www.firestardesign.com/johna 04SOCAL has 48 pictures, the first near Moab UT, the remainder east of San Diego; ca 35 MB, broadband download time probably 3-15 minutes, go get a cup of coffee and come back later 04CODY has 17 pictures around Cody, Wyoming, ca 10 MB, broadband download time probably 1-5 minutes 04INTREE has 8 pictures showing my 'parking spot' in Colorado, with my cargo trailer and truck camper, and the inside of the trailer; ca 5 MB, broadband download time probably under 2 minutes Remember: Right-Click to see the next picture, Left-Click to see the previous picture, and Esc if you want to end the show early. Please let me know if you have any trouble with the slideshows. Regards, John Armitage PS: I have a new phone number 970 250 9809 and my mailing address is 1808 Drive 2425 Cedaredge CO 81413 .