If you happened to be in the gas patch today and saw a convoy of a dozen or so like-coloured vehicles go by...

that was us.

Quite the tour. All seven of the civilian board that supervises our outfit, the A-number one boss, one of the assistant bosses, and all of my bosses in between. Not to mention a host of other field folks, and their respective bosses.

Naturally, our stop was first on the early morning agenda.

Naturally, I was first on the agenda at our stop. And third, and fourth. And did good, I guess. Still got a job, anyway. Even if we did run ten minutes over.

So, it would be nice to recap each of the nine stops, but I gotta be in an airplane in six and a half hours, so that ain't gonna happen.

Suffice to say, I am terribly sunburned (No, I didn't forget sunscreen. Had it in the truck all day. But hate having that coat of glaze all over my skin after a day in the dust.) and ate a lot of dust.

But, got into some country I haven't been in for many a year, trespassed for a few miles in that green state to the south, met some new, neat folks, and saw a fair number of friends I haven't seen for a while.

Found out what a hundred miles of pipeline looks like.

Some of that will be laid only a few blocks from home in the coming year, even though it's close to 75 miles away now.

And got up into the mountains. The mountains where some of our radio'd elk have had the sense to go for the summer.

And a quick, dusty pass through Aspen Alley.