Happy Tom Day

What a beautiful morning, for what would have been, my father Tom’s 75th birthday.

Dad was born a farmer, taken off the farm as a young man, transplanted to Florida, where his love of outside, became a love of surfing. When we were little girls, learning to ski at Terry Peak, Dad would often say “skiing is just surfing on frozen water”.

He also once dropped me at the south entrance of a Badlands loop trail, with very little gear, and a map, with the other-side where he would be waiting for me, circled. I was 13 maybe?

If my mother knew ahead of time what my mandatory visits with him would entail, oh my.

But hey, I survived & lost isn’t something I have ever participated in, good enough aye?

Some “frozen water” - or as I say “white gold”, our incoming water, hanging out early, to enjoy:

And happy incoming mud season!