We had a nice start to our day with coffee in bed and then another warm shower. 

We strolled down to the Cowboy and had a nice big breakfast on one of the outside tables on the sidewalk. As usual we ordered too much food but enjoy most of it. 

I needed to replace my sunglasses that I left next to Lava Creek so we headed to the Wind River Outfitter. I found a pair of glasses and Yeti  decided to try on some shoes. Our great friend Gail had posted Yeti’s hiking boots to us and Yeti has been wearing these around town today to see how they feel. After the super light and soft Lone Peaks her boots feel very tight. Her feet are swollen from walking and even though her boots are a size larger than her normal foot measurement she is not sure they will fit. After walking to breakfast and over to the Outfiter she already has a couple of numb toes. She tries on lots of shoes looking for something that will give her more stability while still being quick drying. In the end she settles on a pair of Salamons.

We stroll back down the street, stopping in at the milk bar for a milkshake. There is another guy just leaving and he has an Australian accent. Yeti calls out to him and he comes back for a chat. He is from Victoria and has a job working for the government controlling wild dogs in the high country of Victoria. He does some of his work on horses and soon starts talking to Yeti about pack saddles and packing gear, getting down to the type of knots they prefer to secure their packs. The country he works in is the area the movie the man from snowy river is set and is a very wild alpine region.

We stopped at the bead and gallery shop to talk to Monte again. We had stopped in yesterday and he fixed Yetis earrings and we had a look at his carvings. These had left a big impression on Yeti and she had been thinking about them all night. She wanted to take some photos to send to the girls and after asking permission she went around taking some shots of the incredibly intricate carving. I had read the information on his web site. He has an Electrical Engineering degree along with maths, physics and German. Except for the German it is the same qualifications as I have and I was interested to find out how he got from there to here. It turned out he started a masters degree in Robitics, the same as I had done in the 90’s but when he came to do his thesis he was told the areas he wanted to work were restricted technology and he could only do it if he worked for the CIA or a government contractor. He looked at where he would have to work and decided he did not want to work in a big city and so packed up his family and moved back to Dubois and gave up the Engineering. He did not regret this decision.