The incorrect mileage listed at the Drakesbad Guest Ranch. Maybe they should call it the Drakesbad-Wizard Guest Ranch.


An old poster/map depicting the Devil's Kitchen where I had spent the previous night.


A charming old poem written by one of the ranch's longtime returning guests. Some families have been coming back every year for 6 or 7 decades.


Just another of the ridiculously good meals I ate while there. For six days...and counting...WORKING THERE! Yak and I were talking with a waitress who happened to mention that the ranch was short-staffed and could use some help. Well we offered in a heartbeat after tasting the food. The deal? Get this: Free room and board. Regular hourly pay. A share of the tip pool. Totally open access to laundry, the hot springs swimming pool, hot showers, etc etc etc. Nowhere else on the trail has felt so much like heaven, and we not only avoided having to pay out the nose to stay there, we got PAID to stay there. The work varied from washing dishes to cleaning the hot springs pool filters and yard care to playing lumberjacks and turning a pile of logs into an ENORMOUS pile of firewood for the wood stoves and fire pits that dot the ranch.


Some of the beautiful Eastern European co-workers we've gotten to know while at Drakesbad. There are ladies from Russia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Belarus, Kazakstan, The Ukraine, and probably some more places I can't recall at the moment. When we leave this computer center we're heading back to heaven at Drakesbad for a visit to some hot pools and maybe a going away party tonight or tomorrow night. Wow. WOW. WOOOOOOW.