Thursday, July 18, was a seminal day along my path of purification.  It’s never easy to cast out one’s own demons, so to speak. Yet, if I did not accomplish this, I would well be casting some very special relationships adrift.

I woke early enough in Cokeville’s Hideout Motel to grab some breakfast from my cooler and a cup of in-room coffee, before setting off  to check out some of the Bridger-Teton National Forest, en route to Afton, home of my friends, Derek and Sima Cockshut.  This route goes through a tiny sliver of Idaho, between two large swaths of Wyoming.  Here, we are back in the Rockies, in the far west of the Equality State.

These scenes are near Salt River Pass, which keeps Afton a bit isolated from southwest Wyoming, in the severity of winter.

It wasn’t long, though, before I spotted the comfy Main Street of this mountain paradise, and smelled fresh chocolate, at my friends’ shop.

The complex, on the west side of the main street in Afton, also features a Baha’i Faith Meeting Place, with a growing library, for independent study and reflection, a key tenet of our Faith

My friends are busy throughout the day, producing the fine chocolate which has traveled as far afield as Afghanistan and Europe, during the shipping season, of October- May.  Calm, self-assured Derek, and effervescent, talkative Sima are a study in opposites, but they are opposites who have attracted for 45 years.  I am honoured to have known these fine folks, off and on, since 1985.  I also have an affinity for their several varieties of chocolate.

Across the street from Star Valley Chocolates, there are a Baha’i-owned floral shop and several other laid-back establishments.  The Olympian, Rulon Gardner, and his family are Afton natives and have a signal presence here in the Star Valley.

I spent about thirty minutes here, as the day was proceeding at a faster clip. and much remained.

Next:  The Bridger-Teton Express, Part 2- The Snake River Valley