Moving Day 2

 It was 4 degrees below zero when we left Bozeman this morning just before sunrise. We were a little concerned that one or more of our vehicles wouldn't start in such cold temperatures, but everything started right up so were off to a good start. We wonder if any of our belongings were ruined by such extreme conditions, but obviously we couldn't carry everything into the hotel!

I did carry in my pet house-plant which I've had for more than 40 years. Unfortunately, I didn't realize I should cover it just to carry it across the parking lot. Today it's looking pretty traumatized. Most of the leaves have turned black and limp. But it's a hardy little thing and has survived many hardships over the years, so I'm hopeful the root is still alive and it will come back. We'll see.

 Many of you have told us that you are praying for us. I can't tell you how much that means to us. We haven't run into any precipitation so far, though there has been wind, blowing snow, and ice. However, we can sense your prayers. Every time I start feeling nervous about the road conditions I can almost feel the angels all around us! So... THANK YOU for praying!

Laura took this panoramic shot of our little convoy at one of gas stops. It's not exactly been a fun trip, but we are making it okay. It's definitely an adventure!

Later this week I hope to share more of the details of how God has been working in our lives to lead us to this move.

Tomorrow's destination: Our new home in Highlands Ranch, Colorado!

Moving Day 1

We had hoped to be on the road by 9:00 a.m. today. However, it turned out we still had about 4 hours of work to do this morning, including final loading and cleaning, so it was almost noon by the time we were ready to pull out.

 My assigned "rig" was the Excursion pulling the Plan B (12-foot) trailer. Did I mention that I've never towed a trailer before in my life? Seems like a 1,000-mile trip over the mountains in January is a good time to learn, dontcha think? Ugh.

 I snapped this picture as we were ready to leave our neighborhood. Our caravan consists of Lyle driving the Penske truck towing the car-carrier with Laura's car on it, Laura driving our VW Jetta with a car-top carrier, and then me in the Excursion with another car-top carried and the cargo trailer. Lyle's co-pilot is Cookie-the-dog, and Rebecca is riding with Laura to keep her awake and entertained.

 The girls took these pictures as we drove through Montana today.

We got to our hotel in Bozeman, Montana about 9:00 p.m. The hotel beds are soft, which is a very good feature in a bed. We are looking forward to a good night's rest.

Tomorrow's destination: Casper, Wyoming.

Travel Stats: Day 10

Departed Belle Fourche, South Dakota: 7:45 a.m. MDT
Hours driven: 10:40
Miles driven: 791
Average speed: 74.1 mph
Fuel mileage: 32.4 mpg
States: South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho
Other VW Jetta wagons spotted: 2 (white, black)
Weather: heavy rains and wind through Wyoming and eastern Montana, which made it a little scary passing semis on the two-lane
Read-Aloud: the first few chapters of Trim, Healthy Mama by Serene Allison and Pearl Barrett
Car Talk podcast: 2 episodes
Also listened to: yesterday's sermon
Arrived home: 6:00 p.m. PDT

Happy to be safely home! I'll post a trip wrap-up next, just for the record.

Another Road Trip: Day 1

We're traveling again this week, driving from Idaho to Tennessee. We're taking a couple of extra days to take the "scenic route" and to visit our parents briefly. Just thought you might be interested to see our route and our travel stats for Day 1. I'll be posting about our adventures along the way, too.

Trip Tallies:
Departed Post Falls, Idaho: 10:00 p.m. PDT Friday night.
Hours driven: 16:40
Hours slept: 4
Miles driven: 1,062
Average speed: 63.7
Fuel mileage: 36.6 mpg
States: Idaho, Montana, Idaho (again), Utah, Colorado
Time zones: 2
Wildlife spotted: antelope, turkey
Other VW Jetta wagons spotted: 3 (1 red, 2 silver)
Weather: sunny and warm
Audio book: finished Forbidden by Ted Dekker
Car Talk podcast: 2 episodes
CBS Radio Mystery Theater MP3s: 2 episodes
Lum and Abner MP3s: oh... 6 or 8 episodes (they're short!)
Arrived Montrose, Colorado: 7:40 p.m. MDT Saturday evening

From the "Did she really just say that?" department:
Cashier at McDonald's drive-thru after Lyle handed her a debit card-- "Do you want me to run this as a credit card... or what's your PIN number?" (Have you ever had someone ask what your PIN number is before? That was first for us. Needless to say, Lyle told her to run it as a credit.)

Cashier at Wal-Mart to Lyle after checking out-- "Have a happy Moth... weekend!" (Nice save! LOL!)

From the Passenger Seat

Views from last week's road trip...

Heading east on I-90. Montana.

My drivin' man.

State capitol building. Jefferson City, Missouri.

Springtime in the Ozarks.
(No doubt the picture would be better had
the photographer bothered to roll her window down.)

(But it was raining! What can I say?)

See the "QT" on the road sign to the right?
We like to stop at those in Missouri/Kansas/Oklahoma.
They have an awesome beverage selection!

Worlds of Fun. Kansas City.
Since Laura got a job at our local theme park this year
we thought she might be interested to see this one.

Headed back home. Iowa sunset.

South Dakota was cold with fresh snow on the ground.

Watch out for that bulldozer!
Can you imagine driving the thing up there like that?

Last gas stop. Livingston, Montana.
Love the mountains in the background!

Travel Stats for Tuesday/Wednesday

Continuing this week's whirlwind travelogue...

Time in Missouri with family for Dad Cook's funeral: not quite 21 hours.
Departed Missouri Military Cemetery at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri: 1:45 p.m. CDT on Tuesday.
Hours driven: 27.5
Hours slept: 3.5
Miles driven: 1,783 miles [I drove twice coming home for a total of about 200 miles while Lyle slept a little more. Otherwise, he did all the driving.]
Average speed: 64.4 mph
Fuel mileage: 33.4 mpg
States: Missouri, Iowa, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho
Time zones: 3
Wildlife spotted: Not much on the way home. Saw a dead skunk on the road, but I guess roadkill doesn't exactly count as wildlife, though, does it? Saw a squirrel at a rest area.
Weather: rain in Missouri for about the first 6 hours yesterday afternoon, very cold with snow on the ground in South Dakota through the night, snow flurries in eastern Montana this morning, warm and sunny across central and western Montana this afternoon.
Audio books: finished The Racketeer, started Forbidden by Ted Dekker.
Car Talk podcast: 2 episodes
Other audio: Sunday's sermon from our home church, Sirius radio channels-- Road Dog, Radio Classics, Laugh USA, Enlighten.
Arrived home: 7:00 p.m. PDT on Wednesday.
Thursday's destination: Redmond, Washington for the Christian Heritage conference.

Travel Stats for Sunday

Here's a map of our route for the first part of this week. And because these are the kinds of stats Lyle likes to have a record of...

Departed Post Falls, Idaho: 9:00 p.m. PDT

Hours driven: 18

Hours slept: 4

Miles driven: 1,200

Average speed (not counting sleep time): 66.7 mph

Fuel (not gas) mileage: 34.8 mpg

States: Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota

Time zones: 3

Wildlife spotted: deer, antelope, brown bunnies

Weather: rain, snow flurries, sunshine

Audio book: The Racketeer by John Grisham

Car Talk podcast: 1 episode

Arrived Sioux Falls, South Dakota: 9:00 p.m. CDT.

Monday's destination: Rolla, Missouri.

Good-night, John Boy!

It's Snowing...

...near Livingston, Montana. Just flurries. The road is clear and dry. Making good time.

Wheat Montana

Breakfast time! Today's destination: Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Buffalo Round-up Day Trip

 On Tuesday the weather was perfect for a day trip. We had made plans to drive over to the National Bison Range Wildlife Refuge to see the annual buffalo round-up. It is always the first Monday and Tuesday of October. Our homeschool co-op meets on Mondays, so Tuesday was our only option. Now that we have an 8-passenger SUV, we were able to invite some friends to go along.

Our rig is affectionately known as "Duh Bible-Study Fwuck" so dubbed by the passenger in the middle. Our friends come to our Bible Study on Wednesday nights, and so the Little Guy has decided that our name must be Bible-Study, since whenever they say they are going to Bible Study they end up at our house! He's all into "fwucks" and "fwains" so he recognizes our Excursion. He definitely added extra-fun moments to our day. It's been awhile since we've had a 2-year-old around.

The Clark Fork River was particularly beautiful reflecting the bright sunshine and blue sky. It was a gorgeous drive.

We saw several antelope on a hillside in the Bison Range before we got to where they were rounding up the buffalo. They are hard to see in the picture, since they blend in with the grass... and I don't have much of a zoom lens on my camera.

The buffalo round-up itself was not quite as dramatic as it has been in years past, since they've started using Jeeps instead of horses to drive the bison in. It was still fun to watch.

There were a few horses around, though. We saw two or three riders, but they weren't out in the range with the wildlife. Just riding around the barn and parking area. I'm not sure why. For crowd control? Atmosphere? Whatever.

On our way home we saw a herd of Bighorn Sheep. They appear to be fenced in, but I don't think they are really. I think they've just come down off the mountain. But I could be wrong. I don't really know.

Other wildlife we saw (but didn't photograph) included a mule deer, a golden eagle, a bald eagle, and a wild turkey. No bears or moose. Too bad.

We came home through the mountains over Thompson Pass. It had been a fun day.

I think our next adventure will be an apple-picking expedition. Stay tuned.

Camping Adventures

Last weekend we went camping for the second time this summer. We intended to go to Priest Lake. Actually, we did go there, but all the campgrounds were full, so we drove across the state into Montana and ended up at Yaak River again. (Granted, the state is only 90 miles across the panhandle, but it seemed like a long way when we thought were There, and had to go Someplace Else.)

I spent much of the weekend doing this:

With this close at hand:

And actually got up the energy to do this a few times:

 It was a relaxing weekend.

I was buzzing around the campsite Sunday morning taking pictures while Lyle was cooking breakfast. After I snapped a couple pictures of the fire he asked, "Are you gonna blog about the way I cook eggs?"

"Why, I hadn't thought of that! But what a good idea. Sure! Hold out your 'grabbers' so I can get a good shot of them."

He thinks I'm nuts, of course, but my blogging amuses him, so he obliged:

 See? Here's how he cooks breakfast. First, the bacon in the skillet (with the toast in a grill basket on the side), using tongs from his grill utensil set.

 Then, he removes the bacon and drains most of the drippings out of the skillet before he scrambles the eggs, using his "grabbers" to stir with!! (That's what he calls the tongs: grabbers.)

For some reason, that strikes me funny. I don't know why.

Just for the fun of it I kept tallies while we were camping. One of my blogging buddies, Keetha @ The Eclectic Company, did that on her recent vacation, and I thought it was so fun, I decided to start the tradition in our family.

So, the tallies for last weekend include:

• Campgrounds that we had to pass up because they were full -- 7
• Deer we saw along the road -- 2 live, 1 dead
• Snakes the kids saw -- 1 live, 1 dead
• Snakes I saw -- 0 (Thank goodness!)
• Squirrels in our campsite -- 2
• Meals cooked over the fire -- 3
• Hands of Skip-Bo played -- 2
• Laps around the loop on my bike -- 6 (but not all at once)
• Books read -- 3
• Crochet projects completed -- 1 tote bag, 2 washcloths

Road Trip Wrap-Up

 We traveled approximately 4,100 miles in 9 days. That averages out to 450 miles a day, but of course, the distances were different each day. Monday and Friday were the only days we didn't travel.

 Yesterday was our longest day on the road, from Casper, Wyoming to Post Falls, Idaho. It was 811 miles and took us about 13.5 hours. Lyle did all the driving the entire trip. It's his Thing, you know. Because we were pulling a trailer, he tried to keep the speed at 65mph or under. That was hard for him.

 I love traveling through the western states and watching the scenery gradually change. It is so unpopulated and the wide open road beckons. Every couple hours I reached for my camera and snapped pictures through the windshield. No signs of green in the roadside grass this far north just yet.

 As we approached the mountains we ran into some light rain, which eventually turned to snow.

Lookout Pass on I-90, on the Montana-Idaho state line, was snow-covered and slippery. That was the only "bad road" we had the entire trip. It was snowing there as we left and still snowing as we came home. I wonder if it snowed there the entire time we were traveling?

That was about an hour-and-a-half from home, and the snowy part was only a few miles. It's cool and damp at home, but I am confident spring is really just around the corner. Daylight Saving Time helps with that notion.

Needless to say, I have a very long To-Do list today.

"Road Trip Wrap-Up" blog post... Check.

Now I'm off to do the next thing.

Road Trip

It's been over two years since we've been on a cross-country road trip, so we've been looking forward to this one for awhile, even though it's going to be a lot of miles in a short time.

We got off to a later start than we had hoped yesterday evening. We planned to drive for several hours after we all got off 'work. Laura and I were ready to go by mid-afternoon, but Lyle had a last-minute rush job come at the print shop. It was after 6:00 when he got home, and pushing 7:00 by the time we finished loading and got on road.

We had motel reservations near Butte, which was about 5 hours away. There were snow flurries as we drove through the Silver Valley of the Idaho panhandle, and over Lookout Pass into Montana. The interstate was clear, though, so it didn't slow us down much. We are pulling a small utility trailer so Lyle is trying to keep the speed at a steady 65mph to help with gas mileage.

We got to our motel about 1:00am MST. Today will be about 14 hours on the road, so we needed to get a pretty early start. We left the motel about 6:45. We stopped for gas 50 miles or so down the road. Next door was a wonderful bakery and deli, Wheat Montana. I had seen signs for it along the road before, but we hadn't ever stopped there. So, of course, we had delicious pastries and coffee for breakfast. Their lunch menu looked really good, too, so we'll have to keep that in mind next time we're in the vicinity at the right time of day.

Central Montana is currently sunny and warmish-- in the mid 40s. Today's destination is Mitchell, South Dakota.

Stay tuned for more updates as we travel.

Montana Camping Trip

This past weekend we went camping in northwestern Montana with friends. Mostly we go camping by ourselves, but this is the second time this summer we've had the privilege of sharing the fun with another family.

Lyle was able to take off at noon on Friday so we got to the campground in the early evening. We got our campsite set up and built a fire. Our friends arrived later, after dark. Then we sat around the fire visiting. Before long the kids and teens wandered off to bed. The adults kept talking. And talking. After awhile I wondered if it was getting to be about bedtime. Lyle looked at his watch and said, "You don't want to know what time it is." We guessed it was getting on towards midnight. "Try 5 minutes till 2:00!" he said. Funny how the kids and teens had sense enough to go to bed at a reasonable hour and it was the forty-somethings who stayed up till the wee hours.

On Saturday, some of us slept in. Later in the day we drove to Kootenai Falls for a hike. Kootenai Falls is the largest undammed falls in Montana.

In this shot I played with the panoramic feature on my camera. It's actually 3 frames "stitched" together. Pretty cool!

Most of our group had the courage to go across the swinging bridge. I was not among them. I expect I could go across it if I had to, but it wasn't exactly something I wanted to do for fun.

And here's a view from under the bridge.

On Saturday evening we cooked our meal over the campfire. It was especially tasty with the birch bark smoke flavoring. After dark the moms and some of the kids played Dutch Blitz at the picnic table. The dads sat by the fire and talked. And talked. We don't know what they were talking about. We were having too much fun slapping our cards on the table and whining about bad hands. We did go to bed a little earlier that night.

On Sunday afternoon, on our way home, we stopped for a hike at Ross Creek Cedars. We have been here several times, but we never get tired of the lush forest and giant trees.

Mikey found a odd growth on one tree and declared it was a steering wheel!

Believe it or not, five kids and one dad crawled into the space under this tree all at one time. They said it was bigger than their tent inside!

The kids had a great time climbing and exploring. It's better than a playground.

We thoroughly enjoyed the weekend.