Home - via the Beartooth Highway!

Yes, we are home!

The last few weeks of the season went by pretty fast. We arrived in Billings, MT (our second home) on August 19th, did the review there & then spent a week with meetings at the KOA Home Office and visiting with friends. Getting to do this is a bit of a 'bonus' of having the West Coast territory.

One evening we shared a meal with Lani Wallace, 1/2 of a former KOA Field Services Team, that makes their home in Billings. Her other half was off on a driving tour of Yellowstone in his new convertible. Her daughter, Nicole & hubby, Steve, joined us and we really enjoyed catching up. Sorry we missed you, Keith!

One day was spent (mostly by Roger) getting the truck serviced, and chasing down new tires for the truck & fifth wheel. I spent the day sleeping! It was wonderful - for me anyways!

Friday afternoon found us connecting with yet another former KOA Field Services team (Garry & Lois Quay from Michigan) that was returning from their summer trip to Alaska. Since neither of us had ever been up & over the Beartooth HIghway, our boss 'ordered' us to spend Saturday doing just that. It seems we are always in Billings at the wrong time of the year and the highway is never open due to snow.

So with a beautiful sunny day, the four of us headed out. Had to begin our day with breakfast at the Cracker Barrel and then headed south to Red Lodge. We love Red Lodge - such a fun place to browse the shops, but we found it to be overflowing on this particular day. Seems Willie Nelson was in town and the town was packed.

The one gas station that sold diesel had lines waiting for gas - haven't seen a sight like that since the gas shortages! Of course, Roger is not one to wait in line, so we ended up driving the length of town, not finding anywhere else, so turn around and go back . . . and wait in line! Gassed up, bladders emptied, we headed up the mountain.

WOW! what a drive. Garry snapped 163 pictures! It is indeed a gorgeous drive and we were all glad we decided to do it. At the other end of the highway is Cooke City. It truly looks like something straight out of the Old West! It was also overflowing with tourists, mostly bikers, taking advantage of the great weather. Wandered through the General Store and then decided to catch a bite of lunch at the Soda Butte Lodge before heading back over & down. A full day and we both headed straight to our rigs to relax at the end of the day.

Garry & Lois headed on east Sunday morning and we didn't even stick our big toes out of the trailer. A much needed rest day for both of us.

We wound up things at the Home Office on Monday - picked up our computer - and then 'connected' with some more friends (Steve & Barb Rabesa from New Hampshire & Colorado) over a long & leisurely dinner at the Olive Garden. It's not often that we 'close a place down', but we did that night. They are currently one of the Business Development teams, & had flown in to Billings to make some Montana campground visits.

One of the really neat things about this job is literally having friends all over the country. There is not many places we go that we do not know somebody!

Tuesday morning (August 26) it was time to head home. Had thought we might stop in Rapid City, SD to see old friends, but once we got rolling, we decided to just keep on rolling to Belvidere, SD, where we stopped for the night. Lost an hour - back in Central Time now - and made it all the way to Salina, KS on Wednesday before calling it a day. When we get to Kansas, we can almost 'see' Oklahoma, and we pulled in to home about 2:30 Thursday.

Shelly & Wes were the first of the family to welcome us. I had already been 'planning' what I could throw together for supper for everyone and it was so good to find ourselves in the middle of 'chaos' once again. For that is exactly what it is with grandkids stretched from 13 to 2 - and we love it.

The Oklahoma heat welcomed us too - and we are slowly getting the fifth wheel unpacked. We worked a bit, then decided to go pick up some Del Rancho steak sandwiches (it's an Oklahoma thing) and take lunch to Roger's folks. A nice visit with them, then back home & back to work. With school out for the Labor Day Weekend, Nick & Hunter decided they wanted to spend the night. No cooking for Grandma Twylah that night (Hot Pockets for the kids, chicken pot pies for the grown-ups).

We claimed Saturday (or so we thought) for running errands & stocking the freezer. Stopped by my sister's for a short visit & to pick up 3 months of mail - and then on to Sam's Club. Too hot to leave food in the car so we headed back home to unload, before heading back to town. But not to be.

Arrived at the house to find Roger's dad waiting on us. (Heaven forbid that he actually call to see if we were home!) Know he misses Roger terribly when we are gone. Seems he had decided that Saturday was THE DAY to trace an underground wire to see why our big night security light wasn't working. (Seems it had not been working all summer, but it definitely was NOT a priority on Day 2 of being home after being gone for 3 months - for us anyways!) With temperatures nearing 100 degrees, Roger made it very clear that it could wait a few weeks until the weather was cooler . . . and we were a bit more 'settled in'. So I made lunch for all of us . . . Dad got some time with Roger . . . and we'll finish our shopping another day.

Saturday evening was tailgate party time at Russ', with the first OU Sooner game on pay-for-view TV. The 'clan' gathered, Russ cooked out and it was chaos once again. Hardly before the game got underway, Wesley (13) crashed on his skateboard and bounced his head off the concrete driveway. A trip to the ER for Randy & Shelly - a concussion for Wesley - and a long, sleepless night with them waking him every 2 hours.

Glad to say he is back to his 'normal' self Sunday evening (as normal as being '13' can be) when the family gathered one more time for Grandma Twylah's homemade chicken & dumplings. Nick had been asking for them every day, and I'm a push-over. But I did make sure eveyone knew that Grandma Twylah's kitchen was "closed until further notice", as they headed out the door.

We've agreed to host our fall get-togther for our Bible Study group in October, and we have got to finish 'moving in' and do some deep cleaning before we will be ready for that!