Headed Home

We are caravaning home with our friends from Florida, Wes & Rita Conklin. We're all packed and have proven once again that if we sit in one place longer than a couple of days, we accumulate twice as much as we arrived with! In our defense, a lot of it is material we will use over the summer. Thankfully we have a truck to haul it home with.

But to wrap up our week here, I’ll regress a bit. Wednesday was a pretty uneventful day, getting back into the swing of things at the training center. Had an early dinner at the Olive Garden and then got home in time to watch the tail end of American Idol. The day had been sunny and very pleasant, and I was sure that we had seen the last of the snow.

So Thursday morning I got up and dressed for the day, glad to be able to wear sandals again. Then I opened the curtains. Yep, there it was – about an inch of very fresh, WET snow! I’m afraid my reaction was not the best – and Roger was a bit amused as I relegated my sandals back to the closet and broke out my winter ‘clodhoppers’ once again. I know the farmers & ranchers need all the moisture they can get, so I couldn’t stay upset long. But I am VERY ready to be back in warmer weather. A very quiet evening – think all the teams are about ‘talked out’ – and we enjoyed an early supper at the Cracker Barrel – just the two of us. Back to the hotel in time to do a load of laundry and watch Survivor. It was almost like being at home.

Friday began very early with a 7:00 a.m. Chamber of Commerce breakfast. A large event, with over 900 people. The host mentioned that most towns in Montana don’t have 900 people! The speaker, Mike Rayburn, was an acoustical guitar virtuoso, who entertained us with his skills on the guitar and a few ‘motivational’ words and lots of humor. We really enjoyed him – and bought a set of his CD’s. Then it was back to the training center where we had some time to work one-on-one with computers, take care of miscellaneous paper work, etc.

As a break in the routine each afternoon over the past 3 weeks we have a 30-minute ‘health & wellness’ break. It is lead by a very vivacious (and shapely) gal that teaches yoga, aerobics, etc. here in Billings. She’s a bit of a comedian herself. Most days she’s been leading us through simple exercises we can use on the road to help reduce the stress of sitting for long periods of time, etc. But Friday she announced that we were going to have some fun and we were going to ‘salsa.’ Well, Rita and I slipped out to take a walk instead. Well, we missed it. It will definitely teach me not to leave Roger ‘unattended’ again. From all the reports, he definitely was the ‘star’ of the show. Not sure just what he did (he refuses to demonstrate his ‘moves’ for me, but it had everyone in stitches – and me wondering about this guy I’ve been married to for almost 38 years!)

Friday night we had our ‘bon voyage supper’ at the Granary – which is a very nice restaurant in an old . . . granary. Our entrée choices for the evening were: chicken, prime rib or prawns – along with crab. I knew I was in trouble when they brought out the ‘nut crackers’. Roger & I have never eaten crab (or lobster, for that matter) in the shell, so it was an experience, albeit a delicious one. I even discovered just what a prawn was - I wasn't sure - so I didn't order them, but soon discovered they are basically just giant shrimp! Here we travel along the north eastern coast for half the year – and we have our first king crab in Montana! We just might have to rethink our menu choices this summer.

At the end they gave out service awards to two couples who completed their first year as Field Service Reps and then to the team completing their fifth year (that's us!) It’s really hard to believe that we have actually been doing this for 5 years! We are the 'veterans' now. All the teams were then presented with a 'fun' award for something that happened during the last year. Roger has become known for his "Rogerisms" - so they presented him with his own book of quotes & sayings. Some of his favorites are things like "I just frogged my sides!" and our boss' favorite - which he uses when describing Hunter "she's no bigger than a popcorn fart!"

I have a reputation for having a terrible time when it comes to making reservations for the Newfoundland ferry - so they presented me with my very own 'fairy wand' - hopefully to make things go smoother this year! Actually the problem isn't me - it's those Canadian bureaucrats that can't decide if we are commercial or tourist! Two years ago they canceled our reservation and told us we were 'commercial'. Then last year I didn't make a reservation - and got 'scolded' because we weren't commercial - and should have made a reservation! Go figure.

Our first day on the road towards home we drove from Billings to Rapid City, SD. Called Bill & Karen Rose that live in the area and met them for supper. Had a really nice visit with them. After a good nights sleep at the Hampton Inn there at Rapid City. Met the General Manager, Ginny Wagner, while we were having a bite of breakfast. She has a good heart, for she was manning the continental breakfast so her employee could spend Easter with her family. This hotel is only 5 years old and beautifully decorated. I fell in love with the Formica on the tables and asked where they got them. She told me that the decor had been done by a local designer. We ended up leaving our business card, and she assured me she would e-mail the info. Roger said he thought we could just load it in the back of the truck, but, for some reason, the table didn't come as part of our room rent! :>)

The South Dakota 'natives' assured us we should head straight south out of Rapid City, but there had been reports of snow around Custer - and we are VERY tired of snow. So we opted to continue east on the interstate and go down state highway 81 into Nebraska.

Lunch time rolled around and it found us in Valentine, NE. Looking at the map, it looked like our best bet to find a place to stop. Roger spotted what looked to be like the only place in town - and it looked busy - so we stopped. Turned out they have a buffet every Sunday - and this was Easter. Think we joined the entire town for lunch - the set up looked like a local church supper! It was complete with lots of loud conversation and a bunch of kids in their Sunday best running around. After so many 'gourmet' meals the past three weeks, Roger & I were delighted to find good 'ol country cooking. Our choices were fried chicken, ham or beef tips - served up with mashed potatoes & gravy, peas & carrots - and a wide variety of salads. They had put a piece of plywood over the pool table, threw on a table cloth and it held the desserts. The price was "10 bucks" each - all you can eat! Yep, Roger & I 'frogged our sides!"

It was a good thing we stopped, for on our way out of town, we found the only other option would have been a McDonald's. The town did have a Pizza Hut - but it wasn't opening until 4:00.

The day seemed to take forever - and Wes even commented that Roger sure seemed to be driving 'very carefully'. Roger admitted that, yes, he was - for we had discovered that his driver's license expired the last day of March - and he didn't want to get stopped by one of the many police we had passed. We have previously discovered, the hard way, that the back roads of Nebraska are notorious for being heavily populated with 'officers of the law' that love to write tickets for speeding 'tourists'. The expired license was simply an oversight - and we had discovered that at 5:00 a.m. the Sunday morning we were standing in line to get through security on our flight to Billings. Not much we could do at that point! So Roger is driving VERY CAREFULLY until we can get back to Oklahoma and get it renewed. Think it's a good thing we are driving home, for he may have had a really tough time of getting on an airplane with an expired license!

We had hoped to make Salina, KS tonight, but we gave out and decided to stop at York, NE. Pulled in to the Holiday Inn - and there was an Applebee's right at the hotel. Nice not to have to drive any where - and our waiter turned out to be a native of Billings, MT. He's playing basketball at the college here in York. The topic of conversation was our recent stay in Billings - and the less than desireable weather. Spoken like a true Montanan, he tried to convince us that the cold in Montana was a 'different' cold than the cold in Nebraska. Right. Where have we heard that before! Reminds me of the folks in Arizona that claim the 110 degree heat is a 'different' heat than in Oklahoma. I'm not buying it. Cold is cold and hot is hot! And 12" of snow ANYWHERE is still cold & wet!

If all goes well, we should pull in to home tomorrow afternoon. Can't wait to explore our new home! And most of all, wrap our arms around our grandkids!