Memorial Day

Thank you to all our servicemen and women working in harm’s way to keep our country safe.  Thank you Nat for your service in World War II and thank you Granddaughter Laci for your service now. 

Sunshine today equals a convertible ride.  I got to pick the destination and decided on the Beartooth Highway.  We left home about 10am with Emmi, endured the road construction and had lunch at the Grizzly Bar in Roscoe.  Then on to Red Lodge and up the Beartooth Highway.  For those of you unfamiliar with this highway, it is a link between Cooke City on the border of Yellowstone Park and Red Lodge, MT.  The road is open only in the summer and presents many engineering challenges.  A few years ago, the road did not open for the summer due to extensive flood/slide damage.  The road is usually plowed and opened by Memorial Day each year.  June snowstorms at the elevations found on the road force closure occasionally.  We never tire of the views and scenery—it is breathtaking!  Today the road was only open to the Wyoming border, guess Wyoming didn’t feel like plowing (there was a nasty snowstorm up there Thursday or Friday, I think) and we turned around and came back down.  See, there is still just a little snow up there.  And there is enough snow that these hardy snowboarders were still getting in some runs!

Our friends Mark and Gemma just bought a RV—a small bumper pull trailer, used, and they had some questions so on our way home we stopped to see if we could help.  Michael answered all of Mark’s questions, they got the hot water tank, water pump and propane stove going.  We pulled out the awning and showed them how to secure it—it was soaking wet and really needed to dry out. We explained how you can’t let go of that awning strap when rolling the awning back up—they asked “what happens if you lose the strap?”  I said, “then Mike and Jim have to get up on top of the motor home and push the awning out with their feet while Janna stands on a ladder and tries to retrieve the strap!!!” We told them we were great resources, if we haven’t done it some of our friends have!!  They are excited and will be leaving on their first trip soon, they have a dog, too, and just think it will be easier to travel with him than having to find a motel that will accept pets.  Maybe we can talk them into joining us down south next winter!

Emmi played with Mark and Gemma’s dog so hard that now she is curled up in Michael’s lap, sound asleep.