One Busy Day

Tonight we celebrated—with a hint of sadness.  I fixed a true southern dinner—pork tenderloin, beans, cornbread, cabbage, roasted potatoes/onions, and watermelon.  Mom made a strawberry pie!  Rollie and one of the other guys from work, Dennis, joined us all.  It was a wonderful but sad evening.  We are glad to be going home but sad to be leaving Gina and Rollie, and Mom and Chuck as well as the people Michael has met and worked with. 

There were some heart stressful moments today as we jockeyed the quilting trailer around so we could hook it to the jeep—tomorrow morning we will load the jeep into the trailer then hook the trailer to the motorhome.  When we initially arrived and parked the trailer there were several guys here helping us—today it was just Michael and me but we got it done!  We are ready to roll.

I contracted with a car shipping company today for shipping the Cadillac back to Montana.  I’m still not 100% sure we are on track but hopefully things will work out. 

Our plans are to leave early tomorrow morning—our Millenicom aircard is functioning so tomorrow nights’ blog should come to you from somewhere on the road.  Thank you all for the wonderful, positive, encouraging comments—we appreciate those words!!

Happy Mother’s Day and Some Big News

I had the pleasure of spending Mother’s Day with my dear Mom—we went to early church and to lunch at Charlotte Plummer’s for a wonderful meal.  I am thankful to have my Mom in my life, I am grateful for all she does and for how she keeps our family strong and close. 

And now for the big news—we are going home—for good.  For a while Michael has struggled with the physical demands of this job—Rollie was wonderful about this issue finding Michael a job he could do from an air conditioned office which was to have started today.  While we were home this weekend being with family it is apparent our place right now at this time is in Montana.   It is our choice to return to Montana and our choice to provide love, help and support to family. 

We spent the day packing up the quilting studio—how in the world did I accumulate so much extra stuff while down here???  Michael is being a trooper and has found spots for everything so far.  Now if I just don’t find several more bolts of fabric, we will be OK.

Our only issue right now at the present moment—we have one too many vehicles for two people to drive home.  I listed the Cadillac on Craigslist and only got the usual idiot brains who want to know minutes after you post the ad, “is this still for sale?”  I texted one and said, “what do you think???”  I didn’t say what I wanted to say which was “what do you think idiot brain!!!”   I also got one text which went something like this, “I am buying for my inlaws, will have to pay with PayPal, it is tied to my bank account……ya, ya, ya!!”   YUCK!! 

So, that’s our big news—in a few days time we will be rolling up the driveway in the motorhome.

A Very, Very Long Day

Up at 2:30am, out the door at 3:45am, over to Lonnie’s (poor Lonnie) and on to the airport for our 6am flight.  It is now almost 9pm and we are both exhausted.  It was a good flying day—all on time, even early and Emmi performed like a champ again.

Rollie was kind enough to grill hamburgers for our dinner and we got to admire Thomas and Ashley’s new boat!!  Now we hear our bed calling us!

Here in Texas is a chain of convenience stores called Buc-ee’s—one of these stores between here and Houston is huge—we like stopping there as they have a wonderful place to walk Emmi plus they have these entertaining signs:

The sign behind this one states:  “Your Dog Did His Duty, Now Do Yours.”  In spite of all the signs, Emmi and I did spot evidence someone either can’t read or they have no manners!

Last Day

We have had awesome weather while here at home in Montana this trip—a little rain shower yesterday but otherwise it was blue skies and sunshine with warm temps. 

I whipped up a batch of potato soup and we went over to Lonnie and LoraLee’s for lunch.  I did make the guys a burger, too. The rest of the day I spent cleaning out the refrigerator and doing laundry—exciting, huh???

Michael worked on the cabinet doors for the Tin Tee Pee and late this afternoon I did get out there and paint the inside of some cabinets—that back breaking chore is now finished.

Rene—Our Ford F350 is a 2004 with a 6.0 diesel engine.  At about 140,000 to 150,000 miles a common problem with this particular engine seems to rear its head—the injectors need replacing.  This is not an inexpensive fix to say the least.  Our fuel injection module (computer) is also bad.  We also need a back pressure sensor—whatever the heck that is.  Here in Montana we see these trucks with the 6.0 engine being almost given away on Craigslist with no takers. 

We’ve had a wonderful time at home, tomorrow we get on one of those aluminum cans and head back to Texas.

Can You Believe We Went To Billings

And that we left the house at the ungodly hour of 6am this morning!!!  Our Ford F350 has been misbehaving lately—remember Michael had the engine out of the truck last summer—so he decided to seek expert help this time and we had an appointment with G and J Diesel in Billings at 8am this morning. 

We only went to have the truck diagnosed as we need to keep using it for a while.  It is our only snow worthy vehicle here in Montana—the jeep is in Texas and the Toyota MR2 doesn’t cooperate on icy/snowy roads.   We will take it in to have the work done when we are home next and when the spring weather stabilizes. 

Just down the street from the truck place is Law Dog Hats—I have a custom hat made by Randy and we gave Lonn one for Christmas one year.  The husband decided today was his day to order a custom hat.

 

I tried to talk him into that bright red color hanging there on the wall but he wasn’t buying that!  He settled for a silver one in the same style he now wears. 

Randy/Law Dog does a fabulous job with hats and has a thriving business. 

We made a quick run into Costco—no groceries to speak of, just wine, oil for changing the oil in vehicles, etc.  Then it was on to lunch at our favorite spot in Billings—Jakes.  Delicious as usual.

Back home we retrieved Emmi and are now getting ready to head out to Jeane and Steve’s for dinner.  We are just the social butterflies this week!!

Early Morning Wake Up Call

My sister Ann goes to work quite early in the morning—she lives about 45 minutes from Little Rock where she works and is on the road early, early—as in just after 5am Montana time, 6am Arkansas time.  Someone sent her a text this morning, she glanced at the phone to see who it was putting the phone back in her purse where it promptly dialed the last number she called—ours.  I must have been dead to the world, I never heard the phone ring but Michael did—he went back to sleep so all was well.

It’s been a great day—I will start off with the best part—we were invited down to Shirley and George’s for wine this afternoon.  We spent two hours catching up and answering questions about this oil rig business.  We enjoyed some great wine George had picked out, some cheese and crackers along with a whole lot of visiting with great friends! 

Yesterday we brought the Tin Tee Pee back up to the house and today we started working on it again.  I sanded some cabinets and Michael grouted the tile countertop.  It feels good to be working on the little Avion again.

Nat came for lunch and after lunch Michael showed Nat some of the recent photos of the hull and rig we had taken.  They spent almost two hours talking oil rigs—Rollie, I think it is in Mr. Clark’s blood!!

Lazy horses enjoying the morning sunshine.

A new nest with no eggs yet.  The robins are trying to nest everywhere—on top of light fixtures, on top of the window awnings—pesky!!!

I even sleep with my ball!

A very good day in Montana.

Another Glorious Day

We got a great nights’ sleep—here in our peaceful, quiet spot on the creek and we enjoyed a walk up the hills and down the hills around our land. 

The morning was spent searching for Michael’s driver’s license—yep, he couldn’t find his driver’s license which would be needed to fly back to Texas.  We had stopped at the treasurer’s office in Big Timber to renew the license plates on the sports car—Michael went inside while I sat in the truck with Emmi.  Michael carries a checkbook from our local Big Timber bank as a wallet with his credit cards and driver’s license tucked behind the checks.  When moving to Texas we opened another checking account—and he took that checkbook into the treasurer’s office.  After making numerous phone calls asking people to look here and there for the license he remembered he had used the Texas checkbook—sure enough the license was tucked behind the checks in that checkbook!!! 

Over at Lonn and LoraLee’s we enjoyed lunch and visiting.  Emmi got to visit with all the other dogs over there.  The drive over was beautiful—we live in a most scenic spot that’s for sure!!!

Recipes for kale chips are all over Pinterest and Facebook—I decided to try them today and you know what—kale chips are delicious.  Michael didn’t think so delicious!

Tonight we are off to have dinner at Jill and Terry’s—I am so anxious to see the completed remodel/restoration of their historic farmhouse.