Friday cont. ~ Also at the petroglyph park was an assortment of large playground toys, jumbo versions of the old favorites. Large swings, large monkey bars, large slides, and a jumbo merry-go-round that was so big it had a metal framework around it for extra support. Too bad for AJ that he was picking up the load, but the rest of us had tons of fun. It is way back off gravel roads, in the middle of nowhere, but people come from all over to go there. Earlier that day, some fellow Fruit and Nuttians had been there, and recent visits from New Zealand and all over the world.
BIL/SIL did not have working air conditioning, so it was extra hot. The kids didn't mind - we let them play in the sprinkler all afternoon while we sat around and talked. Meanwhile, the boys were having plenty of fun on their own, and JJ insisted on stopping for biscuits at his favorite place. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" /> By the time they came dragging their behinds in, I had already made the Cherry Crunch (!!!) for potluck. (I shouldn't be writing this while I'm hungry. Or the next part, either.)
AJ made supper for everyone, plus a super-yummy tater tot casserole, using Pepper Jack soup mix, instead of the usual cheese or nacho. Supper was breakfast burritos, loaded with veggie sausage pieces. JJ tried to pretend he didn't care that much for them, but he had personally eaten 4 of them by the end of the night. Oh, I am so hungry. There was honeydew, and I drank a bunch of soda, something I don't normally do, but the water was awful. I would try and slug it down really fast, before the taste started to sink in, but couldn't get much down. And for some reason, the more soda I drank, the thirstier I got. So the more soda I drank. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />
Let's see. We went back and played and talked some more - soooooooo relaxing - and finally had worship with all the kids and got them ready for bed. It was so cute, because recently my 5yo niece has been attending occasional church & VBS programs, and it showed. She said the sweetest little prayer, complete with motions, sang us a song, and listened intently as the Dervish told us a War & Peace style saga of Jonah. "Suddenly...." (When you're a Dervish, everything happens suddenly.)
Worthy of mention, is that when I made the Cherry Crunch, the new container of Blue Bonnet had a big scoop taken out of it. I thought AJ had just used it for his vegetables or something, but used most of the rest, and left the last little dribble for SIL, smiling kindly to myself and figuring that every little bit helps.
So we all went to bed, very grateful that it had cooled off. We Left Coasters are not used to so much humidity, especially when the temperature is around 100.
Sabbath ~ Morning came an hour early, though not quite as early as on Friday. The original plan was to drive the truck to church in Plentywood, park it down the street from the church, and keep on going from there. But my little niece and nephew wanted to go with us, so we borrowed JJ's pickup to take them all. It shouldn't have been surprising that the pickup didn't have air conditioning, either. Then, if the church had any, it wasn't working. Well, it is a darling little church, and we nearly doubled the attendance when we showed up. There were 12 when we got there, with the 7 of us. Their pianist was quite good, not what you would expect from such a small church. And for church, they played a video...fascinating stuff about how our brains work, and how habitual negative thinking affects us. Their pastor has to attend to 4 churches altogether, so they don't see him too much, though he sounded like he was very nice when Neaksis and I talked to him. Anyway, after church we went down to the nice COOL basement for potluck. They were having haystacks, which is what they had when AJ was there 2 weeks ago, so they kept embarrassedly explaining that they just NEVER have haystacks, and hadn't for about a year, but it was just so hot........ They were so sweet. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> We tried to explain to them that we love haystacks, and they could have them as often as they wanted and we would still be happy. Another lady brought a huge bowl of freshly picked raspberried to have on ice cream, and you can believe we'd let her do that as often as she wanted, too! Reluctantly, we at last took our leave, loathe to leave the congenial company, and the near-arctic temperatures of the basement.
Surprising news greeted us back at the house. AJ's (older) step-brother, JJ2, wanted to take the whole family to dinner, though JJ suggested it might be best to have everyone over to his house and order pizza. Fortunately we were able to re-configure our itinerary and stay, or our name would have been Mudd. It was even hotter that day, and every bit as humid. My sole contribution was to sit still and let the fan blow on me. Around 7pm it finally reached the place where it was the same temperature outside as inside, but with a small breeze outside. The party moved out, and the mosquitoes rejoiced.
Then came one of the highlights of the trip. A cute little butterfly, most likely a Painted Lady, but Mom hasn't been able to confirm it yet for me, came and landed right next to my arm. Then it landed on my arm. Over and over and over again. Once in a while, for variety, it would flutter around the flowers on my dress, before landing on my arm again. But that wasn't the highlight. I have actual photographic evidence that the Dervish held still long enough to get the butterfly to land on him. Over and over and over again. At one point, he even walked around the yard with it for a while. I want to be known as the mother of the Butterfly Whisperer.
My little niece started to cry when it was time for us to leave. Well, so did the Princess. Except she got in trouble, because AJ thought she and one of her brothers had been fighting. Even getting that straightened out didn't make her stop crying, not till she fell asleep at least thirty seconds down the road.
It was so weird to go through the driving conditions we experienced for the next hour or two. Having such high humidity during the day, and then a dramatic cooling at night, led to a lot of condensation.......fog. It was especially bad in all the low-lying areas, of course, and the terrain in that part of MT is not-so-gently rolling hills, so there were lots of places for the fog to collect.
As far as I know, we went to sleep in Prairie, but I'm not entirely sure. Close to there, anyway.
Sunday ~ Today we saw a whole bunch of cool exits. There was the exit to Pompey's Pillar, which was nice in that we could actually see Pompey's Pillar. Sometime we will actually stop there and walk to the site, but we really wanted to make West Yellowstone before dark, so we didn't that time. I haven't been there for many years, but it is the place where the only remaining tangible evidence of the Lewis and Clark expedition is. On July 25, 1806, Clark carved his name into the sandstone. People have kept track of it ever since, and it has been protected since the 1860's. Then we went past the exit for the pictograph cave and the Little Bighorn Battlefield. Neither place have I ever been to, although I have at least gotten to go to Fort Sheridan before, many years ago, which is where Crazy Horse was killed.
AJ’s version of what we did today: Sleep and Eat and put oil in the trailer and start to Canada (noni) north bound to ogden ut on I 15 LOL :0))
We were hoping to see some exotic wildlife in W. Yellowstone (other than the Dervish), but there was only a road-killed elk, and not even inside the park. We stopped just west of town and micro waved our supper right there in the truck. It just figured that as soon as we were done, the younger 2 kids had to go to the bathroom. Without going into undue detail, let us just say that empty water bottles and cups were not sufficient for the job. And naturally it was a mile each way to the nearest bathroom. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />
The road across that part of ID was pretty nifty, mountainous and winding. Doubtless it would have been beautiful in the daytime, but it was still pretty fun. The kids started dropping off much earlier than usual. It was like they were tired or something.
Finally, we went to sleep around the ID/UT border.
Monday ~ As AJ alluded to yesterday, he had to put oil in the trailer. One of the wheel seals on the rear axle went out, and the hub oil kept leaking out. You don’t have to be a diesel mechanic to guess that that is not the best thing for optimal operations. We kept having to stop about every 100 miles and put some more in, to keep it from getting too low. We found a place to get it repaired in SLC, UT, after loading our 2nd batch of crates, but the wait time was already at 2 hours, and we weren’t even there yet. Finally we found a place in Mill City, NV, where there was nobody getting worked on at all.
The boys slept all the way across the salt flats, all the way across the desert. You’d think they were still tired.
There was still not much of a wait at Mill City, so within a few minutes we were pulled into a bay getting repaired. The kids sat like little zombies while I used the time to clean up the truck. (You would not believe how much of a mess 3 little kids can make in a small enclosed area.) I put them off as long as possible, hoping we would be done, but I finally had to take them in to go to the bathroom. When we got back, AJ offhandedly said they had messed up our axle, and were going to have to call in a specialist. The “Axle Doctor”, lol.
He is such a prankster, I didn’t believe him at first. But he showed me where the guy had torched and hammered his way through one of those fancy shmancy, and IMPORTANT truck parts, only to find that it had been welded on, would not come off, and he had just ruined that part of our axle.
Those poor people must get a whole lot of cranks through there, because everybody was afraid to talk to us at first. The office lady just cringed when she came and told AJ, and was amazed when he was nice about it. She started throwing goodies at us right off the bat, and when it became obvious we were going to have to spend the night, she also called for us to get a room at their motel.
So we went and took a nice long shower first, in our little room with a pile of Subway mints left for our enjoyment, then went for our free dinner in their restaurant. Even the room lady said she hadn’t wanted to be the one to talk to us, after she found out what happened to the trailer. I wouldn’t have thought we were that unusual, but apparently we are, at least by comparison to their other customers. Oh, and when the manager finally got there late, since he had to drive in from Reno when he heard about what happened, he tried to give AJ $50 for each of us to spend in the casino, but AJ declined. Still, it was very nice. Also just walking up to counters, letting them know, “we’re the AJ family”, and getting treated like celebrities. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
Monday ~ The air conditioner wasn’t working that great, and must have gotten finished off during the night, so once again we were lying around boiling in our own juices, until they could get us into a different room. Breakfast was pretty cheap, since it was mostly paid for by the additional coupon they gave us for food. Sometime this afternoon the trailer is supposed to be done, since Dr. Axle fixed it right away, but now it has to sit forever and cool to room temperature before they finish it.
You will be glad to know that AJ was kind enough to bring in his shaving kit this morning. I had forgotten to bring it in EVERY SINGLE TIME this trip so far, and any longer would have found me needing to braid my underarms.
I did not let the kids eat the Subway mints in the second room. But maybe I should go see if they’ll comp us lunch, too. “Scuse me, I’m Mrs. AJ, and I was hoping you could send a few things to room 118…….” Tee hee!
26 ¼ hours and almost $500 later, we are on our way. That’s fine; I didn’t really expect to get the original repair for free, only where they fixed their mistake. There was a heavy thunderstorm for a bit, and now the sunset over the mountains is gorgeous! A double rainbow shone off to the east, but the Dervish missed it, because he is asleep. I got a nap this afternoon, and he didn’t. Oh, AJ got me a pack of Nerds before we left. Other women’s husbands buy them treats, and say touching things like, “roses for my rose,” or “sweets for the sweet”. Sigh. Well, I
am a nerd, and have been much better off in the years since I accepted that. And I have a bunch of little nerdy children, too. (Mr. Computer is reading over my shoulder, so I made sure to put that part in.)
Just a few hours from home, and a chance to wash some clothes. I timed it out perfectly. Each of the kids has one outfit to spare, and I am on my last pair of bloomers. I was going to do some laundry while we were stopped, but their laundromat had Out of Order signs taped all over it. So poor me, I had to take it easy all day long.
After the laundry, a new adventure awaits……..
