Road Trip

Saturday Gary and I went to Missoula for a Patriot Guard Board Meeting. We decided to make the trip in one day instead of spending the night. We figured with the two of us driving, the trip won't be that bad. That's what we get for thinking.

Gary came down with a cold and on Friday night he didn't get any sleep at all. He would cough whenever he laid down, so off to the couch he went. He can at least recline and get some sleep. Once he got up he played on the computer for a while, still coughed here and then, no sleep just some cat naps.

Once he started to sleep, Jennifer woke up to get ready for work. She had to open Saturday morning. He figured he better leave the lamp on in the livingroom so he wouldn't surprise her when she got up. I got up at 4:30 am and immediately told him that I would do the driving, since he didn't get any sleep. This way he could nap in the truck.

We took Jennifer to work by 5:00 am and off we went. Gary started out driving, said he was ok. We stopped in Big Timber for gas and ate breakfast at the little restaurant next to the gas station. Our friends swear by the breakfasts here and said that they serve the best scones. I ordered a breakfast with a scone. It wasn't a scone at all, it was just fry bread with honey butter. It was good, but not as good fry bread as what you can get around here. In my opinion fry bread is not a scone.

I was driving when we left Big Timber. We stopped in Anaconda for a short break. It has been quite a while since I have been west that I forgot Anaconda is not just off the interstate. You go about 6 miles before hitting town. It was a good stop to stretch our legs and get some fresh air. Gary couldn't remember if the meeting started at 12:00 or 1:00 so off we went.

We made it to Missoula at 12:00 pm. Found our meeting place without any problems. We were very early as nobody was there so we decided to find the Harley dealership. According to the signs, it was on the same street as our meeting place, however, we couldn't find it. Must have been further into town. We found a gas station and decided to gas up here that would save us a stop before leaving. Back to the meeting place. We were still the first ones there, so we went inside. The place we met was a casino with a nice restaurant off to the side. We were able to watch some football before the meeting. It wasn't long before the others started to show up.

I can sit in the meetings but I have to be quiet. Since I am a Patriot Guard member I am allowed to attend all the board meetings. They actually got quite alot done and this time they even conducted a real meeting. In Sept. when the meeting was in Billings, the guys made motions and seconds but then didn't vote on the motions. This time they did, they even verified the quorum. The meeting lasted about 2 1/2 hours, we left Missoula around 3:30. They were surprised that we were headed home.

I was driving again, this time we stopped in Butte for a break. I had Gary drive from Butte to Bozeman, just to give me a little break. We ate supper in Bozeman. We ate at Wendy's and this one had a tv with football on. Leave it to Gary to find a football game in a Wendy's. Called in to Jennifer to keep her posted on our whereabouts. Once we arrived in Bozeman, it was a three hour drive home, not bad.

We got home at 10:00 pm and promptly went to bed. Good thing we got the extra hour of sleep in due to the time change.

In the future we have decided that next time the meeting is in Missoula we will spend the night. We were both tired at the end of the day. It wouldn't have been so bad if Gary had some sleep and could help with the driving. We forgot our cd's, so once we got out of radio contact it was pretty quiet driving. Talking helped in that area.

Driving 800 miles is quite boring so we counted how many counties we drove in, came up with 13. We argued if you should count Big Horn county. I said yes, because we had to drive through it to get to the next county. We had good weather, except in Missoula. It was rainy in Missoula. I wasn't able to get any photos because I drove. Gary would have thrown a fit it I took photos while I was driving.

Now we are gearing up for our road trip to Jackpot Nevada on Friday.