Black Belt Test and Tournament

Last weekend was a busy one for the Limings. Friday night was the black belt test and we had two students testing for their first degree black belts, Vann and Arthur. We left Hardin early on Friday, when we have this event we always get a room in Billings. The test gets over late and with an hour drive home just to get up early and head back to Billings just doesn't work. This year we stayed at the Best Western. Very nice motel and I recommend it.

After the test was over, we were invited to dinner by Arthur. He had us meet him at Fuddruckers, he had some friends come and watch his test. He was going to buy our dinner, but we wouldn't let him but we did let him buy us a piece of pie. We weren't counting on going to dinner after the test, but it was fun. It was late by the time we got back to the motel, so we just went to sleep.

Had a hard time figuring out how to turn on the heat to the rooms. The are motion sensor controlled, so Gary got our room going. Had to turn on the heat to Jennifer's room. She said it got very hot in her room, she woke up about 3 am to turn it off as it was 85 degrees. When she woke up again at 7 am her room was 91 degrees. She opened up her window to get some cool air. She said that explains why her window was open when we checked in.

Saturday morning was the tournament. We had 11 students compete and as a school Hardin came home with 22 medals. 7 golds, 7 silvers and 8 bronzes. The only two students who didn't medal were my two adult females. One mainly because she missed class for a month due to her being sick and the other hurt her knee and the doctor advised her not to compete. She has to wear a brace and is looking a knee surgery later.

Arthur competed in Judo, which we don't teach in Hardin. He ended up winning a silver medal in Judo. He had only been working on judo for a couple weeks, thanks to youtube and what little Gary worked with him on. It helped that he has some wrestling experience when he was in high school. Now we have other students wanting to do judo.

Every kid got a medal in every event that they entered. I think this is the first time that that has happened. We had in years past that a student at least got one medal in the tournament.

I took the group photo on Tuesday, now I just have to tweak the photo and add a couple that were late and missed the first shoot and then get it all in the paper.

Mariah, Brandon and Alexus with their forms medals.

Tae Kwon Do, Patriot Guard and HOG

What a weekend Gary and I had, been on the road for three days.


Friday we went to tae kwon do class for the black belt pre-test. We have two students who are testing for their first degree black belt. I also turned in all the paperwork for the test and the tournament for the 26th. We have 8 students who will be competing in the tournament. Three are grandkids. Brandon, Alexus and Mariah will be competing. I hope that I can get some great photos of the kids. After class we went out to eat. We found a new place to eat in the Heights. It has probably been there for quite some time, but we just found it. It's called Montana Jacks, a casino and restaurant. The food is great and very reasonably priced. We also found out where the new Sonic drive in is, but that place is so busy that we will have to check in out later in a couple month. Traffic is backed up on Main Street with people waiting to get in the drive in.


Saturday was a Patriot Guard board meeting in Bozeman at noon. We got there right on time, found the meeting room. The deal with these meetings is that the Patriot Guard will get the meeting room for free if we order off the menu. Gary and I decided to split a cheeseburger with fries and we both had diet cokes to drink. Our meal came and we got a hamburger. We only got about 5 choices off the menu and no prices were listed. We figured we would be safe with a burger. It was ok. Had the meeting. Gary and the other guy representing Eastern Montana get the privilege of organizing the Gathering of the Guard this year. It will be held in Billings on the last weekend in June. Neither one lives in Billings, the other guy lives in Roundup. They are going to have to get together and find a place, but they need to get moving on it so that the general membership can make plans. Before leaving Bozeman had to pay for our burger. Our meal was $14 for just a burger, fries and two diet cokes. What they did was charge the group a gratuity and then she had to split the gratuity up amongst all of us who ate. I really don't like being forced to pay for someone's wages. Nothing at all was on the little menu we had stating that a gratuity would be added for a large group.


Sunday was our HOG chapter meeting. This is the last one indoors until October. Next month we start our riding meetings. It was a very short meeting as afterwards there was a riders safety course offered. Gary was asked to be a road captain and all the officers are defacto road captains. It was interesting, but not much for me to do because I'm a passenger. The place that we meet is Bones Brewery but they have been going through a remodel so their kitchen is closed. We ate before we got to the meeting. Once we arrived we found out that Bones had brought in a cook for us. Many did order off the menu. We eventually ordered a basket of onion rings to snack on for the safety course.


The weekend went pretty fast, but we better get used to it because they are going to go by once we start riding and summer gets here.

Sunday Ride

Last Sunday the weather was beautiful so we took a Sunday ride. The guys were talking about meeting up for a ride at the bar on Saturday. We women said whatever you guys want to do is fine with us.

Our friends met us in Hardin on Sunday afternoon. Our original plan was to eat lunch at the Spring Creek Bar, but when I tried to call there was no answer. We ate lunch at the 4 Aces. It was nice to get together with our friends and catch up on what we all did.

It was just a short ride, rode up Sarpy to Hysham over to Custer and then back to Hardin. That is about 110 mile round trip from Hardin. A good ride to get broke into riding again before we head out on these chapter rides. Besides we have been waiting for along time to get the bikes out and on the road.

There is a strech of road on the Sarpy Highway that is horrible and that is on the Treasure County side. There were signs warning us about water on the highway. Just one low laying area where there was water on the road, not too bad on Sunday. Alot of water everywhere. There is also a huge bump in the road.

The road is bumpy once you get into Treasure County, this particular bump is across the whole road and when Gary hit it, I literally came off my seat. In fact when all the guys hit it, all of us women looked like those gophers in that game.

We were going to take the frontage road in Hysham and Custer, but when we got to the junction of I-94, the frontage road was closed due to flooding. We had to take I-94 to Custer. We stopped in Custer for a drink before saying our goodbyes to our friends. They all live in Billings or Laurel so they continued on from Custer, while we came home.

It was a very nice afternoon. Keeping my fingers crossed that winter is behind us and we can enjoy the spring and summer. This has been a very long winter. Not getting my hopes up too high, after all Easter is not here yet.

It has been a very long time since we have had winters like this year that we are spoiled. When the real thing comes along then we complain.

St. Patrick's Day Parade

Saturday we rode in the St. Patrick's Day Parade in Billings. Had a great time. It was too cold to ride the bike in the morning, so we loaded it on the trailer. Besides from past experience we knew that it would be late getting home and we didn't want to be riding in the dark.

It has been nice since Wednesday with very warm temperatures that melted all the snow and ice in our back yard. We got the bike loaded onto the trailer early Saturday morning. By now we know how to do this so had plenty of time for a quick cup of coffee before heading to Billings.

We had a dilemma this year. The Patriot Guard Riders and our HOG Chapter were both in the parade this year, who do we ride with. I'm an officer with the chapter and Gary is on the state board of directors for Patriot Guard.

We called some friends, who are on vacation, to see if we could park our truck and trailer at their house. There is an empty lot next to their house that we can park. No problem. We got to their house and apparently they will be getting new neighbors. Wonder if they know. There were pipe laying across the empty lot. We just parked in front of their house, careful not to block their mailbox.

We met our friends at the restaurant for breakfast. We decided to ride with the Patriot Guard mainly because we felt being a state director trumped being a secretary. We did have a mission after the parade and Gary had to sign some papers for the Patriot Guard. Many of our friends were riding with the Patriot Guard.

After the parade we had a quick snack with the group at Burger King before going to our mission. Our mission was at St. Patrick's Co-Cathedral downtown in Billings. Fortunately it was a nice day for the mission, not too hot and not too cold.

When the mission was over, we met with our friends at a bar for a drink afterwards. We all went our separate ways to regroup. We loaded the bike back up on the trailer. Gary got in trouble by the letter carrier for blocking the mailbox. We didn't actually block the mailbox, the letter carrier just couldn't park up to the mailbox and deliver the mail. Would have had to get out of the truck.

Went to the bar and met our friends, had a couple of drinks and ate some Italian nachos. It was dark by the time we left Billings.

We got pulled over by the deputy just a block away from our house. Turns out we lost the lights on our trailer. We gave the little deputy our information, good thing we didn't get pulled over in Billings, would have been in trouble. At first we thought that the lights just got loose from traveling down the road. The cord was broken in half, looks like the cord got loose and was dragging on the ground.

Gary got a warning out of it mainly because we were only a block way from home and the cop said that he doesn't write up veterans.

After that episode, we have decided that we will never drive home again after having drinks. We have said this before.

Wrestling

I'm already behind. Two weeks ago Hardin hosted an AAU wrestling meet. Tristan, Donnie's son, is a wrestler. We went to go watch his meets. There were a ton of kids running around, there were 8 mats going on at the same time.

Donnie found us and gave us all the information that we needed for Tristan. All of his matches were on mat #4 and Donnie had already camped out an area where we could get good viewing. He told us what the match numbers were for Tristan and then we just had to wait.

There were other kids that we know who wrestle too and some friends' kids wrestling so we were able to watch alot of matches. I was very surprised at the number of girls wrestling and they weren't afraid to mix it up with the boys. In fact Tristan had to wrestle two girls.

He lost his first match but won his second. He placed second in the tournament for his bracket. The first girl pinned him, she was from Hardin and a friend of his so he wrestles her all the time. Donnie told us that he usually wins against her. The other girl he has wrestled in tournaments before, no sure where she is from. He is not able to pin her, she can move out of that but he usually beats her by points.

I took my new camera with me and was able to play with the sports mode and the video on the camera. My camera has a flip down live view finder which came in handy. It was announced that all photography and video taping has to be done from the stands. Only wrestlers, coaches and officials were allowed on the floor. Well most people ignored that. Not me, I stayed in the stands. Flipped the view finder down and started taking video. A man sitting behind me sure liked that feature on my camera.

I wasn't too sure how the video would turn out, but I was sure surprised at the quality and the sound that my camera picked up.

Tristan and Donnie went to Great Falls this past weekend for the state tournament. Donnie kept us informed by text. Tristan didn't win. He was in a bracket of 32, he lost his first match, won the second and lost the third. He didn't get pinned, he lost by points. Donnie said that he got injured in the first match. He didn't quit and stayed with it. Now he wants his dad to teach him speed and strength for next year.

Car Damage Estimates

I finally got the estimates for the repair on my car bumper. I went to the two body shops here in Hardin. One estimate is for $705 and the other is for $739. I called the people who hit me and they would like to pay out of their pocket. Their deductable is $1000 and with the estimate lower than that they would rather pay themselves. This will also keep this off their insurance and help their rates. I know what it costs to have teenage drivers on your insurance and can just imagine what this will do to their rates. Especially when I found out that this is the girl's second accident.

We would like to have them pay us directly and then we will make the appointment to get the work done and then pay for it. This way we know for sure that it was paid for. Besides with two different people might confuse the workers and that would be a nightmare. This way we will have the work done and pay for it. We have decided to go to the $705 estimate. I'm sure both do a good job and this body shop came highly recommended.

I am just appalled at how much cheap plastic costs. The problem with my bumper is that it is two tone and naturally the damage is on both colors. Not that it would matter anyway because the bumper is one piece and would have to be painted anyway.