Trash Can Turkey

Saturday we were invited to our friends house for a Saturday evening BBQ. On the menu was trash can turkey and fry bread. We had to bring a salad.

We had crappy weather for the weekend, rained the three days, but that didn't stop us from having fun at the BBQ. Went to the store to buy the stuff I needed for my pasta salad. Got my salad made and I'm ready.

We left for Billings early as we had some errands to run before getting to their house. When we have our get togethers everyone brings their own booze, so we stopped at the liquor store to buy some more Jack. I was wandering around and wanted to get some rum. Looking at the Captain Morgans and all the choices I had. Gary found a new rum, Captain Morgans Tattoo. It's a dark rum so I decided to give it a try.

We arrived at our friends house, got my salad on the table and then we just sat around and waited for the others to arrive. I mixed my tattoo rum with diet coke and it was very tasty rum. I think I have found my new favorite rum. I shared my bottle with others and they liked it as well.

I was told that the tattoo part comes when I drink enough I will wake up with a tattoo on my butt. That didn't happen so apparently I didn't drink enough.

Had a great time, there were 14 of us at the BBQ and we all had a great time. The hours sure flew by fast, before we knew it it was 10:00pm. The turkey was delicious and fry bread was good. Had the normal toppings for it, honey, butter and cinnamon. There were two different kinds a jellys and one was a jalapeno jelly. That was very tasty on the fry bread. An assortment of pasta salads and two kinds of desserts. One was a chocolate cake (yummy) and the other was a banana split cake (scrumptious). Gary wants me to get the recipe for the banana split cake.

We spent the night at our friends the Butterfields. They don't like us driving home to Hardin after a night of drinking. Our room was ready for us. In the morning Kitty fixed huevos rancheros. Those are sure good. I got her recipe for that too. I make them at home, but I didn't have any refried beans or churizo.

Big Horn County Flooding

Last weekend Big Horn County was flooded. We had alot of rain during the month of May and the ground is just saturated. In fact Eastern Montana is flooding. All of this is having a ripple effect. Hardin was ok, just the out skirts of town got flooded. Schools were closed for three days because students couldn't get to school. In fact buses are still not running, only students who can safely make it to school are in school. Most of the flooding in town was basements. Mom's was ok.

Here are some of the photos that I have taken.

This was taken on Saturday. This is Fly Creek

This on Saturday. Fly Creek and that is the interstate.

Taken on Thursday. I-90/Hwy 212 interchange headed east.

This is the frontage road that runs parallel to the interstate at the I-90/Hwy 212 interchange.

Wall Of Honor

For Armed Forces Day, Beartooth Harley has a Wall of Heroes. Armed Forces Day was last Saturday and we got an e-mail from the dealership asking for photos of military veterans and those currently serving to be put up on their wall.

We had fun looking through our photo albums, but the first order of business was finding the albums. Several years ago I had boxed up all our photo albums and stuck them in the hall closet. I'm sure that I would go through them someday and put them away. We got the boxes down and started sorting through albums.

It was fun looking through the old albums and reminiscing. I also got the closet cleaned out too. Found our military albums and it was fun looking through those too. Jennifer got a kick at how young we were and surprised at some of the photos.

Anyway we picked out our favorite ones. I took photos of the photos as we didn't want to take the originals anyway. Fixed them up on Photoshop and got them printed.

Off to Billings we went, picked up our photos and took them to the dealership. Saw some of our friends and visited for a bit. We wanted to get back home soon before the roads were closed due to flooding. Fly Creek was almost over the bridge.

Here are the photos that we have hanging on the Wall of Heroes. Now I just have to find a good one of Robert to put up. The Wall will be a permanent fixture at the dealership.







This was taken in March 1975 in Australia. Gary was 23 years old.











Me in August of 1981 taken at Parris Island SC. I was 18 years old.








This is the wall at the dealerhsip.

World Trade Center Escort

For the past month Gary and I have been attending meetings on a piece from the World Trade Center with MSU-Billings College of Technology. We got in on this through Arthur, he was a student and invited us to be involved with the Patriot Guard Riders. Gary was the one who organized all the motorcycle riders involved.

The college applied for a grant to get a piece of the World Trade Center through the fire science program and was accepted. The instructor who thought that this would be a low key affair was very surprised at how fast news got out.

The meetings were geared toward the logistics of getting the piece from New York to Montana which changed several times. The Port Authority only allows certains times for pick up and the trucking company who originally volunteered to get the piece just couldn't work with that sort of time frame. The instructor went personally to New York and picked up the piece and brought it back to Montana.

Gary had suggested to the other motorcycles who wanted to participate to meet on Sunday morning at McDonald's. We are to meet the college personnel at the Montana/Wyoming state line at 9:00 am. We weren't too sure how many would be at McDonald's that early. We suggested 7:00 am so that would give the riders from Billings and other places a chance to warm up and get a cup of coffee. Also give the bikers a chance to fill up with gas. To our surpise 12 bikes and one car showed up for the escort.

Got organized for the ride to the state line and we got there around 8:30 am. There were three other bikes already there waiting along with the college dean with a truck and trailer. A couple other bikes arrived and so the the state trooper.

The beam got transferred from the pickup to the trailer and we all got organized for the escort to Billings. Gary was the lead bike in this. We did stop in Crow Agency to gas up otherwise we would have had stranded bikes along the interstate.

As we made our way west toward Billings, we picked up about 7 more bikes that were waiting in Hardin and the closer we got to Billings more fell in. We also had three fire trucks from Lockwood that followed in. It must have been a sight to see, too bad we were the lead. Couldn't see anything.

We arrived at the Metra 1 1/2 hours ahead of schedule. By the time we all got parked we had 32 bikes, more fire trucks, law enforcement and ambulances at the Metra. We had plenty of time to wander around the Metra before the 12:30 pm parade through Billings. There was a show going on in one of the buildings so we wandered around and looked. There was food for sale, but we just ended up getting a coke. Was not going to pay $7 for a hotdog and chips.

Gary was busy with the police and powers to be getting the line up organized and the route down. We left the Metra at 12:30 pm, went down Airport Road to Zimmerman Trail. Down Zimmerman to Rimrock Road. From there we hit Shiloh to the college. The Billings PD did a fantastic job stopping traffic at all those intersections and the roundabouts on Shiloh.

We arrived at the college and go parked in our designated parking spaces. Everyone got around the trailer with the beam for a group photos. The local news stations were there. Gary was interviewed for Q2 news and his photo of him touching the beam is on the Billings Gazette site.

When people started to leave, Gary helped the college personnel get the piece inside the building. There will be a formal ceremony on September 11. The college is going to build a memorial outside their building.

It was a very good day. Gary did a fantastic job in organizing the riding and all the bikers. He has been asked to organize the Patriot Guard for the formal ceremony in September.

Here are some photos. I do have them posted on my Picasa site.

Champagne and Chocolates

What a busy weekend it was for us. Friday night we went to the Beartooth Harley HOG Appreciation BBQ. This is the one that the dealership puts on for the HOG chapter. The chapter then puts one on for the dealership in September. This year the dealership had some people cook burgers, hot dogs and chicken for us. What a disaster that was. There were about 30 people that came for the event and the cooks ran out of potato salad. About 10 people went through the line before they ran out. They even ran out of hamburger buns. I guess they don't know how to count. By the time I got through the line, I had my burger on a hot dog bun and chips and salsa. That was it. They did have beer and didn't run out of beer. Priorities. Still had fun even though the food was horrible. I don't think these people will cook again for the dealership.

We spent the night in Billings on Friday night anyway because we intended to drink, besides we also were leaving early in the morning for Meeteetse. Gary was still hungry after his "snack" so we ate at a little casino right next to the motel. After dinner I gambled. I was $1 short of winning back what we spent on dinner and gambling. It was fun.

We got up early Saturday to make our way to Meeteetse, had to be there at 9:30 am for champagne and cake. It was a nice drive and we made it in plenty of time. Met Mom and Grandma at Lucille's and the first thing we got was a glass of champagne. There was chocolate cake, chocolate truffles, cookies and mints for snacks. I did not care for the truffles, not sure what flavor they were but to me it was not good. Alot of people came in to give birthday wishes to Grandma. We then went to the house to get some visiting in and regroup before lunch. Gary took us out to eat at the Cowboy for Mother's Day. It was very good. Took some photos and will be getting those posted up soon. We then went back to the house for more visiting. Gary and I left around 5:00 to head back home.

Sunday I had a pleasant day just relaxing around the house. Nothing special.

Anniversary Celebration

Yesterday Gary and I celebrated our 24th wedding anniversary. First of all can't believe that 24 years has already gone by and they went fast.

We didn't do anything special, saving our pennies to celebrate in style next year. We are planning on going to Las Vegas for our 25th.

We had a meeting in Billings anyway yesterday, so we just made a day out of it. After the meeting we ate lunch at the Red Door Casino on Grand and Shiloh. A very nice place. When we got our tab we also got a coupon for $5 matchplay in the casino. It was only redeemable for yesterday.

I played the machine and lost. I was doing pretty good playing poker, at least I was winning a couple bucks. Gary came in and told me to play keno as that is what people tell us to play. According to them that is the only way how to win. Well, I promptly lost my money and it went fast. I only lost $5, we are saving our gambling money for next month when we go to Deadwood.

It was still too early to go home, so we did some shopping for little stuff that we really didn't need but bought anyway. Had a good time.

MSU Billings Graduation

Saturday we were invited to our student/friend Arthur's college graduation. He graduated with honors and now has an AS degree in Fire Science.

The graduation was held at the Metra in Billings, this is the first graduation since the tornado last year. We were excited to see the "new" Metra.

The graduation ceremony started at 10:00 and we got there about 9:45, we were directed to park in the upper parking lot. They had attendants directing traffic. Found a place to park and made our way down into the Metra. The steps and tunnel are not completed yet, so we had to wind our way down the hill.

We were very disappointed in the "new" Metra. As far as we could tell, nothing new about it, just repaired things. The seats are the same seats as before. The ones that were damaged in the storm were just recovered. They did add cup holders on the seats, but they are still on the ground. No extra leg room. No changes in the restrooms either. The paper kept stating that there are more restrooms and they are bigger. Nothing just new fixtures.

We stayed long enough for some of the speeches, but as soon as Arthur received his diploma we left. There were 900 students graduating, but not all of them showed up. There were quite a few empty seats in the graduate section. Wanted to leave before all the chaos of traffic trying to get out of the parking lots. Besides we received a text from Arthur telling us to do so.

We made our way to the west end of town for the BBQ at his sister's house. We found the house without any problems, in fact we were a bit early. There were about 15 people there and we were served steaks, several different salads, fruit and of course cake. It was all very delicious. We actually knew some of the people there and got in some visiting. The weather held out for the BBQ, it didn't rain until later in the night.

Arthur's mother flew in from California so we got to visit with her a bit. Poor woman was freezing in Montana. She lives in Palm Springs and it was 91 degrees at her home. She couldn't believe that on Friday morning there was snow. She was wearing heavy sweaters and such while we were wearing just light clothes.

We got Arthur a wallet on a chain. A couple weeks ago he took a motorcycle trip to Missouri and somewhere along the way lost his wallet with all of his money and ID.

It was a nice get together, Jennifer went with us. She and Arthur are good friends and she really wanted to go to his graduation.