*Runs to Mr. Blog and hugs him in his chair then flops on couch*
Hi Mr. Blog! Did you miss me?!
I missed you.
It was a long trip with Terry and the boys.
Lots of stinky socks
and gas.
And I'm not talking about my mini-van either!
We had a bit of a situation when we climbed over the breathtaking
North Cascade Highway and the van started
billowing smoke from under the hood!
Terry found we were leaking transmission fluid and told us
the trip was over and we had to turn around and go home.
We begged him to coast down to Winthrop since we were almost there.
It was a very nerve-wracking situation
and as we pulled into the Winthrop KOA campground
Troy started getting lippy with me and we got in a huge argument!
We set up camp and I waited until I cooled off and went and told him
that we were turning around and going home in the morning
if his attitude didn't improve.
Considering how much he whined about not wanting to go
for weeks it turns out he DID want to see Yellowstone Park.
He apologized and promised to behave nicely and was an angel
the rest of the trip. Well, almost an angel.
Close as a surly sixteen year old teenager can get anyway!
At that point we didn't know if there would be a trip
so we were all on edge.
First thing in the morning Terry and I took the van to town
and Tom, the middle-aged, tall, dark-haired, brown-eyed mechanic told us
not to worry about it.
He told us that Ford Windstars spit out a bit of tranny fluid if
climbing hills in overdrive, which was what we had done.
I don't know anything about cars and I don't want to.
I just want them to go.
At that point it was like a magic wand was waved over us and
we were so happy.
The sun was sunnier and sky bluer because our trip was back ON.
We popped into the tourist information center and the cute
blue-eyed blond lady was very friendly and helpful.
She gave us a map and highlighted the route to
Grand Coulee Dam.
Well, it was not scheduled for this trip Mr. Blog,
but it was on the way from Winthrop to Cheney so it got added on.
I have wanted to see the Grand Coulee Dam my entire life!
So we left the tourist center and I asked Terry to meet me at the
General Mercantile store across the street after I used the restroom,
which means he was no where to be seen when I got there.
I was so happy we didn't have to go home I didn't bother getting
mad. I just walked in and saw that sign for ten cent coffee
and plunked my little butt down on a stool and enjoyed the
view of the town from the big picture window.
It was the young owner's birthday and his folks were there and
we joked around while I kept an eye out for my errant husband.
I reminded my own self of one of my favorite X-Files characters,
the genie in "Je Souhaite" that gets freed in the end to enjoy
one really good cup of coffee and enjoy life moment to moment.
Sure enough, a half hour later, I spotted Terry and he HAD looked
at the entire town without me, but guess what Mr. Blog?
He is in such a good mood about the van being okay that he
agrees to look at it again!
So we held hands, since we had ditched our kids, and walked up and down
the boardwalk looking around all the little shops.
It was only ten but scorching hot already when we came
to a painted wooden poster of a cowboy and dance-hall girl
that had a hole where you could stick your faces in
and get a picture taken.
Turns out the man taking the picture had painted every single
sign and mural in the entire town!
He said he thought it was the only town where it was required
to have a hand-painted wooden sign.
No neon or electric signs allowed! Imagine that!
Well, he spotted a sack of ice someone taking a picture left
behind and insisted we take it.
So of course I made Terry carry it so he'd be called
a thief if they came back for it not me.
At the candy shoppe was a fortune teller machine like the one
in that Tom Hank's movie, "Big."
Terry put in a quarter so I could get a fortune
from the cowboy fortune teller inside the booth
and he predicted I would come into great wealth.
Well, I was mighty happy with that fortune
and I immediately thought of my Gin Latin game
that I have been working on for seven years now.
Terry put the ice in the van and we hit one last store,
the White Stallion gift shop.
I found a charm for my charm bracelet that I came across
when I was cleaning my basement last week that was perfect.
Four tiny horse-shoes with a four leaf clover inside.
I hate to admit I'm superstitious,
but obviously I am!
Terry picked up the kids some raccoon-tailed
frontiersmen hats and Troy really liked his.
He seems to have inherited a bit of silly from me.
By the time we got back to the campground the kids
were in the pool and I got out a liter of rootbeer
and that "hot" ice and Terry and I swilled that pop
under the the blistering sun.
We were so excited that our adventure was continuing
that we were just plain giddy at that point.
Our campsite next to the Methow River was huge
and the lawns were all so beautiful and a
giant turtle walked right by us going to the river.
Terry and I joined the kids in the pool and when we
told them the trip was back on they were totally thrilled.
A little later on, Terry wanted to test the transmission
so we zipped up to Sun Mountain Lodge to check it out.
Talk about SWANKY.
It sits on top of the mountain with the decks and pool
over-looking the Methow Valley.
I would so go there for a romantic vacay and leave the kids home!
We got back and enjoyed our comfy queen-sized airbed.
Only snag is when Terry moved, I'd get bounced pretty good
since he is a poptart over two-hundred and sixty pounds.
The kids loved having their own 10x10'tent
and I even packed the cots to dote on them a bit.
As much as they can aggravate me, I like to make sure
their childhoods are the best vacation-wise that I can
dream up. Growing up with a single mom on welfare meant
we had two trips to Montana to see mom's cousins and one to the ocean.
Well, we all slept great and woke up the next morning
excited to hit the road!
I had one heck of a time driving down that winding
Methow Valley road and I just know I got more gray hair from it!
Once I got to Lake Pateras and had a slurpee-type drink
and Terry took over driving, life improved considerably for me.
I took off my shoes and put my feet up on the dash and enjoyed looking
at the hills and dales on the way to Grand Coulee dam.
Since we had the coldest and wettest June in Washington State
history, it was all green and full of wildflowers on our way.
The sun was beating down on us like a sunlamp when we pulled into
the Grand Coulee Dam parking lot and I couldn't wait to grab
our picnic lunch and dash into that air-conditioned visitor's center.
I was so chagrined by the NO FOOD INSIDE sign at the door.
I am normally a law-abiding citizen, up until about 110 degrees,
and then I'm a total outlaw, smuggling in sodas and sandwiches.
Out of all the visitor centers I've seen in my lifetime, which is
plenty, the Grand Coulee Dam is by far the most impressive!
You have got to go see it Mr. Blog!
It has all the original jackhammers and diving suits that the
kids could mess around with and my favorite part of the display
was a huge photograph of all the county princesses of Washington
state pouring a glass gallon jug of water over the dam from each
county! Underneath was a wall with the original 1937 glass bottles!
I gathered up Terry and the boys for the movie upstairs
where I snuck lunch out to them and told them to eat neat.
The movie was awesome and explained FDR wanting the dam
to get people to work after the Great Depression
and it showed all the old pictures and movies
of the building of the dam and how it is called
the eighth wonder of the modern world and the
largest cement structure on our planet!
They played the famous Woodie Guthrie folk song
about the building of the dam and at the end of the movie
when they played our state song, "Roll On Columbia"
I got all choked up about being a native Washingtonian
and how blessed I felt to share the dam with my kids.
We hit the road for Cheney about three o'clock
and it was a pleasant ride across waving green wheat fields
the whole way.
Bad bananas when we got to Uncle Doug's house though.
He had gotten three teeth pulled that morning and was very cranky.
Chris had bought some hot dogs and stuff and I got to cook on a stove
which was a treat after cooking on a campfire for two days!
When Auntie Chris asked me if I wanted to go to church with her
I jumped at the chance. I have never had much time with her
and I was glad to have a few hours to get to know her better.
She and my newest cousin-in-law, Tiffany and the other church
ladies were folding 250 paper airplanes to throw off the church
float in the Cheney parade that week-end advertising their day camp.
Tiffany had just gotten back from Yellowstone and Chico Hot Springs
and I was soaking up all her stories like a sponge!
We all chatted and joked around and had a lovely time
and when one lady left, she said , "Good-bye Rachel"
and I winked at auntie Chris and said good-bye to her friend.
Rachel must be the only other CH name because I get called that a lot.
They all thought it was funny that I didn't correct her
but life is too short to care about what someone calls you,
as long as they call you!
When we got Chris dropped the boys off at the local pool and
I tried to visit with Uncle Doug but he was still cranky
so I went with Chris to pick up the kids.
Turns out she was born in Auburn and her dad, grand-dad and uncle
all worked for the Northern Pacific Railroad!
When her dad got transferred to Minnesota, she got to ride
back and forth to visit relatives with her brother and sister.
Well, I am a train-loving girl through and through so that
story had me very excited, just thinking about a train trip!
Terry was upset that his Uncle was cranky with us
so when we woke up the next morning at seven we just left Chris
a note good-bye and hopped in the van. Doug had already left for work.
We hit the McDonald's for breakfast and a man heard me ask
for ice for the trip to Yellowstone and told me he
was from Montana originally. I told him I sure liked Cheney
and he said it was fine except there were minorities moving
there to go to school and "You know what they do."
I could kick myself for not speaking my mind and saying,
"yes, I do. They add diversity of ideas and spirit to a community."
But out of the hundreds of people we met on our trip
he was the ONLY bad apple in the barrel of humanity
that we encountered. Narrow-minded fool.
That McDonald's coffee had us totally jacked up and we
cruised right on into Idaho. Once again I was driving a
squirrelly road only this time construction was added!
When I saw the sign that we were entering Montana
I was so happy!
I hadn't been there since my mom took us in 1970!
We stopped in Superior for gas and Terry freaked out
when he saw we had leaked a little tranny fluid.
I pulled into the only garage I saw, Gary's, and the
mechanic, Tom, jacked it up to have a look-see.
He was a wiry, young man around thirty with
sandy-brown hair and the friendliest smile you ever saw.
He told us that we were fine but we should pick up
some additive in Missoula at the NAPA store which we did.
He had a long, complicated explanation that I didn't understand
except, "I'd go to Yellowstone if I were you in this van."
I got nervous to drive so Terry took over for me then.
By six PM we were starving to death and we pulled into Butte trying
to find a grocery store. I asked a derelict out the window
where a store was and he said, "Over at Conoco there's food
and it's called Party Stop." Well we got turned around
and saw the Party Stop was a convenience store
and cruised down into town and saw a Safeway.
We were so hungry we ate the oldest, dried out chicken
you ever did see at the store deli.
It was a short hope to our exit at Whitehall to highway 287
and talk about big sky country!
When I came with my mom and sisters in 1970 it musta been
the end of July or August and I thought that Madison
county was the brownest, ugliest thing I had ever seen
but in early July, it was so green and beautiful!
When we got to Twin Bridges I started crying
a little, missing my grandmother who was born there.
She was the nicest person I ever met in my entire life.
I took a picture out the window of the Twin Bridges sign and Terry
got out to check under the van and a huge cloud of mosquitoes stormed him!
I got more and more excited as we got closer to Alder Gulch
and Virginia City!
When we passed the KOA I told Terry I really wanted to cruise
through town once before dark so he kept going
until we reached Virginia City.
I was so joyful to show my kids where my grandmother moved
to as a baby in 1899 when my great-grandfather, George Robert Allen,
was hired as the District Attorney there. She told me it was so wild
there when she was a girl that they sent her back to Missouri
where they both were born to go to boarding school.
Her mom, Lurana Black Allen was who I had my middle name Lou from.
She said they were so embarrassed that Jesse James was their nephew.
Terry drove up to Boot Hill where the robbers were buried
and then on to the City Cemetery where my great grandparents
and Great Uncle Bob and Auntie Margaret were all buried.
Grandma's brother Bob was such a nice man and so was Margaret
and I didn't know that they had been buried there.
They had three sons, my mom's cousins Fred, Bobby and George
that I have lost track of but we stayed with Fred in Kalispell
both times we visited and he was so nice and funny
and I went horse back riding with his kids all around
the neighboring ranches. I think I still have cousins there!
We were all so tired and cranky as the sun set on the cemetery
that I told Terry I was too worn out to camp that night.
We stopped at the Virginia City hotel but it was full
so we tried Nevada City down the road and when we walked in to
see if there was an opening, other people were checking in so we walked
in the parlour with another family waiting and someone put a
coin in the player piano
and we all started dancing around!
We laughed so hard and the floor began to bend
under Terry's weight so we had to stop.
Turns out they had a few cabins available and the lady
liked us and gave us one of the two 150 year
old original pioneer cabins!
It looked like it was going to fall down any minute
but when I saw two queen-sized beds I just wanted to lie down.
As I turned down the bed I saw a bed bug
but I was too tired to care but I made sure we shook
out all our clothes in the morning.
After reading the kids the history of the buildings
I found out we were right next to the barn which was famous for
hanging three bank robbers at the same time
and I wanted to go look for ghosts, but I fell asleep.
In the morning Terry and I let the kids sleep in
and drove around sightseeing a bit and went to the
cafe for coffee. I said we'd better get going
and he said we had lots of time but he hadn't changed
his watch to mountain time and check-out time
was only a half hour away!
We roused Troy and Teddy and took them up to walk
around Virginia City. it felt so good to walk around
where my family on my mother's side can trace our roots to
the actual buildings. My great-grandparents lived in the house
with the ginger-bread trim right behind the museum.
Terry and I left the kids to our own devices and and crossed the road
to the first gift shop at the top of the hill.
The young blond lady was so friendly and much to our surprise
the kids followed us!
We tried on all kinds of hats and Troy picked out a
fuzzy red, white and blue hat with dreds attached.
I got a tinu charm of a hand-gun for my bracelet and a cute
little ceramic cowboy boot and souvenirs for the kids.
We walked through all the little shops but the buildings
with the original stuff in them from 1863 was what interested
us the most. Unlike other tiny mining towns, Virgina City never
had a fire wipe it out so all the buildings are still intact.
They just removed a few walls so you can look at everything.
Our favorite was the building with the original wagons for water
and a stage coach and a fire truck that was just a barrel on wheels
with a hose! Good thing they never had a fire!
The kids stuck to us part of the time and then would take off
here and there. I saw them laughing inside the home made candy store
and buying themselves treats.
We all ran into each other at the end of the road
and found the old penny arcade that I remembered from 1970.
The kids loved the movies that you had turn the crank to watch.
They both watched the Hindenberg and Stagecoach Robbery movies.
Next we went into the saloon which had a cafe on one side.
I was so thrilled to be there because last time I was there,
Bobby Gahn was still bartender there and he had been friends
with my great grandfather in his youth.
When gramps got the telegram from the feds during
prohibition, he'd tell Bobby and they'd hide the booze
down in the cellar through a trap door
or so the story went.
Terry finally got his much requested and sought after
buffalo burger at the cafe and asked the cute teen waitress
if the Outlaw Cafe had it too and she replied,
"I isn't afraid to say they do, since they stole our menu."
We all had buffalo burgers and fries and then hopped in the van.
Terry drove us from Alder Gulch over to Madison Valley
and I'll tell you what, Mr. Blog,
early summer is the ONLY time to go Montana.
In August 1970 it was so hot dry. Horrible!
So we drove from Virginia City to West Yellowstone.
I didn't even know they HAD a town there.
Musta been puny in 1970, but it is good-sized now with
TWO grocery stores!
We arrived at our KOA campground around three in the afternoon
and Terry absolutely HATED it.
I think he got spoiled by the Winthrop KOA
because he said we were packed in like sardines.
Well, I thought it was marvelous!
We got a smallish campsite, 268, on the outside corner
across a little dirt road from the group campsites and
NO groups ever showed up so it was a pretty green lawn
to look at with the hills, then mountains rising in the background.
That KOA had a giant pool and hot tub, and I didn't mind that
they were inside a cool-looking timber lodge.
But they also had putt putt golf, which we all enjoyed
and basketball for the kids and a really cute gift shop
with attached laundry room and arcade for the teenagers.
We goofed around the rest of the day
and the next day Terry drove us to see the geysers and
Old Faithful.
Now that did not work out for me very well!
We arrived at three to Old Faithful and it was just finishing going off.
It was sunny and warm so the kids sat on the bench to wait for
the next eruption.
There musta been a million people there but I like people
and didn't mind one bit!
I had this dream all year of eating ice cream cones with my kids
on a hot sunny day while watching Old Faithful erupt
so I got in line for ice cream cones behind a zillion people.
Well, after about forty-fiv eminutes,
I hear something pounding on the window and it is an ice storm!
After an hour I got the swirled chocolate-vanilla ice cream cones
and when I stepped outside of the lodge I got soaked in
two seconds!
Oh my goodness Mr. Blog!
The temperature had plummeted from seventy to forty degrees
while I was waiting in line!
I got down to the kids and Terry and they looked at me
like I was crazy as I passed them their ice cream cones.
Troy said, "Um, Mom, are you trying to freeze us to death?"
Funny thing is when I offered to eat them for them
they wouldn't hand them over.
I noticed they were wearing attractive new Yellowstone jackets
and it turns out Terry had boughten them when we arrived
BEFORE the storm ever came up!
Terry and I were still in our short-sleeved shirts
and we were soaked to the bone and freezing to death.
Well, Old Faithful was slightly faithless
and started and stopped just a tiny bit
ten times before erupting!
The kids were wildly excited when it erupted and started
shouting and jumping around.
I was sure surprised how big the parking lot was and
how many people were there.
In 1970 it was a dirt parking lot with a handful of people
and now there are thousands of people.
But I didn't mind one bit because I was so
blissfully happy that I was there with
my wonderful husband and darling sons.
When Troy started driving and then got a job last month,
I began to feel an urgency
to have a few last family trips together.
We had never taken a long family road trip and
sitting there between Troy and Terry,
eating ice cream and freezing to death
was a major highlight of my adult life.
The kids and I really wanted to go back to our campsite
but Terry insisted on taking us over to see Lake Yellowstone.
Funny thing was, right as we pulled out of the Old Faithful
parking lot, the sun came blazing out! Hahaha.
Terry couldn't believe it but I could.
It was like that ice storm blew out of nowhere
to put a big 'ol exclamation point on us
being at Old Faithful.
So halfway to the lake, a giant elk was near the road
and Terry let me out of the van to take a picture.
I yelled at him that I'd meet him at the bottom of the hill
but I guess he didn't hear me 'cause after I got my picture
and walked past a dozen cars down the hill, he was no where
to be seen.
So I kept walking and walking and after an hour
I was along the road in the middle of nowhere.
About then I started remembering everyone at our KOA
campground mentioning the grizzly bear and her two cubs that
they had been seeing every day in the park.
I decided I was too far from anything
and started walking back up the hill towards
the cars.
I remembered the scout outdoor law
that if you get lost to JUST STAY PUT!
Good thing too
'cause right when I was near to where I started
Terry and the kids came driving back up the hill.
I told Terry that I thought he had tried to ditch me
and pretended to have hurt feelings to get out of
cooking over a fire again.
The kids couldn't wait to rat out their dad that
he had gotten them lost and on the wrong road
and was nearly around the lake below
before they convinced him to turn around!
Well, Terry never needs encouragement to go out to eat
anyway and he was determined to get another buffalo burger
in the town of West Yellowstone.
Only snag was, when we got there at six, all the cafes
were pack and after our third try we had given up and decided to
go back to the campground.
Another ice storm kicked up right as we were making the turn back
and I spotted a cafe called The Geyser.
We pulled up and they had a table open
AND buffalo burgers on the menu.
Now those buffalo burgers may not have been the first choice
for me and the kids,
but we are a mighty loyal group of people
and feigned excitement for Terry's sake
and to shower him with Nixon solidarity.
What a CUTE cafe.
Our tall, blue-eyed, brunette thirty-something waitress
was as warm and welcoming as a good cup of coffee
on a cold morning.
We got the last table and a family came in after us
and decided to sit on the hallway floor to wait.
Well a big French family came in next and was waiting
and didn't see the floor-sitters so when they got the
next table the French Dad started shouting
at the top of his lungs in French and waving his arms all around!
I don't know French, but I know outrage in a voice
and it was darn exciting to watch this public display of anger.
I felt bad for that hungry French family
and as they stormed out to their car in the storm
the dad took off his hat and jumped up and down on it
and gestured wildly at our little cafe.
Well, most misunderstandings are like that aren't they?
That was Saturday night by then and we
had all run out of clean clothes
so I loaded up everything
and headed to the laundrymat at our campground.
Talk about a party!
Only there was no booze or music.
Just cheery campers that had all gotten soaked in the storm
trying to dry out endless loads of soggy sleeping bags.
And wash dirty clothes.
I had never washed clothes in a campground or
tried out one of those new-fangled front-loading
washing machines.
All the ladies and teen girls were so excited to help
each other figure out all the machines
and we just joked around and laughed our heads off.
Ahhh, my two hours in the estrogen-zone!
Women are so much nicer than men in general.
They like to be helpful
because they can.
It was near ten when I finished and I barely got ten minutes
in the hot tub before bedtime.
We had gotten a truck driver in for a campsite neighbor and he
and Terry were chatting near the tents and when they
say someone, "Talks like a truck driver" I now know
what they are talking about!
I was getting ready to get out of my sleeping bag to tell him to
be quiet when I fell asleep.
Next thing I know I thought I was back at cub scout camp
with the chainsaw-level snoring dads Joe and Dan
when I realized it was our new neighbor!
Right as I got sleepy I realized the Yellowstone Rodeo had started up
and I could hear the twangy announcer on his loudspeaker going on and on
about the barrel-racers and bronco busters! It was so funny!
Lucky for me I found my earplugs and Home Depot headset to
block him out since our tent walls were vibrating from the decibels!
The next morning we played putt putt golf together
before it got too hot and dang if Teddy didn't hit a hole in one!
I had only played once before and was VERY surprised
that our kids wanted us to all play together.
Usually they hate me since I'm the disciplinarian
and so that always catches me off guard when they want me around.
We laughed and chatted and a nice girl named Quincey joined us.
It was a great day of relaxing until I realized I had forgotten to
mail off my twenty post cards that I had bought days ago
in Virginia City!
I went over to that nice lawn across our dirt road and had
just gotten the first card to my sister done when another
storm kicked up!
I ran for the van just as the gully-washer kicked up
and soon Terry and the boys joined me.
Now that was handy for me and I prayed it would rain
for an hour so Terry could write the cards to his mom, dad and sis!
It did and I whipped up steak and beans over the fire but
couldn't keep my eyes open and ate and went to bed.
I woke up to the sound of whinnying!
I crawled out of the tent and the sun was already high at seven
beautiful horses were just on the other side of the campground fence!
Now I love everything about horses and farm animals in general,
except the smell.
I walked over there and the oldest chestnut mare let me scratch her head
and next thing I know Troy is there scratching her too.
He has a gentle side I rarely see.
We broke up camp in a heartbeat
because we were now itching to hit the road again.
Sure enough,
I'm driving through those winding roads again
getting more and more gray hair when
I hit an hour-long construction zone.
Man I wanted to get moving and when it broke up I ended
up behind a red mini-van that was chock full of look-e-loos!
I swear to God Mr. Blog, they were braking to look at the
tourists walking around.
After another hour behind that van going ten miles an hour
in a forty-five mile an hour zone,
I cracked.
Troy yelled, "Honk at them mom!"
And I did.
Just a tiny toot,
but thankfully they pulled over and Terry
started shaming me for being a terrible person.
Finally he smiled and said, "Good job honey.
If I'd had a gun I would have shot our their tires!"
Next thing I know I'm driving at the edge of a cliff
and I began to feel the vertigo set in so
I pulled over and let Terry drive.
He zoomed right past the turn to upper Mammoth Hot Springs
despite my flailing directions
and cruised down the hill.
BIG mistake.
It was around one in the afternoon and blazing hot out
and the kids opted to hang around the parking lot.
Terry and I got to the boardwalk and I looked at the hill.
It seemed to rise up in a barren yellow-brown, never-ending wall.
At the top, after climbing a zillion stairs,
over the heat-emitting boulders, I thought I might
just drop dead.
Luckily I didn't because I got to see a tiny
turquoise hot pond about a millionth of the
size of the super cool geyser ponds on the way to Old Faithful.
Geez.
But we felt really fit after our hike!
Like we totally earned the wild huckleberry frostys
at the Gardner Sinclair gas station.
Well Chico Hot Springs is just a
hop skip and a jump after Gardner
and I was very happy when I saw it.
It was ten times more beautiful in real life than what the picture
looked like on the website.
Terry had seen people soaking in a river somewhere around Pray
Montana when he went to Yellowstone with his friend
Mike Bellande in 1996.
I looked and looked online for Hot Springs in Pray without success
but liked the looks of Chico
and I liked the price even better!
Forty-nine dollars a night for a small room with a shared bath.
It was cheap enough that I got the kids their own room!
Troy and Teddy said they were homesick after nine days on the road
and that they only wanted to stay one night.
Terry was homesick too
but not me.
Terry is my home
so if he's there I don't get homesick.
The nice lady at the front desk insisted we keep the second night
and decide the next day and she canceled our third night.
After a full day of soaking, swimming and fishing,
Teddy said he didn't ever want to go home
and Troy said he wanted to stay three nights.
Only snag was,
our third night had already been sold.
I had to call Whine-11 for the wambulance at that point!
Terry treated us to dinner at the poolside grill both nights
and our young brunette waitresses, Lauren and Julie were delightful.
On our last night, I had some margaritas from the saloon and they were
EXACTLY how I like them. Whipped up in a slurpee-type machine with
lots of lime juice! Yum, yum, yum.
One of the Bolines was having her engagement party in the pool-side saloon
and Terry and I went in the bar and listened to the live band
from Bozeman play a great rendition of Purple Haze.
Those Bolines sure were nice people.
There were one hundred and thirty of them from all over the country
and it was touching for me to see such a huge family
enjoying each other our three days at Chico Hot Springs.
My Grandma Lois only had one brother and she only had three kids
so my family is fairly small.
The saloon was all decked out in the Old West motif and there
was a newspaper article with a picture of Dennis Quaid playing
music their with his band in 2001. I didn't know he was musical!
We jumped back in the hot tub and enjoyed our last mineral soak
and the friendly security man was walking around so
I asked him a few questions about the hotel since it was built in 1900.
He showed me a small Chico history book he had and
I'll tell you what,
he had other great stories about the grizzlies,
the rattlesnakes, hunting and fishing in the Yellowstone River.
I'm sad I didn't get his name.
When we popped up the next morning I made sure I bought that
little history book about the hotel for the car ride home.
We left at six forty-five in the morning and were only
a sneeze away from I-90 but I sure didn't want to go home!
I love, love, loved Chico Hot Springs and want to stay there
for two weeks next summer.
Well, you know know I was a flight attendant for Continental airlines
for eight years and stayed in all kinds of resorts and hotels
and stayed in all kinds of places in Washington State;
but Chico Hot Springs comes in second place
right behind Mar Vista Resort on San Juan Island and this is why:
I love history and it is close to my family roots in Virginia City,
it has the mineral springs that aren't stinky like in my home state,
the staff at the hotel were warm and friendly and helpful
and it is decorated with all the Victorian furnishings from
when it was built.
Now it's not a secret to people that know me that
that I'm a Bladder Day Saint and I had a concern
about a shared bathroom,
but it was directly across the hall from my room
and that was very nice for me.
It's a hot spring resort so everyone was in swimsuits all over
and our third floor hallway seemed like we were all part of
a family staying at our grandma's place or something.
Zooming along I-90 home, the kids told Terry they didn't want to
stay overnight with Todd and Theresa.
They are friends of Terry's back to when he grew up
in Ellensburg and I had told them we would stop by.
I rarely drink so my tummy was balking at me all day
and I only drove two hours
so it was seven at night when we got to their house.
Their spotless house!
AND Todd is the cleaner of the duo Mr. Blog!
AND he cooks.
Too bad Terry got so fat and his back got so hairy
or I might be able to make a trade with Theresa!
Well, we love them to pieces and they ordered Japanese take-out
and we all went to the back yard to visit and play
with their dog Body.
Bodacious Body! He ran the kids to the ground playing football.
We are all so tired but Terry decided to push on
the last two hours to Kenmore.
We hugged our pals and headed for the home stretch
and the funniest thing happened.
We stopped at a new rest stop and it had an interactive TV
screen with highlights of Washington State.
Troy called to all of us to watch for a minute
and it had all our favorite state parks that we have camped at
and he said, "I loved Idaho, Montana and Wyoming,
but there is no place like home."
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