Our updates for all of you

Sunday September 11th, and we're waiting in last nights room for the staff to get the room we'll be in for the next few nights cleaned for this conference. Obviously the day is about remembering ten years ago. And we did remember how Monday, September 10th, 2001, we had driven up from spending the night in the Salt Lake City area to the Coeur d' Alene area on our way to Bonners Ferry, to see the property we'd gotten in 2000 but had not been able to drive up to see yet. We'd made it to the Coeur d' Alene KOA, no longer there, and had spent the night at the KOA to make the two and a half hour last part of the drive the next day, the eleventh. That morning, ten years ago today, was a Tuesday. We had gotten up and I was having breakfast and was listening to a local radio station in the 5th wheel trailer and Stacy was doing some cleaning. As I was listening the local DJs were talking about a plane hitting a building in New York. I recall they were talking like it was...

OK, so I got in late in the day Sunday after a rather long delay due to detours around still flooded areas along the I-29 near Council Bluffs, that took me, and many others, miles away and then down to Kansas City. So what's it like being here? Heat I really haven't had to be in since moving from California. Heat and humidity. Awkward as well as depressing family moments, that kind of stuff. To me my father has seemingly rallied again from low spots, or at least from the lows I had been told and had read about on Facebook. Actually that is just a bit of the problem for me. Yes he isn't doing as well as before, yes he will be dying soon. But I kept being told, he wants to be 'involved' in everything that pertains to his end of life and funeral. OK, but I also feel that there should easily be a time that wether he wants to be involved or not, certain information should be "edited" for consumption and not continually talked about with him sitting right there ...

So yesterday wound up being 637 miles, today around 540, I think. Tomorrow is supposed to be around 500 to my destination. Overall a better day and about 11 hours long driving. I deducted a little over an hour for a couple of stops I made a long the way. First was to a small museum in the town of Garry Owen, Montana. Stacy and I have stopped several times at the Little Bighorn Battlefield site, but never at the museum I visited today. I enjoyed taking a look at the artifacts on display from Custer's Last Stand, and a bit more from the indians view. The town is actually located on the spot where the over 4,000 indians were encamped when the attack and subsequent massacer took place in June 1876. Second stop was a place we had stopped to see back in 1996, a site of an old fort near Buffalo, Wyoming. Other than that it was just drive. Temps were 93 to 98 all daytime to dark, and I did get some rain near Rapid City, South Dakota. Still a lot of motorcycles around from the Sturgis...

So, I'll drop these little ' notes' as I travel to Missouri. Story is yesterday morning I had a voice mail appear on my phone from my brother Mike. Now he was still in China at the time and I had no idea when he would have sent it, but the message said he was on his way back to the USA and then to Missouri. It would take him 4 or 5 days to get there. With all the news that Clifford was going downhill fast, he thought, if possible, we should try to get together with him. So at 7:40 this morning I was on my way. Stacy could not go with me because one girl is on vacation at work and Stacy will cover for me on a Court case on Tuesday. So after a rather long day of driving, I made it to Hardin, Montana. I'm in our Chevy truck which I'm not complaining about!  I am remembering why I don't like Summer trips, hot, hot, hot. At least I'm in the air conditioned truck. I had thought about driving the Solstice. But honestly, even though I really enjoy the car,  it ca...

In case you, the reader, hadn't noticed, I have found out the problem I often read about on other blogs I follow or in podcasts I listen too, keeping up with them!!!!!!!!!!! You'd think it wouldn't be so hard, just writing something noteworthy or not, every so often and press the "Publish Post" button. But with this blog it's been most of the summer since the last, not even full, blog post! So to my friend Robin, thanks for the call Sunday to ask why I haven't posted lately! Well, so what have Stacy and I been doing since our return from the Dude Ranch week in June? First off it has been a fairly busy summer work wise. Stacy has been traveling from once to three times a month to Boise and for two days to a week for state level meetings. She also had her week in Boise at the Police Academy as an Instructor and found out she'll have to take another class, this time only one week long, for Supervisor next month. It is really too bad they wouldn...

This post was actually written while we were in Canada. I had written it and then posted it as a draft, then after we got back it has been so busy I forgot to finish and post it as done. Although this won't be able to be posted due to their Internet being out since last Tuesday, I thought as I have some time to type this out to post later. Several months back Stacy had been looking on line and found a "Dude Ranch", the old name, Guest Ranch nowadays, that due to some cancelations had some vacancies at a reasonably reduced rate for this week, June 5 to the 11th. So we talked and here we are. We saved up for the week since she made the reservations so no sticker shock on checkout tomorrow. This place is near Cranbrook, Canada, which is only about two hours from home, or about the same distance were we to drive to COSTCO in Coeur d' Alene. So close, yet far. And our first real 'go where we want to go' vacation in several years. Also this is one of those "bu...

Weather has finally started to become a bit Spring like. Still have snow levels in the weather reports but now up around 6,000 feet. Last Thursday there was even a Winter Storm warning! I'm not sure how much of the news is making it nation wide especially with all the other weather disaster news of the last month, but in many areas of the Northwest there are record river levels and many are probably going to be flooding. In our area both the Kootenai and Moyie Rivers are expected to be at and over floodstage later this week. While we won't be affected, up on a plateau, a lot of low lying properties and businesses are at risk. The Kootenai is fed by the surge of water rain and snow melt at the lake behind the Libby dam in Motana. It's getting full so the dam is letting out more water. Actually before the dam was built the entire old town area of this town would flood almost every year. And the "Mirror Lake" Golf Course used to actually be at a seasonal lake of the ...