Family Blessings

We celebrated our youngest daughter’s 36^th birthday last Friday with a lunch and singing Happy Birthday! Her twin had returned home to southern NV, but we sang to her too. 

 

After the celebration, our newest son-in-law adjusted the wiper blades on the rig for us. Now they no longer slam together as they wipe the rain from our windshield. We are blessed with many talents in our family and they’re willing to share! 

Saturday morning we pulled up the jacks and after a final farewell for the summer were west bound and down (last week we had a farewell movie night with some of the grandkids and watched Smokey and the Bandit). We stayed in Jamestown, ND (birthplace of western novel author Louis L’Amour), where we went to the dirt track races that night.

 

 

In front of us was a little girl who reminded us of our youngest granddaughter but was a year younger. Her energy level was just as high and I was watching her antics sometimes more than the race. She provided us great entertainment and helped to wean us from having little ones around.

Sunday morning we attended church at United Presbyterian Church, and continued our Sunday tradition of watching the NASCAR race afterward.

Monday morning we continued west across ND, and we enjoyed fields of sunflowers along the way.

 

 That night we stayed in Miles City, MT and filled up with fuel the next morning before continuing on to Deer Lodge, where we met up with John’s cousins! There were 14 of us that enjoyed a Chinese supper that evening, and then continued the reunion at the house of Gary and Laura, savoring homemade huckleberry dumplings! We learned that huckleberries cost about $50. per gallon! We savored their handpicked huckleberries and it was fun for the cousins to get re-acquainted after 40+ years!

 

After some overheating issues in eastern MT, we set our alarm for 2:30 A.M. on Wednesday and gave new meaning to our term “o’dark early”. We wanted to get up and over Lolo Pass before it got warm (or light) out. We made it, and then had to stall before getting to the campground in Orofino, so that we didn’t arrive at sunrise! It was pretty early, and we got set up and I did some schoolwork before heading up the hill to see our ID family. The bonus was that some of our NV family was visiting, so we took family pictures. My lil’ bro’ and I are unstoppable when we get together, and we enjoy getting the kids in on it too. The later it got, the crazier we became!

Last night, or actually just a few hours ago, my Dad arrived, but since he could not get a flight into the Lewiston airport, he ended up flying to Spokane, WA (about 175 miles away). John and I took the MINI to pick him up, and stopped to talk to the Washington State Trooper on the way... We arrived back at the rig just after 4 a.m. After a few hours of sleep, we're ready for more family fun!