Sabbath

Saturday morning everybody left. We thought about staying one more night, where lodging was free, but it felt like too much of a ghost town with all of our friends already departed. And more practically, we weren’t ENTIRELY sure that someone from the Lions wouldn’t show up and then charge MSU for another night (which would come back to us). We packed up leisurely, took a lot of pictures, then stopped in town to use the internet in the public library. We decided we didn’t need to travel far, just far enough to get to a new place where we could make new memories. We decided on Miles City, an hour west of Glendive. From here we’ll head Northeast into the back country of Montana, and we’ll be back in Bozeman by next week Monday. Alan was surprised at how exhausted he was from the week of hard work. When we got to Miles, we found the KOA to be substantially cheaper (and friendlier) than the one in Bozeman, so we set up tent and got directions to a recommended steak house. Alan enjoyed his Guiness-glazed 10-oz. steak. I miss Khushboo and Not Your Average Joe’s and even Johnny Rockets. I also miss mint mocha chip frappachinos. There are Starbucks in Billings, Great Forks? And Helena. And THAT’S IT. And only three Barnes as well. Thank goodness one of them is in Bozeman. I’m beginning to have East Coast withdrawal.

Anyway, on Saturday night we looked up the churches, and both the Catholic and Episcopal churches were at 9 (ugh, have you people ever heard of sleeping in?!). The kind woman who ran the KOA even called the Catholic church for me to verify (no more summer hours mistakes). But I didn’t bother calling the Episcopal. So we got up at the crack of dawn (no comment, Archibalds) and were driving toward the Catholic church when we passed the Episcopal church and changed our mind and decided to go there instead. So we drove around the block trying to find the shadiest spot for Olli. We finally got parked, walked to the door … and there was the sign: Service 10 a.m. SIGH. Tune in next week … Of course, at that point we decided to go to the Catholic church so we got back in the car to drive there … and found it was two blocks away and that had STILL been the shadiest spot. This was getting ridiculous. So we went BACK and parked in the same spot and finally got to church.

(Our first spot at Miles City KOA...)

(Which we had to leave because there was a leaky pipe beneath our tent!)
(The levee that someone drove off of one night. They hit a telephone pole instead of a nearby motorhome. Nobody was hurt.)

(Ollie playing "Tethercat")

(Downtown Miles City. Notice the "yellow ribbons" on the poles for all the people away at war.)

Meanwhile, when we got back to the KOA Alan realized he had a lot of homework from his first week’s course on inquiry (which continues online through the summer), so we decided to stay for Sunday night. We spent the afternoon working (and by working, I mean … FINISHING MY FIRST SOCK! It was very exciting). We had to shop for and make dinner … and then hung out in the electrically lit laundry room all evening for Alan to continue working. Then this morning (Monday) we decided we STILL had plenty of work to do (finishing up last week’s work and starting this week’s) and it’s nice here, so we stayed another day, took advantage of the pool, and in the middle of the afternoon went out to see the boots and hats for sale downtown (yes, we are in the West). Alan fell in love with a $300+ hat. I told him next year :-P

And now it’s late and we have FINALLY succeeded in updating the blog … except for the pictures, which I know is the real reason you’re here. So I guess that’s a job for another day?