September 2006 - Terry's Visit

Saturday, 9/2. Went to Seattle, dropped off car at Ray and Judi’s. Then on up to Kenny and Denise’s. Had a great time. Did the 15 minute interviews with Brandon, Larissa, Brittany, Austin, and Kierra on Sunday. Spent time in the complex pool. Lots of good food, drinks, and laughter through Monday morning.

Monday, 9/4. Took motor home back to Ray and Judi’s and picked up car for the day trip. Breakfast with Karla and Toshi (as well as a trip to Toshi’s place of employment). Then on to pick up Phillip and Abby for the afternoon. The evening was spent with Suzy and Bear.

Tuesday, 9/5. Spent a long time in IKEA (the fun place to shop in the Seattle area) http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_US/. Had an afternoon visit with Dani, Jack, and the newest baby in the family, Jackie.

Wednesday, 9/6. Tony and I went with Ray to the Boeing Surplus sale (http://www.boeing.com/assocproducts/surplus/index.html ) before heading to the airport to pick up Tony’s brother, Terry from a UK flight. (Flight was one hour late, and it took Terry one hour to get through immigration). We went back and picked up the motor home and left for Cheney (arriving about midnight).

Thursday, 9/7. Terry’s account of the next part of the trip (notice the UK spelling!): "There were several trains through the night and on average they blew their whistles twelve times as they went through Cheney. Got up at 5.30 and had a lovely breakfast made by Janet. Pork sausage (mince made into patties) eggs and cubed potato. Bill left for work at 8am, I had a shower and then we set off for Montana. Midday stopped at the 10,000 dollar saloon in Haugan (just inside Montana) for a break ( now only 7 hours behind GMT). The total at the saloon is now over 46,237 dollars up on the walls. Just past Butte is the Continental Divide which is 6393ft above sea level. Rivers either side flow into the Pacific on the west and the Atlantic on the East. Stayed overnight in a Walmart car park at Bozeman. Covered 400 miles today.

Friday. 9/8 Up at 6.30 and had a shave walking around the car park. After a few miles of driving today, we found out the reason for the hazy sky yesterday. There had been a fire and we saw the firemen returning plus the results of the fire. Two or three miles of burnt brush and trees. No communication available on both mobiles. Stopped at Devil’s Tower (picture). Sent text but that didn’t get through either. Passed the site of Custer’s last stand at the Little Bighorn. Covered 552 miles today and ended up in South Dakota near Rapid City. Stayed overnight at a rest stop on I-90.

Saturday, 9/9. Up at 7.30 and started on our way to Bob (Sharon’s uncle) and Bernadine’s which is about 30 miles. Weather deteriorated to a drizzle. Went to Custer State Park and saw deer, buffalo (picture), donkeys, and prairie dogs. Travelled through the "Needles Highway" (picture). All up close! Also visited Crazy Horse statue that has been in the building since the 1940s. So far, 8 million tons of rock have been blasted and taken away from the mountain. Went round the Crazy Horse centre for a very interesting and informative couple of hours. In the evening we went to Mount Rushmore. The cloud level was so low we couldn’t see the statues. We watched the retiring of the flag service and
then the clouds lifted enough to give us a view. Came back to Bob’s and had a couple of drinks with him until after midnight. It was then Bob’s 85th birthday.








Sunday, 9/10. Up at 7.00 and Bob cooked us a great breakfast and let me play at cowboys with a Remington pistol, a .22 rifle and a .30 calibre carbine before we went off to Rushmore again. After that we went to Keystone and met Mary (Sharon’s cousin) and Dallas who run a souvenir shop. They also are setting up a site in the middle of their 102 acres of land, to cater for paraplegics and quadraplegics in old converted buildings that are anything up to 100 years old. They are updating them with all the facilities required. (Dallas is confined to a wheelchair). Mary took us out to the site in her electric Toyota car. We then went to Reptile Gardens where we met Terry (Sharon’s cousin’s son) who works there as a major handler. (He knew Steve Irwin). Superb place. Then we went back into Keystone for an "All You Can Eat" dinner (Prime rib, Buffalo meat and burgers) for $15.00 each plus drinks. Magic. Back for a couple of drinks at Bob’s.

Monday, 9/11. Up at 7am to get the car hitched up and feed the wild turkeys and say goodbye to Bob and Bernadine. Travelled about 120 miles to get to Larry and Judy’s in Nebraska on the Dead Calf Ranch. The five of us went out in one of Larry’s pickups with an ATV on the back and loads of grain and vitamins for the cattle. We drove 20 odd miles to get round to another part of the ranch to get round 8 windmill driven waterholes to drop the feed off and spread some rye grass seed for the cattle. Larry left one of the gates open to a pasture (field) and about 70 cattle had wandered through into somebody else’s pasture, so we herded them back where they should have been. On foot for Judy and me, ATV for Larry and the pickup for Tony and Sharon. Judy plugged a prairie dog. Last year they shot 65 rattlesnakes. Larry told me that in 1987 he bought some land for $32.50 an acre. Ate in the evening with Larry and Judy and Larry cooked us some enormous steaks and some super vegetables, all on the barbecue.

Tuesday, 9/12. Up at 7 am most mornings. Helped change the oil in 4 ATVs and clean the filters under Jared’s guidance, then we all went out to do a modification to 10 sprinklers (pivots) out in the field. Back for spaghetti for lunch, then out to finish the job. Spent a lot of the afternoon hunting prairie dogs with a 17 gauge rifle with telescopic sights. I bagged maybe a dozen. Dug up a few potatoes on the way back to the ranch and then got cleaned up for a family dinner. Had a go at clay pigeon shooting with 12 gauge shotguns and did reasonably well. For starters we had Rocky Mountain Oysters which Tony liked up until he was told by Coulter (4 years old) what they were (testicles). Another steak dinner with Larry and Judy, Cory and Sherry (Coulter and Chloe) Jared and Melanie (baby Keaton). Went to bed after a long day, at 11 pm ready for the cattle drive tomorrow.

Wednesday, 9/13. Set off on cattle drive at about 8.30am using 5 ATVs plus help from a neighbour, Frank, on his ATV. Moved the cattle through several fields which took about 3 hours. We merged a bull in with the cows and took them to one of many windmill water holes and had to clear the moss off the water. Buckley, the dog, went with us and wanted a drink so she jumped into the water and decided to ride with me on the ATV. I got a wet back! And Tony got called "A real city slicker" by Larry. Sharon found out Tony’s fancy new camera was waterproof after dumping it in the windmill water hole. After the drive we went down town for lunch as a treat from Jared and Tony and I told the waitress to give the bill to us. A rep came in who knew Cory and paid for all seven of us. In the afternoon we went to carhenge (picture) and then went hunting prairie dogs and snakes. I got a couple and Larry got a rattler.

Thursday, 9/14. Lazy day today. Went down town into Alliance to get jeans for Dawn, but no luck. Shopped at Safeway and managed to get all the ingredients to make a curry for tonight. Larry and Judy went to a funeral and we met them for lunch. Saw more of the workings of the farm, including the delivery room for the calves. Made the curry for Tony, Sharon, Larry, Judy, Jared, Cory, Sherry and the two kids. Halfway through making it in walked Bill, Janet, Harriet, Michael (Janets’ brother), Francis (with Michael), Jean and Maxine. Jean and Maxine are Judy’s parents. Everybody tried the curry and said it was great, especially Tony and Larry. It was a great evening which we finished off with a game of cards – Texas Hold-Em.

Friday, 9/15. Had breakfast and coffee with Larry and Judy to say goodbye and thanks, and then set off for Riverton in Wyoming. Stopped in Riverton at Walmart in very heavy rain and watched one of the trolleys in the car park go rushing by due to the wind. Arrived at Dick and Cindy’s at 4pm and played a few holes of golf on the course next to his house. Jim arrived with Kathy and Cody and joined us on the course for a few more holes. Had roast pork for dinner.

Saturday, 9/16. Weather very bad so Tony, Jim and I went shopping and posted my postcards. Weather improved enough for us to play a round of golf. Went in the clubhouse and bought the guys a drink and due to a touchdown in the soccer (football) match on the TV, we all had a free beer, courtesy of the club. Had Prime rib for dinner. No spinach due to the threat of Ecoli. Carrot cake was great. Went to visit Dicks neighbours, Tammy and Doyle to look round his new house. Fantastic place and in the basement there were two bedrooms, bathroom, fitness room, and a 5 hole putting green. Cindy bought Dick, for his birthday, a set of six hand tooled leather glass holders.

Sunday, 9/17. Set off for Tetons (picture) and Yellowstone park and arrived at Old Faithful around 2pm and had to wait nearly an hour and a half to see it fire up. Slightly disappointing. Moved on to see the falls at Yellowstone’s Grand Canyon. Saw Yellowstone’s "Grand Canyon" and rushing waterfall. On the way through the park we saw buffalo, deer and elk. Passed over the Continental Divide about five times. Pulled in for the night at Gardiner MT where there is a camp site just a little south.

Monday, 9/18. Set off for home. Saw the Madonna statute in Butte and The Last Stop Light in Wallace, between the east coast and the west coast. At one point we had to pump up a tire only to find out later it had a nail in it, so we got it repaired in Coeur d’Alene. Arrived home about 7:00 p.m." (end of Terry’s rendition of our trip through the Midwest)

Our next segment will be of Terry’s next 10 days in Moscow and the surrounding area before he has to leave to go back to UK.

Installment #14 - Retirement Trip

4-13-06

While we're still visiting relatives and friends in Alliance, Nebraska, I thought you might like to hear a few stories of some of the not-so-good moments. For instance even before we left the house in February we had everything prepared - the RV was at the end of the driveway near the street, the tow dolly was hitched onto the back, the car was firmly strapped and chained onto the tow dolly and everything we thought we would need was loaded. We jumped aboard eager to go south to get away from the bitter weather that morning, I put the RV in 'drive' and noticed a reluctance for the rig to roll, jumped out and walked down to the car at the back, opened the door as far as it would go and noticed the parking brake was still on, squeezed one hand through the door, released the brake and the whole thing started to roll towards the street. I'd obviously left the RV engine running and in 'drive'. I did fortunately manage to get on board again and stop everything but couldn't help but wonder if we were really meant to go on this trip.

Back to current events: Since we are almost totally surrounded by long coal trains (125 cards each), it seemed a good idea to Tony to tour the rail yards. Tony and Archie were shown around by the yard superintendant. They saw the control room, the storage yards, and car maintenance sheds. Some of the main facts that emerged are: each car carries 240 tons of coal; maximum number of cars per train is 150; maximum train length is 8000 feet; maximum tract speed is 65 mph; five locomotives (four pulling, and one pushing), all controlled by only two engineers (engine drivers) in the front engine. Every feature and facet of a train’s journel is controlled by a master controller in Fort Worth (approximately 1000 miles away). Average frequency of trains in the Alliance area is one every 20 minutes. The train yard draws most of its staff from Alliance and nearby towns. Railroad is now recruiting 400 more personnel.

Last Saturday there was a large derailment where 28 cars fell off the track because of a fractured rail. We went to see the clean-up operation just outside of town. We photographed mangled rail card that had been detached from their axles and wheels (axles and wheels were stacked together beside the road)(picture). Apparently the coal dust that these trains carry can not be left alone for any length of time due to spontaneous combustion, so 4,200 tons of coal had to be picked up immediately.

We are still visiting friends and relatives and still eating steak nearly every day and enjoying 85 degree daytime temperatures.

Sharon spent an evening with seven other classmates from high school.

We spent time at the Alliance cemetery – they have a kiosk that enables you to look up names and find the exact location of friends or relative’s graves. Visited car henge ouside of Alliance. (picture). And...no visit to car henge is complete without a visit to the "rest area" just up the road (picture).

We went to a machinery auction. Tony had never heard a live auctioneer. Sharon took a ride on an ATV driven by 3 year old second cousin Coulter (picture). We rounded up cattle on 4-wheelers and moved them through two gates to another field (no horses any more for the local ranchers).

Had a tour of a mission store (similar to a thrift store). We learned amazing things about the "thrift store" business….all the clothes that were unsaleable were bundled and put in basement waiting the next shipment out…700 bundles (about 80 pounds each) were down in the basement – 1400 pairs of jeans – because they put a pair of jeans at the top and bottom of each bundle.

Took aunt and uncle Jean and Maxine over to Scottsbluf, Nebraska, to see another aunt and uncle, Leo and Zetta. We will return to Scottsbluff next Sunday for another visit.