Family Reunion

The Trunk

The family reunion was a huge success.  We put up a large party tent on Friday and just before the high winds hit and tried to take it down.  We would never have succeeded in putting it up if it had not been for all the help we had from Cindy and Ken Clairmont's family.  The shade it provided kept things nice and cool.  The kids loved four-wheeling all over the place.  We had about 100 attending and had lots of food and games, face painting and kareoke after dark which was also popular.  Gary started a fire in the pit which was enjoyed by the family members that stayed in their camper at the ranch.  The rest of the family members either stayed at their homes, with family members or at the Mustang Motel in Townsend.  Kelly, Shonas, Debbie, Salam, Sharah, Junior and Tristan were all at the motel along with their cousin Brian and his wife Cheryl.  Mike's girlfriend, Jennifer and Julie and Damon were also at the reunion so my entire immediate family was there and we did not get any pictures of us all together.

I had brought my grandmother's trunk (Lela Gertrude Parker Campbell) to the reunion and we all went through it.  I gave everything that was in that trunk to anyone of the family that wanted it. The trunk, Elda's picture and wedding dress goes to Susan Stobie Roe, the daughter of Carol Campbell Faldorf and the grand daughter of Clarence (Toot) and Stella Walter Campbell.

Oldest and Youngest First Cousins

The Family

Gary's Ranch

We spent a cold night at the ranch with the temperature down to 47 degrees.  This is a far cry from what we have had.  Hardy lit the hot water tank, which works just fine, so we had hot water to use.  I cleaned out the bathroom to make it more friendly for taking showers and everything worked just fine.  Hardy saw Venus at about 10 degrees early in the morning and the half moon kept things pretty light.  Frank is at the camp so we visited with him and went down and checked out his mining claim...Big Pumpkin Mining and Investment.  It is nice out at the ranch camp sight  as it overlooks Townsend to the south and Canyon Ferry Lake to the northeast.



The family is gathering and we all went into Bonnie Merritt's for our Friday night get-together.  We had lots of family that had already come in so it was a good group there.

Big Timber and Bozeman

Absaroka - Beartooth Range

Up at 6:30 and took our showers.  This was a nice campground in Columbus with WiFi and hot showers and close to town so we could walk.  We went into Big Timber for breakfast.  Montana is green compared to its neighboring states as Wyoming was very dry. We stopped at the Visitor's Center in Big Timber to pick up a cache and the lady working there was the sister to someone I know in Townsend.  They have an art work of Charles Russell sitting looking out at the Crazy Mountains to the west. We found three geo caches in three counties (Sweetgrass, Park and Gallatin).

Bridger Mountains 

 We crossed the Bozeman Hill and into smoke from the Norris Fire.  The Bridger Mountains loom off to the northeast out of Bozeman and are beautiful.

We pulled into Townsend around 2:00 and camped at Gary's on the hill.  We stayed up until the end of light which was about 11:30.  The summer triangle was pretty high.

Columbus, MT

Mountain View RV Park

We were on the road between Merrill and Torrington Junction, NE and drove through fog with a visibility of about 100 feet and 67 degrees.  We sighted a Casita in the east bound lane around Douglas, WY.  There have been three Casitas so far that we have seen on this trip.  We stopped for lunch at a pull-out with four semi-trucks.  The wind was blowing and really rocked the camper.  The wind blew Hardy's hat off so goes the saying "Hang onto your hat".  We stopped for ice cream in Buffalo and there was a big grass fire outside of town along I90 toward Gillette.  They said it was from lightening the day before. There was another huge fire outside Sheridan, WY and another east of Billings as we were coming through. We were going to camp at the Riverside Park in Laurel, MT but it was closed.  It looked like they had some shore line issues from the river.  We went on to Columbus, MT and camped at Mountain Range RV park for $21 for electric but no water.  We walked into town and picked up a cache at the park.  The wind was really blowing.

Scottsbluff, NE

It got down to 70 last night and was a little muggy and we ran the A/C most of the night.  We slept OK and were up by 6:30.  A nice wren woke us up with her singing outside the camper.  There is a bit of a breeze this morning but none last night.  It is partly sunny.  We broke camp by 7:10 and stopped for gas in Auroa on I80 & 14.  We picked up a cache there.  That was a nice stop.  The temperature is 77 and it looked like we were driving through rain but not getting wet.  We had lunch at the rest area and Hardy geo cached while I took a walk.

We stopped in Scottsbluff, NE at Riverside Campground by a small zoo and the river.  The cost was $15 for water and electricity but the water faucet was corroded to the point that it leaked badly so we just filled the tank.  We drove to DQ for a blizzard and Hardy found a puzzle cache.  It was an easy find under a tree. They had a great hiking/biking trail and we walked on part of it to find a geo cache.  This was cute called "Who" (Hoo) lives here.  There was a cute psychedelic owl in a knot hole.  We did not find the other cache near the trail.

Montana Bound

We are off and running to Montana.  We will try and make 200 to 250 miles a day so we are not so beat by the time we get there.  We got up about 6:00 a.m. and Hardy checked out the truck tires and camper and added some water to the tank.  We had breakfast at the Huddle house in Rolla and then headed west.

We camped at Conastoga Lake SRA site 40 outside of Lincoln, NE.  This is a nice lakeside campground, about 1/3 full with full hookups.  The parks was nice but not quite enough or dark sky as there were street lights near our site.  There was quite a bit of trash left on the grounds, dead fish in the trash cans, etc.  The lawn was nicely mowed  and it was quiet. There was a nice dock into the lake and a place for swimmers.  Tomorrow we head for Scottsbluff.

AACE 2012

We traveled to Indianapolis, IN to square dance at the AACE convention.  This is the first year this convention has been held in Indianapolis. 

Kelly and Shonas house in Louisville, KY

We spent the night with Shonas in Louisville.  They have their house up for sale as they are both moving to Montana.  Of course, we went to Molly Malone's for dinner.  They have good Irish food there.

June 20, 2012
We left Shonas and probably our last stay at their house in Louisville and went to our favorite little breakfast joint for our wonderful breakfast before we took off for Indianapolis. We stayed At Jean Ballinger's house which is about three miles from the square dance center.  After getting settled there we went looking for a place to eat and checked out the area so we wouldn't get lost.  Jean has a very nice house in a quiet suburb and graciously allowed us to stay there while she was hiking in Michigan.  A truly good friend!

June 21, 2012
After breakfast we went over to the hotel and met with some of our friends that were here dancing too.  Sue and Arnie Shafer and John and Sandy Walenter are here so we hung out with them most of the convention.  This area at the convention center does not have many places to eat so we were forced to go a distance to find something beside Denney's.  We did go to Jimmy John's for lunch and it was fairly close.  For dinner, we found a good Italian Restaurant with good food.  It was a little pricy but the food was good.  Unfortunately, while we were there, the lady at the table next to us got up to go to the bathroom and stepped off a step and fell.  I, having the old EMT in me kick in, went to her assistance.  She was not hurt too badly but I had her sit until her husband could pay his bill and get her loaded in the car.  Habit for me I guess.

June 23, 2012
We went to the workshops and then the dance but left the convention early and headed back to Missouri.  We leave on Monday for Montana for the family reunion.  I have the camper packed and almost ready to go so will finish that up when we get home, groceries, etc.

Nassar Dance

Nassar Shukar

We went to Laurie to dance to Nassar Shukar.  Nassar does a fun dance and we had a great time and got to visit with our square dance friends before we head out west.  Of course, we had to go to the BBQ place outside Laurie.  Our old original had burned down but they have since rebuilt and it is very good.  The menu is almost the same, just with different names for the food.  The building is very nice and fairly large and accommodates us well.  The service is good but a little on the slow side and it sometimes make it hard for the dancers to get back in time for the evening dace, especially if they are going to round dancing.

Romeny Tannehill Dance

We left for the dance on Friday with caller Romney Tannehill, a local Missouri favorite, who has since moved to southern California and calls square dancing in that area.    He will be in St Louis this weekend, Eldon on Wednesday and Columbia on Friday night so he is making his rounds while he is here visiting his mother and father.

There were lots of Illinois folks there and most of them we dance with in the valley so it was like a mini family reunion.

We stayed at the Marriott on Maryville Circle Dr. and it was very nice and also quiet.  They had a retreat weekend for soldiers and their families so I thought that was very nice too.  We didn't eat there because it is very expensive so we didn't even look for their restaurant but we did find a Thai Restaurant on Manchester Road that was very good.

Saturday we got up and checked out of our hotel and went to Mimi's Cafe for breakfast.  I was really good with my breakfast but Hardy had Cinnamon French Toast that was decadent. I was having some problems with the insert in my shoes so during the lunch break we went to WalMart and I bought another pair of inserts so I would be able to dance for another several hours without being in pain.  We had lunch at St. Louis Bread Company and they have the best black bean soup!  Saturday night a bunch of us went with Romney to Bandanas for BBQ.

We danced from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. with breaks for lunch and dinner but all in all I got in 22,100 steps for the day which is about 9.25 miles and added up to 9 points!  We drove home after the dance and hit the bed as soon as we got here.

Transit of Venus

About 5:00 p.m.

Well, I haven't been out here for a few days because I didn't have much of interest to write about.

About 6 p.m.

Today, starting about 5:00 p.m. we watched the Transit of Venus.  This will not be seen again in our lifetime, for another 117 years.  We set up the telescope with the filter at Stonehenge on the MST campus in Rolla and had several people come by and take a look through the scope and our friends Tom and Lana Vandoren with their two grandchildren came by too.  They were going to Alex's for pizza and brought us back one so that was very much appreciated.
We left MST around 7:15 or so and Hardy came on home in the truck and I went to Walmart to pick up a few things.  I had the telescope with me so he wasn't able to watch the sun until I got home and it was after 8:00 by that time so we watched it on NASA televised.

About 7 p.m.

We had taken our truck into the garage this morning to get it checked out before we went on our long trip this summer.  When we came back home our resident black snake was crawling for the door of the garage.  I told Hardy to put the door down before the snake got in and it came down on his little back so about 6 inches of him was caught under the door.  He hurried and raised the door back up and he crawled out and went to the side of the overhang to recuperate.  A little later he came out from the garage area and crawled over to his little home in one of the tires  where I have plants.  Poor little guy was probably in shock.  He is about 5 feet long and had just shed his skin (right in the flower bed in front of the house).

We also had the hot tub guy out this morning to see if he could repair the hot tub.  He called and told Hardy it was the breaker so we when we were in Rolla we bought another breaker.  We shall see if that works or not.

Another square dance with Darryl

Today we drove to the Laurie to dance with our own Zig Zag club and it is another Darryl day for us.  Darryl does such a great job calling and makes any dance fun.  We went to eat at the BBQ joint but they have changed the menu and it is no longer BBQ.  I guess they are moving to another location for the BBQ.  The poor waitress was brand new and she ended up with our big group so she had a few problems with the order but everyone finally got fed.

Square Dance with Darryl

We went to St Louis to square dance with Darryl Lipscomb at the Zig Zags.  We danced at 2:00 to C2 then went to dinner at El Maguey a Mexican restaurant.  All of us women had a margurita, a very large one too and then we went back and danced C1 in the evening.  It was a little fuzzy for the first tip or two but we managed to muddle through it.

Riding the Katy Trail

Missouri River on the Katy Trail

 
We finally bought a bike rack for our car so today we took the bikes to the Katy Trail and road about 10 miles.  This is usually a 20 mile ride from Jefferson City to Hartsburg but because we had not been on the bikes for several months we decided we should take it a little easy.  I had taken a snack along for the ride and we stopped by the river to watch the water.

We stopped in Jefferson City and had dinner at the Chinese restaurant.  Of course there was too much food so we had to bring half of it home.