HAVRE, MONTANA
This log (thesis) begins when Peter, Cooper and Glenda leave our home in White Pine, MT and head to Kalispell, normally a 120 mile journey that takes, oh, 2 1/2 hours. We’re meeting up with the 2 “lower in vocal range” gentlemen that live there and heading to Havre, Montana, for a Sunday morning Church service!! Come on along!!

Friday, November 7th, 2008

• 10:09 a.m. cough cough…, puddles, wet dogs good bye

• 10:30 a.m. checkin tires and popcorn at Les Schwab

• 10:39 a.m. gasoline $2.13/gal. and potty (we’ve not even gone 15 miles) “ev’body’s gettin out their big rigs, now”

• 10:50 a.m. passed 19 dead trains from Plains train wreck last month. Come get yer soy beans.

• 12:36 p.m. arrived Kalispell with Peter spittin and sputterin and aggravated once again, he loves the city, and shopping….. 🙂

Afternoon: ….shopping- at the mall 🙂

• 5:20 p.m. Mama cooked hots and tots for supper. Joseph and PT cleaned the kitchen!!

• 7:38 p.m. left to go see all the young people, including PT and Caitlin, at the Bigfork Inn

• 10:15 p.m. crashed at the apartment- well, parked outside and went to sleep up in PT’s living room I mean

• 11:10 p.m. night night (lots of noises in the city, including Joseph coming in around 1 a.m.)

Saturday, November 8th, 2008

• 7:15 a.m. rise and shine and give God the glory… even when your husband is “clicking” away at his LAP TOP too E A R L Y

• 8:35 a.m. hot cinnamon rolls and omelets, life is good.

• 8:45 a.m. Dana connects and morning banter. Personal victory for Dana- he’s 185 lbs now.

• 9:10 a.m. we’re off! hot chocolate made by Caitlin for Cooper

• 9:20 a.m. 3 men, and Colter coffee shop, ‘sigh’

• 9:33 a.m. passed the mall…. he he

• 9:34 a.m. right on Rte 2- Smith’s gas $2.14… oops…. no card, turn out

• 9:39 a.m. left on Rte 2- Well, we’re covering possible gun removal by our new… President, squeaky wipers, a jeep stuck in the mud, log chinking for cabins, a little green camper we “need” to travel in, arrival of snow, a possible flight to Nevada to sing in February… it’s not even been a half hour together, oh boy, 5 hours to go!

• 9:51 a.m. Town Pump $2.14/gallon, Columbia Falls, Montana temp. about 40 degrees, no blizzard.

• 10 something. Glacier National Park, always a pleasure, ya gotta see it.

• 11:30 a.m. coulees, sage brush, brown grass

• 11:50 a.m. “get up black bull way out in the field- why are your legs up in the air?” Here’s the scene inside the Suburban: Dana is slouched over mumbling about farming, politics and humorous signs. PT is watching a movie on his iTouch. Peter’s hat is tilted, he’s calling a few friends and harassing them, while driving. Cooper just finished a letter to her pen pal and is carefully animating her puppy with annoying yelps. And me, oh pious one has enjoyed 5 more chapters of Revelation- have you re-read that yet? (woo hoo!!) …and of course writing you all.

• 12:12 p.m. wind mill army standing in the field and of course the 2 engineers in the front seat are analyzing and redesigning wind/turbine power. Words like “circles, tips, short, batteries, generators, $10,000, crooked…” and thus words of intelligence are uttered. I dunno, you put it all together.

• 12:21 p.m. coulees, sage, brown grass, railroad tracks

• 12:22 p.m. 3 cotton wood trees

• 12:40 p.m. Shelby, Montana. Did you know we are South of the Border?…Canada! Note: someone get my husband 1 pair of glasses that will do the work of 2…

• 1:50 p.m. are we there yet? coulees, sage brush, brown grass, more politics and oh… railroad tracks

• 1:57 p.m. hot diggity Chester, Montana, railroad tracks and feed mill and 8 story grain elevator, 3rd or 4th town like this along the high line… ya gotta see it.

• 2:36 p.m. Kremlin, Montana (in case you were wondering we never leave the state of Montana) grain elevator, railroad tracks and… brown grass.

To the right are the Bears Paw Mountains, many memories of the ranch we worked at and wild red raspberries on Baldy Mountain.

• 2:44 p.m. Eeek. 2 trains loaded with BIG earth movers. Hey, when anything comes along you have to write it down.

• 2:54 p.m. Immanuel Baptist to set up- Eeek. our posters are up on the door.

• 4:38 p.m. done goofing off at the Church… eh, ur, I mean setting up sound and a little bit of rehearsing with the UTMOST Of professionalism.

• 4:47 p.m. On to our friends: Peter and Mary Berry. Real dirt muck and clay road. Ten miles down awesome countryside.

Evening: TREMENDOUS homemade meal- ham, cabbage salad, muffins, corn, peas, pie oh yum yum. Warm comfy house, pleasant uplifting conversation, hot showers, happy doggies (Cooper’s favorite), incredible view, lovely friends. Ya gotta have some pie oh yum yum, it’s delicious.

• 7:0685321 or something a.m. we slept like a rock! heard a little bit of noise early, but oh the smell of breakfast is what did it for me 🙂

Sunday, November 9th

• 8:48 a.m. return to Immanuel Baptist Church for Sunday School and morning service. Good time of encouragement and exhortation over LUKE 6:27-38 in Sunday school. Pleasant surprise enjoying Ken and Dawn Overcast and fellowship. (check out his music at http://www.kenovercast.com) The service was a lot of fun. We pray lives were touched. The Lord is our Healer, Enabler and Provider, Amen! We also enjoyed lunch with the Church family at Pizza Hut, Thank You Thank You! Sitting with fellow believers in unity of the Holy Spirit is a happy place indeed!

Cooper met some friends as usual, she loves to glum onto anyone and make them her own. PT, Dana and Cooper were sitting way down the end away from Mom and Dad. She comes over to me to “tattle tale” on her brother. She says: “Mama… PT stuck his tongue out at me, you have to come over and trouble him…” I’m giggling at her words, but when I glanced over, a 1/3 of the table was grinning at me, with PT as the gang leader. I’m remembering HE’S 22 and she’s 6. PT has this smirk on his face that in itself makes me want to pop him. So I walked over to “trouble” him, just as I was told. Cooper continues on the way: “Mama, PT says you can’t spank him any more, you have to trouble him…” “PT?”, The troubling Mama asks, “how bout getting your mouth washed out with soap?” The smart alack says: “oh goodie, let’s go-!!!” His third of the table he controls laughs and I respond: “You know, I might not be able to spank you any more, but God will get ya.” Who taught him to be such a show off?

• 2:39 p.m. Headed West again. Beautiful afternoon, just beautiful. The Lord is our pilot and safety manager! Who could ask for anything more when traveling? Stopped to climb around this 900 horse power…. tractor, if you could call it that! Men and their big boy toys! This is my 6… I mean 22 year old son.

• 3:33 p.m. Chester for a drink. Whatever you do, never, no never no matter how desperate you are, don’t EVER buy a vanilla Chai Latte at a counter in Mike’s Grocery. The town has 731 people, there is NO ONE there that can make a latte, trust me.

• 4:15 p.m. We’re approaching sun down and fighting with the visors. I SEE the light!

• 4:27 p.m. Semi truck over turned- almost to Shelby. Oh my.

• 4:40 p.m. $2.19 and yes, PT CAN wash the Suburban windows.

Well so somewhere around Cut Bank Cooper jumps up front in the middle next to Dana and Dad. Then Dana jumps in the back (the vehicle is still moving) and lands on PT’s lap. I climb to the front with my main man and Cooper. This lasts maybe 20 minutes and Cooper jumps back in the back with Dana and PT. Why didn’t we do this earlier? Are you following? Oh Phooey, Dad pulls over (he’s no fun) and switches driving with his son, and I climb in the back with Cooper in the middle and who else is in the back? If you guess it right, you get a free CD. NOOOOOO I’m just joking!!

So “quick” driving kind of runs in my side of the family. It’s dark and we’re entering Glacier Park… hmmmm. Winding 55, 45 mph roads. PT’s taking them at oh…. a reasonable and prudent speed…. 75! Sure felt like we’re on 2 tires a few times. What’s this? up ahead, something dark, black, small size, it’s a butt of a…… BEAR!!! PT doesn’t see it until he’s 10 feet from it! WOW! not sure who was scaredererer. Good thing the bear stayed tight to the guard rail. Thank you Lord. The Suburban already has 2 deer and a golden eagle imprint on it!

• Approx. 6:30 p.m. we roll into PT’s apartment. He has about 7 or 8 friends there!! No wonder why he was going pretty fast! Movie night and pizza! A Good night and nice kids. We’re grateful old people; to be alive, and to enjoy more evenings of song and praise to the Lord.