On Vacation!

Yes, we finished our busy weekend of programs at Hells Gate State Park with record numbers. Finally, we have had good weather on the weekends. One Junior Ranger program had 19 children! These weekends are crazy, and our three days off fill up quickly too.

We just left Hells Gate to start this vacation – we are heading towards our Family Reunion in the Black Hills of South Dakota. So we are back on the road again. It’s been a year of planning for this reunion. Our children and families don’t get to all see each other much. We are most excited to have our grandchildren meet.

The reunion is in Keystone which is a good location for them to explore the wonders of the Black Hills. We have reserved cabins for them in a nice resort. The plan is for us to eat breakfasts and dinners together and for them to check out the sights on day trips.

I will be cooking – for about 20 of us. I am prepared. I have my spread sheets and index cards ready with menus, recipes and shopping lists. The breakfast burritos are finished and in our freezer, along with the chicken cacciatore (also a veggie cacciatore) and bracciole.

I planned a theme for every one of the five days. Each theme includes the food for the day, decorations and crafts. On the advice of our grandson, Griffin, we are having a dance party every night. Doug is putting together play lists of all our favorite songs and Doug will be on call to advise about day excursions and directions.

One of the nights will be a joint birthday party. It will be great for us to celebrate everyone’s special day together.

My biggest concern is our family’s travel. Most of them will be flying and right now as I write this the daily news reports of chaos in the airports is scary. So I reached out to the gods of travel and petitioned them for safe travel for our family.

A fast google search to be inclusive brought me:

               Hermes, Greek god with winged sandals who protects travelers; Hermes’ Roman counterpart Mercury, who wears the same sandals, is known for his speed. Catholics have a few – St. Christopher and St. Bona of Pisa. Bona is the patron saint of flight attendants. St Joseph of Cupertino, who was known for his levitation skills and Our Lady of Loreto who is Aviation’s protector. The Universal Church also prays to St. Joseph for safe travelling. Hindu Ganesha promises safe journeys. So does the Shinto folk goddess of Japan Chimata-no-karni. I didn’t leave out Hina from Polynesia, Ilmarinen from Finland, Khonsu from Egypt, Lam Lha from Tibet who rides a golden bee, Meili a Norse god who carries a walking stick, Tir from Armenia and Mayan Xaman Ek.

I tried to cover all bases.

As far as our travels go, after Idaho we stopped our first night in St. Regis, Montana. It’s a pretty campground surrounded by tree-filled mountains. Each site is decorated with a wooden carving. The weather so far has been perfect – bright skies with cool temperatures.

Soon after leaving St. Regis, we crossed the Clark Fork River and then we followed this now perfectly peaceful lovely meandering river that about 10,000 years ago gushed the raging flood waters of Glacial Lake Missoula.

Driving near our favorite town of Missoula we spotted McDonald’s Peak. At 9,868 feet it is the highest peak in the region. Not surprised that is it snow-covered in July. We drove past Jeanette Rankin Memorial Highway (a women’s rights advocate and fierce defender of peace).

As we drive through this state, I keep my eyes pealed for the perfect place to situate a small log cabin. It is my daydream to find a spot, maybe along the Blackfoot River or beside the Sapphire Mountains. As we drive, we listen to audiobooks. Stuart Woods keeps us involved with our favorite character Stone Barrington and this trip J. A. Jance, whose Joanna Brady hails from Cochise County, brings us smiles as we recognize the locations. I am also crocheting a shawl for the upcoming wedding.

But mostly I look out the window. The road goes through the grassy plains between the mountains and those mountains are beautiful: Tobacco Root, Absaroka Beartooth, the Bridger Range, Big Belt, Crazy, and Elk Mountains, so far. Montana also has great rivers to keep me occupied: Little Big Horn and Yellowstone.

We love the area around Three Forks. It’s not just the rivers – Jefferson, Madison and Gallatin – that give us the pretty scenery, but it’s history too. It was in this area that Sacajawea in July of 1805 recognized the landscape and helped bring the Corps of Discovery to her people, the Shoshones, who provided the Corps with much-needed horses. And then the geology: in between the grassy areas along the foothills of the mountains, you can see the white soil, the ancient limestone left over from the Mississippian Era about 325 million years ago.

On Thursday, July 7^th we left the Hardin KOA. Weather is great during the day which makes driving pleasant, but afternoons and nights can be scary. Last night there was a threat of severe weather – thunderstorms, hail and maybe a tornado. It passed us but it was close and looking at the house-size heap of wood and branches from the tornado that had hit there just one week before, I was imagining the predicted 60 mile per hour winds sending those giant branches into our windshield.

But all is well. I even had time that night to do two loads of laundry and make a cheesecake for the reunion. (My refrigerator and freezer are filling up!)

Yesterday we had a huge moth bothering us during the drive. Doug finally got it out when he opened his window. One more fat black moth was killed during dinner. Then the flock appeared. At one time I counted five moths on the TV. Doug killed three before he fell asleep. When I got up in the morning, I cleaned up a few carcasses and then smashed three more while making breakfast. The big question – how did they get in???? We went from the land of spiders to giant moths.

Today we land in Rozet, Wyoming. Driving through this part of Montana is peaceful with long stretches of grassy prairies with cattle and horses. No more mountains. We passed the Big Horn River again. I love the mountains but Montana rivers winding their sparkling way through the state are beautiful. Passing the Tongue River convinced me it is one of the prettiest.

We drove close to the Battlefield at Little Big Horn. And then near one of our favorite places – Garryowen, which houses the Custer Battlefield Museum. This town has a population of two and covers 540 acres.

Friday, July 8^th is our last day traveling. We left All Seasons RV Park and began our day moving through the baled-hay fields. Last night we had a brief and pretty mild thunderstorm. The air is fresh and clear this morning.

Our journey today is just 160 miles.

Last night I made three cheesecakes – they are safely wrapped and stored in the refrigerator. I love baking in my small propane oven but I have to patient and understand the product’s “doneness”. I think the thermostat is close to accurate, but the heat is not evenly distributed. So, I check the food often, which lowers the temperature, so I have to add more time. I change the food’s placement in the oven and accept that timing is a guess. Given the oven’s size I can fit only one 9×13 sheet pan at a time. That is room for just one cheesecake. Each cheesecake takes about an hour so although these cakes are easy to prep, I can’t just forget about them in the oven. It was a total of about 5 hours making them.

Five years ago, I bought and started using a ceramic baking stone. Nothing burns on the bottom now. I learned the hard way with dozens of biscotti with very dark bottoms.

As we travel the winding S curves of part of Iron Mountain Road, I know we are close. We arrived safely at Spokane Creek Resort. We backed into our terraced site, took some deep breaths of the pine air and relaxed for the afternoon and evening. Just a few moths that night.

Our long site is backed up to a mountain covered in tall pine trees. This is a beautiful property. Everything is well maintained with lots of open space. We need to come here sometime when we really can relax.

We were happy to see a brand new playground, upgrades to the pool, shower house and laundry. There is plenty of room around our cabins to park, play and set up extra tables and chairs. We were only here once for about an hour last year so it’s good that we remembered how nice it was. It’s really better than we had hoped.

We arrived earlier than everyone else to prepare for our busy days of food and family. Saturday, after days of working on my shopping list (I did a lot more than checking it twice!) we ventured out to provision us. I took extra time with this list because it is 40 minutes and crazy mountain roads to get to the nearest supermarket.

We first checked out the trail to the Flag at the Top of the Mountain where you can see Mt. Rushmore. I didn’t make it to the top. Too rocky and steep for me and maybe for the younger kids too. But Doug got to the flag and took a photo.

We managed to get all the food stored into the RV. The freezer and refrigerator are full and miscellaneous items are grouped in grocery bags labeled for the day I will need them. Right now our sofa and floor are full too with just enough room for each of us to sit.

I have a few things to prep tonight then we move tomorrow afternoon into one of the Cabins with a full kitchen. This place seems to have a great housekeeping staff, but I expect to wash all the cooking equipment tomorrow. I checked out the laundry with one small load. It is a spotlessly clean facility.

The gang starts to arrive on Monday. Some right around lunch and others later in the evening. No matter their arrival time I will have food and drinks for them.

Can you tell I am excited? Yes, but I will be happy and relaxed as soon as they all get here.