Continuing adventures

My intention is to post every day until I cover the entire trip, but I had more pressing matters (a job interview!!! yay!!) yesterday and I know I'll be away to a dog trial this weekend, so I'll have to cover more ground somehow...

Chap. 3: Big Sky and Battlefields

Our second day on the road took us through more beautiful vistas in Montana. We could see lots of snow-covered mountains around us -- the Absaroka, Bozeman and Crazy mountains, to name a few. We mused about Lewis and Clark and where they passed through this part of the country.

I had borrowed an audiobook from the library called "The Day the World Ended at Little Bighorn: A Lakota History" by a Lakota historian, told from the Native American's view. We listened to the book as we crossed much of Montana, preparing for the visit we would make to Little Bighorn Battlefield. Mel has read and studied much about the battle, Custer, and topics surrounding the historic event, but this book gave a much better appreciation for what really took place on June 25 & 26, 1876.

Actually walking and driving around the site gave us even more appreciation for how the whole thing unfolded, where soldiers and natives were, etc. I was especially glad to see that a memorial to the Native Americans involved had been built in recent years.

We spent several hours just taking in the spot, walking around, driving down to Reno-Benteen hill, taking lots of pictures. Then we headed south, past Sheridan to Gillette, Wyoming, where Mel's brother, Rocky, lives. We'd stay a day or two with them before heading on with our journey.

Vacation continues

Chap. 2: On the Road

Our journey began on Friday morning (June 18) as we drove to I-90 and pointed the van east. We drove through Ellensburg and Spokane, then left our Evergreen State behind. Idaho has beautiful scenery, as we saw Lake Couer d'Alene, plus a little bit of potato farmland in our brief drive through and then it was on to Montana. The Big Sky State is magnificent: lots of rolling ranchland. We drove past Missoula and made it to Butte that night.


Mel's not fond of Butte because it's a huge copper mining town and the stripped hillside isn't too picturesque, but we really didn't want to push on to Bozeman. We had a quick dinner and hit the bunks. (OK, they were really hotel beds.)

In the morning, during our search for coffee (we ARE from the coffee capital of the world and the free stuff at the hotel's continental breakfast just wasn't cutting it -- this would be a continuing theme during our trip) CJ saw this interesting place, where you can do just about everything but get "real" espresso (as they advertised).

Ah well, Butte does have a few espresso stands and we managed to track one down. Properly fueled, we headed for Billings and beyond.

As we left Butte, I took this picture, saying "Our favorite view of Butte: in our rear-view mirror."



Next: Walking through history

Our Vacation

Chapter 1: The Journey

Odyssey (noun): A long series of travels and adventures.

That's the perfect term for our journey from Washington to Colorado and back. There were several reasons for the trip: visit family, see parts of the country I hadn't ever seen, take a break between college and being employed again, spend time with my husband and son doing something adventurous, and probably more that I couldn't really put my finger on.

It was the perfect time. I'd just finished a fairly intense 18-month school term to earn an Associate's degree in Library & Information Services, I was looking for a new job but hadn't gotten to even the interview stage yet, and my son was on summer break. My daughter, I should point out, was also out of school, but chose to stay home and be house/pet sitter for us. THAT was a huge relief to have the dogs and home taken care of by someone I could trust.

We plotted a course that would take us through Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, and Colorado. We have family in Gillette, Wyoming as well as all over the Northeastern quadrant of Colorado, so rough plans were made for stops to see as many of them as possible. I also wanted to see sites like Little Bighorn, Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Devil's Tower, Yellowstone, etc. The guys had already seen most of that on a separate trip years ago.

So we packed up the trusty van (which had been transformed from dog-hauler to people-hauler) with luggage, some food, maps, and all the technogear we'd need to survive two weeks on the road (cameras, iPods, laptop, Nook books, cell phones -- you name it). We even decided to take some prezzies to the peeps we'd be staying/partying with and chose yummy stuff from Johnson Berry Farm.

Next: We hit the road.

Book Repair ROCKS!

OK it’s official: I love books, not just reading them, but the physical books themselves. They call that a bibliophile but you can just call me a book lover.

I took one of the most interesting classes this summer quarter – Book Repair – and I had the best time. We met all Saturday for 8 weeks at the campus, which is about an hour’s drive from my house. There were 10 students, so we got to know each other pretty well. We learned about the structure and function of books as well as how different damage happens. We took in our own books (or in the case of several librarians in the class, books from their library) with different damage to repair. We learned so much cool stuff and it felt like arts & crafts each week. We repaired torn pages, loose pages, torn bindings, damaged spines, and we even turned a paperback book into a hardcover book!

Since I’m a bibliophile and take great care of my books, it was sometimes hard to find damaged books to take in for class. So I put out the call to several people to find books needing repairs. I got some real beat up books that unfortunately were beyond my skills. I would love to learn how to repair books that are literally falling apart, but this class was centered on fixing damage before it needed a complete overhaul.

The pictures here are of spine repairs and corner repairs that I did for class. I completely replaced the spine on two books (The Magic of Xanth and The Circle of Braves) and repaired the cover corners as well as the internal spine of Zane Grey’s The Lost Wagon Train. Don’t they look cool!?

All the corners are recovered even though only one was really beaten up. The damaged spine is replaced and everything looks great.

In addition I took Collection Development, where we learned about the decision-making process behind what books a library should add to (or subtract from) its collection. We talked about censorship, finding appropriate materials, policies, and other library-geek details. It was really interesting and something I had never really learned about. I also had Pacific Northwest History, which as an intense bunch of reading and writing, but I learned a lot of interesting stuff about the region.

Added later Sunday: Here are a couple of photos of the book by Brenda that I turned from paperback to hardcover. Pretty special, if I do say so myself...

Coming next (I think): An update on the move to Yelm, including video of the house being installed.

Strawberry update

OK, so after the lack of strawberry pie was duly noted, it was off to Spooner's for more berries. This time a half-flat should suffice, right??
Safely back home, I grabbed the trusty Strawberry Pie a la JDC recipe and commenced to workin' my magic.
The pie was assembled and taken to the Yelm property to share with Mums and in honor of Rosie's 8th birthday. (We had a doggie pool party!)
The pie was so delicious that it was tough to save a piece to take home to Katie. (Good thing she made me promise her one!) With the pie polished off Thursday night, but with berries remaining, the cry went up for "More Pie!"
Friday morning, when I went to make more pie, alas there weren't enough berries left. I told Mel if he wanted more pie, he'd have to go get more berries -- but a pint would do.
Not one to let the opportunity slip by to get even more pie made, he returned home with not a pint, but another half-flat (6 pints)!
So there's another pie made, plenty of fresh berries to be eaten plain, and the hopes that I will be makin' more pie later.
As my FB status says, we're trying to see if there is such a thing as Strawberry Overload, but haven't reached it yet!
Nothing like the fine summer weather we're having and fresh strawberries for a Fourth of July weekend!

Sun-loving dog

Bridget loves to lay on the brick pathway and soak up some sun. Silly dog.

Mmmmmmm, berries

Summer is definitely here! I managed to get out to Spooner’s Strawberries and score a flat before they were sold out for the day. It took a few days to get out there early enough to not drive up to the “Sold out. More tomorrow” sign that always makes my heart droop a bit. For those who don’t live here and can’t experience the sweet, juicy goodness for themselves, I’ve included a picture so you all can drool over them. These berries are locally grown and the best strawberries you might ever taste. Their arrival usually sends the Olympia area into a frenzy to buy, eat and store up as many as we can before the season is over all too soon. Definitely a mark of summer here in South Sound.

Why the fork, you ask? Well I wouldn’t want to get my keyboard all sticky, would I?

Now to settle in to read some more of George Vancouver’s descriptions of his exploration of the Straits of Juan de Fuca and Puget Sound – fascinating stuff! But more about that later…