Mt Rushmore

So one might be wondering what can be so wonderful spending two weeks at home with no power. But wonderful things still happen. To begin with, we were at home, which is always wonderful, even if we're chasing sheep around in the blowing dirt for shearing, or tramping around in the mud, or sitting in the dark. Its all wonderful because its home and its Montana.

But, you probably would like something a little more concrete than that. So here's one thing we did while we were home that was fun.

About a week after the storm hit, while we were still powerless, but mostly dried out, our friends, Brandon and Jessica, came over from Billings. We had left our jeep in Billings to have some warrenty work done on it, and so they brought it to us. They arrived Saturday morning and after visiting, we all loaded up in our pickup and drove a couple of hours down to Belle Fourche, SD where Brandon had ordered a new Dodge pickup that had arrived and wanted to go home. It's a beautiful truck by the way....really beautiful.

We met Brandon when we were hauling cows last fall. We hauled a couple of loads with him down to New Mexico and back through a Wyoming snow storm to Billings. It was fun and the rest is history. Now he and Malcolm live on the phone together, talk constantly, mostly about trucking because they eat, drink, and breath trucking, and we get together with him and his wife Jessica when we're in Billings. But they've never had opportunity to come out to our place. Here's Brandon and Malcolm deep in conversation about something....probably fuel prices, or sceeming ways to be more proffitable. Actually they do talk about other things than trucking, and I think this was one of those conversations.



While Brandon was doing his paperwork, Malcolm and the sales guy were chatting. They know us there because....well because as big as the west is, its also very small, and we had bought our cattle trailer from them last fall, and they just know us. So anyway, they were chatting and looking at the parking lot at all the bright new shiny pretty pickups, because thats about all they sell there, and then there was our pickup sitting amongst them. Our red brown mud encrusted pickup. And so while we waited, because they new us and they're super nice people, the sales guy had their shop guy take our pickup and wash it for us. Just because! And we really like them, not because they washed our truck, but because they are honest and nice, so if you're in the area and you need a new vehicle, check out Scott Peterson Motors in Belle Fourche, SD.



When Brandon was all done, we loaded into his new shiny pickup and drove down the street to eat at a place the sales guy had recommended which turned out to be our new favorite place to eat in Belle Fourche, and then we headed south to Mt Rushmore. We did the walk there around the faces, and went to the museum, but it closed just as we got there so we didnt' get to see the film or much of the stuff. It was still a fun trip though, because Jessica and I had never been there.



After that, we headed home, and got there around 11:3opm, and Jessica and Brandon were our first overnight guests in our almost 6 years together. That was fun. They were planning to head to Billings in the morning, but you know how that goes. It was the first warm day after the snow and its was beautiful and wonderful and we played around the ranch all day exploring places, and pulling apart old equipment so Brandon could get the old steel wheels for his yard, and they ended up not leaving till aroun 1:00 in the afternoon. It was a lot of fun, and fun to have company.
If your wondering why the coats in May, its because it was like in the upper 30's at Rushmore. The next day it was around 80 degrees. Talk about extremes. Also another little note of interest. Belle Fourche, SD is the center of the nation.....if you include Alaska and Hawaii in the mix.