Last Weekend...

...we hit the road again. Not in the semi, but in our pickup. We just can't seem to stay off the road!

We left home at 5:45am on Friday morning and by sunrise, we'd already stopped in Baker, coffee-d up, and were well west of town!

Eighty miles west of Baker, we hit the interstate, stopped in Miles City for something to eat and fuel, and then continued west. By 10:30am, we were pulling into Billings.
This was not our final destination, but we did have a lay over here.

We had some errands to run in Billings, a couple of business appointments, and a quick visit with a friend. Bless her heart, she came out to meet me even though she was a bit under the weather, and then proceeded to let me drag her around town, playing taxi cab for me, and she didn't even get lunch out of the bargain! No time! She must be a true friend and quite a trooper!

By Friday evening, we were appalled that we hadn't even finished half our errands and we were out of time. Stores and offices were closing. A friend from Nebraska was delivering a few horses to the Billings Livestock Commission for their big monthly horse sale. So we met him there and then went to dinner. And then found a hotel and fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillows.

Saturday morning we were on the road by 6:00am, headed west again before sunrise. The day was just beginning to show light and we were already nearing Bozeman.

We had about 3 1/2 hours of driving to our destination. We stopped in Three Forks, MT to have breakfast at WheatMontana's main store and warehouse. And then turned north. Do you know where we were headed yet?

Malcolm presented me with a gift he had snuck into the truck. He had gone to a special store...

...and bought me a special gift...

...to commemorate the purpose of our special trip. As if this trip wasn't gift enough!

Any ideas what we were up to?

I had no idea that our destination was so close to Three Forks. It doesn't take any time at all to get up there!

Eight hours of driving in all, from home to Helena, and  then we were there all of 45 minutes before turning around and heading back east.
"What?" you may think. "Why on Earth would you drive all that way and not spend time there? What were you two up to?"

Well we were able to make it such a quick errand because we'd done our shopping two months ago. The merchandise was already chosen, signed over, and paid for. It was just waiting for customer pickup. But first it wanted to finish it's breakfast.

Meet Fancy (above) and Reba (below). Sorry, they are too distracted by strange men and breakfast to look at the camera. 

You may have noticed their pictures over in my sidebar, listing them as members of our herd. We acquired these two lovely mares a couple months ago from Roy and Cindy Swanby of Rocky Mountain Paint Gallery. They have some lovely horses, but I'd fallen for these two, and Malcolm got tired of me drooling over their pictures, and gave me the go ahead. So in early September the deal was done, but we didn't have the chance to pick them up till last weekend. I was so happy to finally be bringing them home. Bouncing in the seat happy and talking Malcolm's ears off about random things. (I get chatty when I'm happy and hyper.)

And so we loaded them up into our trailer which still had a lot of cow poo in it from a few days before, and it was obvious that was a new smell to the girls. They were fascinated, especially Reba. But they loaded so nicely, despite the strange smells and unfamiliar surroundings (Malcolm had a large air compressor strapped in the back section of the trailer that they had to walk past). Clearly Cindy has done a great job starting her colts and keeping her herd in tune!

We were headed back east with our herd additions in tow. It was an uneventful trip, thankfully, and by 3:00 we were back in Billings. We finished up the "have to" errands that hadn't been done the day before, and at sunset we were pulling out headed home.

We were home by 10:00, unloaded the pick up, and were in bed before midnight! Sleeping at home...there's nothing like it!

Sunday morning we rushed through breakfast  so we could go visit with the girls and introduce them to their new world.

I originally thought I'd keep them in the corral for a while till we got acquainted better, and also give them a chance to get to know their new herd members, but the corrals were going to be a busy, noisy place in the coming days. So we opted instead to just turn them out...

...into what may be the biggest pasture they've ever seen. They seemed a bit overwhelmed at first, but soon settled in to chowing down.

Friendships have been slow in forming. Fancy is the kind of gal that falls to the bottom of the totem pole and gets picked on, so she's not easily approached for friendship. She has rebuffed both Dawn and Gemma's invitations, and by all appearances seems to have decided that since she's in a new place, she's going to set down some ground rules from the start. She might even turn into the top dog. Time will tell. I figure they'll all
work out their new roles and friendships over time.

It was a good trip, even with the early mornings, and its good to have them home at least!
We enjoyed looking out the window and seeing them grazing happily all day. Sunday was a nice relaxing day at home.

And then Monday was another really early morning...

...but that's another blog post for another day. Right now, I have horses to go play with!