Howard Road Trip

Montana is a huge state to drive across - the western part and the Rocky Mtns are really scenic. Marina drove us over the continental divide! Missoula and Bozeman are pretty campuses in nice college towns - both cities have lots of restored older homes in neighborhoods with a lot of character. Even Butte, surprisingly, was interesting. It has a lot of historic buildings downtown. It seems like they could be restored and turned into nice hotels, restaurants, etc. Of course, the huge open pit mine in Butte distracted from the ambiance...

Billings is just plain bleak - we arrived late in the evening, spent the night in a hotel there, and took off in the morning. I think they need a zoning ordinance or some type of city planning...at the intersection of I-90 and I-94, there is a huge auto wrecking yard that is highly visible from far away. The cars are piled all the way up this hill and it is appalling!

Marina is right - the moment we crossed the Montana-Wyoming border, the pavement on I-90 turned reddish-pink! Really strange. We stopped at the Little Bighorn Battlefield (Custer's last stand...)National Monument. It was pretty interesting - at least the Indians won one.

We're in Sheridan, WY overnight tonight. It's a nice town with the beautiful Bighorn Mtns. as a backdrop. It has a very "old western town" feel. You can tell the people who live here have an investment in their community - the downtown has been restored to look like it did in the late 1800s. And then there are more contemporary murals, sculptures, and other public art scattered about. However, there is a really high proportion of pickup trucks with rifle racks here...a little scary.

I had fun tonight re-connecting with a good friend from both high school and college (Univ. of Arizona). And the girls enjoyed getting to know his daughters. He's a doctor with the VA Hosptial here in town. We both told stories about each other's past lives which both delighted and embarassed our respective daughters! And I felt good because I neither have gray hair nor wear bifocals, but he does! Ha, ha!

Tomorrow we'll head to Mt. Rushmore, passing through the towns of Buffalo (!), Gillette, and Rapid City on our way. After that, stay tuned for the visit to Carhenge and the Christensen family wheat farm and pig ranch of western Nebraska. The cord for uploading pix from the digital camera to the laptop seems to have "disappeared" so it may be a while before any more pictures get posted.

ESH

While Billings, Montana was perhaps the ugliest town we've visited so far, Sheridan, Wyoming is, in my opinion, the nicest town we've stayed in. We had only about a two-hour car ride from Billings to Sheridan, so I didn't drive at all today. We slept in until about 9:30 then lazed around town until about 11:30 am. Finally, we were on the road and cruising at 75mph on the freeway! However, for some unexplained reason, the second we crossed the border into Wyoming the freeway turned pink. I'm not even joking! Maybe their state is just weird; I mean, it is Wyoming. Who would be wierd enough to name their state Wyoming? But, the pink freeway aside, Wyoming turned out to be a pretty state. Once we arrived in Sheridan, my mom called her old friend from high school Scott Tenney and we went over to his place for dinner. On the way, we stopped at what we thought was an old historic inn where Buffalo Bill Cody used to go, but apparently we had the wrong building as we walked into a smokey bar with a couple making out on the pool table!!! Finally we found the hotel and shortly afterword drove to mom's friend's house. It was very nice. As soon as Scott saw me, he told me I looked like my mom did when she was my age. I sat in the hotel and cried for hours (just kidding)! Scott turned out to be very funny and sarcastic and we learned some interesting stories about my mom (like the time they had to boil and dissect a cat for extra credit in a biology class). Scott's wife was extremely nice and his two daughters were there as well. Leah is going into her senior year in high school and Hannah is going into medical school next year. They were both really nice and I was so glad they weren't stupid girly-girls or something. After a evening full of laughs, we parted ways and when I got back to the hotel, Hayley and I worked out in their exercise room for awhile (I want to improve my chances for starting next year in waterpolo) and now I am winding down and getting ready for bed. Hope you all have had nice weather in Oregon (the weather on our trip so far has been pretty good, if a little hot)!

Over and out

Marina the Great
P.S: AHHHHHHH- Italy won, but they wouldn't have if it hadn't been for stupid Zidane's head-butt!!!

Hey guys! I hope you're all having a great time while we're spending the night in the exciting town of Billings, Montana! I helped drive for a few hours today and am starting to get the hang of driving at 75mph on the freeway. We drove for about eight long, horrible hours today, but we took a few breaks along the way to stretch our legs. Our first stop was at University of Montana in Missoula and it was very beautiful. We took a walk around the campus and ate lunch right outside the music hall where someone was attempting to sing opera (I am sooooo much better than that amateur). The campus really impressed me. Then, we got out and stretched at Butte, Montana and we ate an early dinner at Matt's Drive In. It was great food and was very old fashioned. They even had an old-fashioned coke machine!!! Then, we stopped at Bozeman, Montana and I toured Montana State University which was also serene and beautiful. I was awed at both Montana universities and enjoyed their campuses much more than I enjoyed the campus of Gonzaga in Spokane, Washington. Finally, just before our bladders were about to burst, we reached Billings and after some looking and a lot of luck (A Lutheran Convention was in town so there were basically no hotel rooms avaliable in the entire city), we found our hotel and that is where I'm writing this rather dull blog from. Oh, and did I mention that it's an hour later here so while we think its about 10:15 right now, it's actually 11:15 here and while I'm writing this incredibly long run-on sentence I might as well add that I'm so excited that Germany won third place in the world cup and REALLY WANT FRANCE TO BEAT ITALY in the title game!

See ya soon.....err.... I mean see ya in a long, long, long time!

THE WONDERFUL, AMAZING, BLOND BOMBSHELL,
(Do I even have to put a name here?)

Marina

Hello, everyone. We are in a hotel right now and just got back from Silverwood theme park. There was also a waterpark, which was ok, but the best part was the theme park. Anyone who knows me knows that I really hate roller coasters, but I went on a double corkscrew roller coaster! I refused to go on it until Casey bribed me with $3, but then when I rode I loved it! Also, there was an awesome river rapids ride, and a log flume. My mom got the most wet of anyone on the rapids. She was soaked! There were 2 HUGE roller coasters that Marina and Casey went on, but I didn't quite have the courage for those. At least I went on the corkscrew! Also, the wave pool was pretty cool, and the roundup ride was a billion times bigger and faster than the one at Oaks Park in Oregon. The park was so cool! Now I'm in the hotel suite we got, and I'm writing this blog. We're about to start the SNL best of Will Ferrell. I hope things are great in Oregon!
-Hayley GO DUCKS!