Day 43

Behind Town House Inn

Up at 7am and started a load of wash in the guest coin laundry and gave Emily a shampoo.  I’ve never bathed a dog in a bath tub with a yogurt container and the shower head before.  :)  I switched the laundry to the dryer and had to run back upstairs for quarters …didn’t do a very good job of thinking ahead.  Then to breakfast.  Oh boy.  They had bagels, toast, muffins, cereal, yogurt, omelets, waffles, bacon, and biscuits and gravy!  Everyone in the breakfast room was quite talkative.  I met a rodeo cowboy housed to have a ranch in Hamilton and started a therapeutic riding program.  He now lives in Spokane, dealing in mid-range horses.  We talked about sorting competitions and he explained team penning to me and told me about a competitive mounted orienteering competition that he’d discovered.  

Jeremiah took the van to the carwash for a quick vacuum.  We wadded ourselves into the car and went to Christ Church in Missoula.  

Mike ushered us to a parking pot in the flooded lot and told us where to find bulletins and hymnals.  Inside, we met Kris and Suzanne.  Afterwards we talked to Beth and Taylor and his hisser Faith who sang wonderfully.  She was a recent graduate of NSA and had mentored with the music professor there.  Then we met John Walkup and his son, Chase, who are ex-Missouri organic soybean farmers.  They now own and operate Mission Mountain Eggs with around 7,000 birds and will be doubling their operation over the next few weeks.  Chase played piano quite well for the service.  We talked farming, Missouri, organic, Montana land, etc.  Don Running introduced himself and we spent quite a while talking with him and Mike.  Mike was quite jovial, especially for a NSA philosophy graduate and we enjoyed some good teasing to which Don contributed heavily.  Don tentatively invited us to lunch and then whole-heartedly after he talked with “his Elizabeth” who introduced us to their daughter, Ruth, who appeared to be around 10 years old.

Elizabeth appeared slightly discomfited at the thought of feeding twice her family for lunch  They were to have leftover soup, but there was not enough for 8.  I offered some of what we had.  Oh, but she had pizza dough!  That would do.

And it was no ordinary pizza!  Potato leek pizza with fresh soft mozzarella, goat cheese feta, and bacon with a small bowl of tortellini soup with kale and sausage in it.  So tasty!  Don and one of his sons are engineers so Don talked engineering as a career and in the realm of education with Jeremiah for quite a while.  Leah, who looked to be in her 20’s, was pretty quite, but Ruth told me all about her cat and how she blocks him with her foot to keep him from squirting in the door.  Don asked about my vet tech education experience because Ruth likes animals.  We told them all about our adventures on the road as they kept asking questions and were appropriately impressed.  :)  We left there around 3pm.

Killing time in the gas station parking lot ...

We drove back to Missoula and sat in a ahas station parking lot to decide where to go next.  Jeremiah wanted to go south.  When asked, I expressed interest in visiting the Walkup’s farm since he had invited us quite genuinely and I was interested in seeing their operation.  I did not pretend to know if that would be a good move for the interests of our trip.  Jeremiah was asking questions of priority in the trip and not really getting answers.  He was concerned that going to  the Mission Valley or Big Hole might preclude us from other areas we would rather see since time and weather will be beginning to be issues.  Joshua was half asleep and grunted a non-opinion.  

A phone call to John sealed the deal.  We were concerned now may not be the best time of them to have visitors with doubling their business and all.  I suggested we ask instead of making that decision for them.  Mom made the call.  They were very happy to hear from us, hoped we would come stain their apartment on the farm tonight, and Crystal had been disappointed that she missed meeting us at church.  They emailed us directions.

Joshua then chose to dissent.  I answered their call to confirm we had gotten their email and accepted their invitation and gave our eta.  Mom and I spent the drive to Mission Valley discussing the process of moving camp and deciding where to go.  She had ideas of how to pack the car and do meals to expedite that.  I saw making a decision the morning before on where w ere going, that we were actually going to move camp, and what time we needed to leave to get there at a reasonable time making 90% of those things happen well all by themselves.  We could then start preparing the night before an not sit int he car for a couple ours after we were packing figuring out where we still had time to go.  I guess I don’t feel micromanaging other people’s responsibilities usually has good results either.  We then discussed the amount of info required to make that decision, who’s responsibility it was to gather it, and what if others are okay going on less information.

They were at the farm to meet us and who us to the apartment.  We laid out sleeping bags on the floor, couch, and air mattress so as to not create any laundry.  They offered a heated shed for the dogs, but we opted to leave them in the car since they were used to waiting for us there and there were a few weak spots in the shed.  We agreed to meet up at 9am after chores to talk and visit.

We heated some soup cups in the microwave and ate out of the snack bag (veggies, hummus, etc.)  Mom starting crocheting a hat and I began some fingerless gloves out of brown wool sock yarn.