A beautiful evening in Round Rock, Texas.
The Funny Grandson’s team won.
And cheers were heard o’er the land.
More pictures to share tomorrow, but it is late and we are off to the airport in the morning to fly back to Omaha, pick up the car and start driving east.
I wonder where we will be tomorrow night….
Our Nebraska football watch party was this afternoon. We loaded up on snacks, cheese, crackers, cookies and pie from two grocery stores. There was chicken, potato salad, salad and coleslaw.
Here is son Ben enduring yet another close, stressful Nebraska game.
They won. The first time we had all been together for a victory was eight years ago. And here we were in Austin again, screaming and celebrating.
We were exhausted!
Banjo Man and I flew down here yesterday from Omaha. The Funny Grandson has a football game Tuesday night and we are really looking forward to it.
Tomorrow we are all going out to lunch and then returning to the condo for an Early Birthday celebration. The FG turns 14 on the 29th.
But he is not too old to camp out at the condo with us. I hope he never is!
I think I have lost my motel-lovin’ mind.
I booked a room at a Best Western hotel here a month ago. I thought I had booked with points.
I hadn’t.
I thought it was a new hotel. It wasn’t.
Huh?
The receptionist told me although it was a pet friendly hotel, it didn’t smell.
She lied. We left.
Fortunately for us, the hotel next door was not pet-friendly, didn’t smell, had an available room AND a pool. Thank you, Holiday Inn Express.
Still, my reputation for finding great hotels is ruined. Banjo Man keeps giving me worried looks.
We had such a lovely visit in North Platte with Nancy and Ned. Bonus: discussing paint colors for the office and the gorgeous upstairs tv room. Want a design tip? If you don’t have a rich navy blue paint chip, take off your dark blue jeans and hold them against the walls.
While wearing your underwear.
It worked. We loved the color. And I put my pants back on before we sat down to lunch.
Our view this morning:
On to Lincoln to meet special friends Tom and Cynthia for dinner. So much fun to talk and laugh and share stories!
The restaurant loved pumpkins. And I loved this one.
I’m now in bed, having done a lot of stretching in the pool. My Sunday afternoon hike up to the Pictograph cave was long, steep and hot. So much steeper than I remembered, but I had no doubt that I could do it. After all, I spent the last five months doing water aerobics three times a week. And hiking up and down the hill to the lake is great exercise. I am in shape!
I was so wrong. My right hip has been complaining ever since. I am limping and taking Tylenol and walking like an ancient person.
Am I too old for archaeological adventures???? Oh, please, no!!!!!!
We are off to Omaha tomorrow!
No time to blog last night, as we are being pampered in North Platte by Banjo Man’s sister and husband (Nancy and Ned).
Yesterday began with a visit to the Pioneer Museum in Douglas, Wyoming.
I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow from Lincoln.
It has been a very busy, very long day so I must keep this short and turn off the light.
Being in bed at 9:00 feels pretty darn wonderful.
Our first stop this morning was the giant gift shop and cafe next to Custer Battlefield. This is when Banjo Man discovered the joy of shopping.
He bought books. And a wool blanket. He was so pleased.
I bought fun books about buffalos for Will’s second grade classroom. We will meet the little ones next week.
Fires in the Bighorns!
We took an unplanned detour to the town of Ucross, population 26 , to see an art gallery. This was not my idea and I wish I had that one hour and forty minutes back. Very odd art gallery, but an amazing artists retreat.
Then we managed to get to Buffalo at last. Banjo Man looked forward to spending time here.
Jim Gatchell was a local pharmacist who was a good friend to the Cheyenne. He received many gifts from them and collected so much historical memorabilia that Buffalo built museum to hold it all.
Once again, my husband found great joy in the gift shop. Books, a coffee mug and something else I can’t remember are coming home with us.
I bought a buffalo hat. It should be a big hit in Will’s classroom.
A very late lunch at a local restaurant with local, dead friends looking on:
We drove two and a half more hours to Douglas and collapsed into bed.
Tomorrow morning Banjo Man has one more museum stop planned. We will be there at 8 AM when the doors open so we can meet a dear nephew for lunch in Cheyenne at noon.
It’s going to be 38 degrees. Maybe I should wear my new hat.
I do not like this sign.
We left the Best Western Grant Creek Inn at 9:00. We’d been given an upgraded room, enjoyed the best hotel breakfast buffet ever and found it easy to pack everything into the car.
And then…this sign. EAST.
Oh, dear.
I woke up feeling a little lost. Untethered, even. Our roots run deep at the lake, in the mountains and the views and most importantly, decades upon decades of friendships. Every year I appreciate those ties, that history, the stories that bind us together and often amuse or horrify our grown children.
So I was a bit unsettled.
I have missed my East Coast friends, too. Friends of twenty, thirty-seven and sixty years. I know that in a couple of weeks I will be okay again once we get together and exchange stories of our summer and make plans to do fun things. It will be so good.
That said, the transition is jarring.
Banjo Man and I switched driving every two hours, as we do, shared a burger at the Hotel in Big Timber, and later that afternoon made our way 14 miles off the interstate to the back country southeast of Billings.
Our plan was to hike to all four of the “caves” at Pictograph State Park. The problem? It was almost 100 degrees in the rock-surrounded area. We walked up a never-ending hill to the first and largest overhang, a spectacular place we had visited on a cool October morning three years ago.
It didn’t take us long to realize that Hill + Heat + Age equalled a medical issue unless we took breaks in the shade (of which there was little), drank water and returned to the car asap, cutting short our plan to hike the loop of caves dug high into the rock cliff.
It is magical. Twelve thousand year old artifacts have been found here.
And some of the paintings still survive, though they don’t show up on my photographs.
After communing with the ancients, we couldn’t wait to get into a hotel room in Billings, blast the AC and guzzle ice water. Dinner plans turned into picking up sandwiches at the Subway down the street and eating in our nice, chilly room. We were so tired!
Tomorrow the high temperature in Billings will be 64. Go figure.
We will be heading to Buffalo, Wyoming in the morning (it will be 45 degrees when we leave). A museum awaits!
And then on to Douglas. Wyoming awaits!
It was a three shoe day. I started out wearing my Hoka walking shoes for the morning while getting ready to leave the lake, packing and cleaning.
At 2:26 PM, as we drove towards Highway 200, I switched to sandals. It was a surprisingly warm afternoon and my feet were tired.
Three hours later we arrived at MacKenzie River Pizza in Missoula to meet special friends for dinner. I changed my shoes to Easy Spirit clogs. Or thought I did.
This is how I went out to dinner tonight.
Sigh. I didn’t realize it until returning to the car two hours later.
Banjo Man laughed and laughed. Then I took this picture, forgot to change my shoe again and entered the hotel like this.
It has been a long day.
Thank goodness for a lovely visit with Gary and Judy, who just texted that they had a black bear in their driveway when they got home.
Yes, we are definitely in Montana!
Today’s the day we leave the lake and head out on an epic road trip.
Yes, I said “epic”. And I mean it. We’ll be home in RI again in two weeks and one day.
But first Banjo Man has to watch the Nebraska vs. Purdue football game. We cannot wedge ourselves into an overpacked Highlander and climb out of the driveway until the last play. I even grit my teeth and subscribed to Peacock so my anxious husband could see the game.
Eight dollars for a month of the stupid Peacock channel, but I will cancel it before the time is up.
Nebraska needs to win this one so all of the guys in my family can have cheerful chats together all week long.
I thought I had my clothes all set for the trip home, but I’ve emptied my travel bag once again in order to wear the clothes I packed. This morning I will start over.
We’ll be in Missoula tonight. And will have dinner at MacKenzie River Pizza with special friends. We will share stories of our summers, news of our families and plans for the winter ahead. And tomorrow we will be on the road to Billings and Pictograph State Park.
Remember this? We first stopped here in October of 2021, but we weren’t prepared to hike to all four “caves” (overhangs, actually). We hope to see more of them tomorrow afternoon. I am very, very excited to see this again.
A pair of honking geese just flew past. If that isn’t a sign of fall I don’t know what is.
It’s time to pack and clean bathrooms.
GO BIG RED!!!!!
Today marks our 54th wedding anniversary. What???? We’re that old?????!!!!
I guess we are.
Our new passport photos make us look like 103-year old serial killers. And no, I’m not going to share them here on the blog.
Last night My French Friend Janou hosted a beautiful dinner party. The Wednesday Night Dinner ladies brought their significant others, so there were twelve of us enjoying a lovely, fun evening.
So much good food. Laughter. A fun time with friends after a very busy summer for everyone. As I’ve written before, September is the social season here at the lake.
Today Banjo Man and I will be cleaning floors and bathrooms as we prepare to leave here on Saturday. We’ll take some time to sit on the dock one last time.
There is always time to enjoy the lake.
Somehow all six of us managed to be free on the same evening. We raised a glass to our dear friend Yvonne, who passed away in April. She never missed a Ladies Night and hosted many of them at her home.
We miss her joy.
We chose the Float House for our last gathering. We sat on the covered patio and celebrated another summer at the lake. We watched the sunset.
One of us became a grandmother for the first time. Another just completed months of chemo. One of us has recently found the second love of her life.
We’ve all survived something. Celebrated. Laughed. Confided. We passed on the special Warrior necklace to Cindy.
Fourth of July
Glen the Banjo Man
LIVE at the Dump
is there any more pie? 