Part 2: Missoula

This will be one of my longer posts but the wait is worth it. We left on Wednesday for the Thompson reunion in Missoula, MT, a 7.5 hour drive. Judy wanted to be there on Wednesday because we had four relatives from Norway coming in at the airport at 11:30PM. Turned out that they were delayed and didn’t get in until past 1:30AM. They were Olav Feten, Nils Magnar Feten and his two children, Runar (18) and Vilde (13). They live on the SognaFjord in Balestrand. Just Google Balestrand to find pictures. The mountains there are about the same height as in Missoula except the Norwegian mountains start at sea level. They had a grand old time. We all were at Ruby's Inn in Missoula and they put us on the marque.
The Norwegians didn't get to Ruby's until after 2:00AM after traveling about 28 hours (that's longer than it took for us to get to China or Cambodia). Vilde was still pretty pooped when we got the to John's house as you can see below.

Vilde perked up when the hat parade began. I am headlining at the Pink Flamingo in Vegas.
This is Runar. May I help you with your bags?
King Nils Magnar, his royal majesty.
Olav is in the Norwegian cavalry. Either that or it's Heilag Olav.
This is the hat parade culprit - Uncle John. Can't you tell?
Here Judy is entertaining them with some genealogy stuff. She likes that. Hey Vilde look at this!
Olav and Nils with Jack Thompson
Outside our hotel room was secluded mountain stream with a bench for contemplating or trying to figure out how to pay for the room. It's not the "River Running Through It" but close.
Of course, what do three year old boys do when they see water? they get as close as possible to it without getting wet and throw rocks.
Look at this rock, Grampa?
It started to rain that afternoon so the outdoor picnic had to be brought indoors at a conference room at Ruby's. Here is part of the clan. Aren't they cute?
Some more of the group.
Jason and fiance Kristen
Aaron and wife Ashley.
After the indoor picnic, I asked everyone to gather on the lawn for a group picture.
The host family: Jason, Eric, Kristen, Kathy, Ashley, John and Aaron Thompson
After pictures it was karaoke time. Judy was right in there.
Next morning Vilde had to swim. She loves swimming. I went swimming with Nils, Runar, Vilde, Brittany and Erin for about two hours. It was bat the Target beach ball day. And we did plenty of that.

I took them shopping one day so that Olav could buy an SLR camera lens and Vilde wanted an iPod Nano. Turns out they are about half the price in the US as in Norway. I took them to Snowbowl ski resort and we rode the lift up the mountain. It was a long ride that took about ten minutes. One thing I noticed and it was kind of eerie, was when the chair was between two of the support poles (100 yards or so apart) it was deathly quiet. There was no noise; no lift noise, no birds or animals, no humans. It was totally quiet.

Vilde at the top of one of the ski runs, just being herself.
The dinner was Saturday night at the Missoula Carousel, which “Uncle John” had a big part in, carving the houses and dragons. He even painted his favorite family members on the panels surrounding the works in the center. The carousel works (the insides) actually came from the “Bonanza” TV show and was in bad shape. It was bought, and fixed up. And all the hand carved basswood horses were added. John had a special hand carved gift for each of our foreign visitors. We are so glad they came.
The carousel center panels were painted by John using family members as models. No we didn't pose. I am the one with the pot belly and the camera. I didn't know about it until after the fact.
Yep, that's me.
Everyone who went to the dinner at the carousel posed for another picture. This is a bigger group than at the picnic.
Vilde had a great time on the carousel. She was on it all night. Free rides for all who came.
Vilde, Runar Nils Magnar and Olav
Even Logan liked to rice on the horses.

The people on the outside row of horses have a chance to get a colored ring from the dragon’s mouth. The person that gets the golden ring gets a free ride. I think Vilde got a few of them.

Ja vi elsker dette landet.
Vilde is on one of the two Norwegian Fjordhester. Watch out Annie Oakley!!

Sunday, I left with Smentek's for Glacier National Park while Judy stayed behind with the car to entertain and spend more time with the Norwegians before they left on the following Wednesday. Monday, Judy took our Norwegians to the Bison Range to maybe see some Bison. None here.

Looks like one was here. Here bison, bison.
They have got to be somewhere. I read about them and they are kind of big. Dad, they are real aren't they?
"I found them", Olav said. "They are over there."
There is the big daddy himself.
The next day They all went to Phillipsburg to do a little mining
There's got to be some sapphires in here somewhere.
Think I found one. I'm rich!!! Hey girl, look at what I have.
There is more where that came from.
Vilde is the chief miner. Just look at that posture and mining attitude.
It was an afternoon at Montana Splash water park.
And then that night it was the Rodeo. Looks like the steer roped the cowboy. I thought the cowboy was supposed to be behind the steer. Oh well. The real rodeo is supposed to be in Cheyenne at Frontier Days. Wednesday morning they were off to the airport to make the long journey back home to Balestrand, Norway. We certainly hope that they enjoyed their experience in America. I just wish we could have gotten them up to Glacier National Park and driven the "Going To The Sun Road". That will be the subject of my next post (I hope later this week).

Fun with Charlie

The long awaited first part of the vacation is here. On a Friday, I picked Judy up from work at 4:30PM and we started driving west. Our plan was to make it past Des Moines and then spend the night. As we got between there and Omaha, we called the closest motel. No Answer. So we called the next one down the pike in Council Bluffs. They were full. We finally got one at the west end of Omaha, six hours after leaving home. It was a bit farther than we wanted to travel the first day but it actually worked out in our favor because we still had about 12-13 hours to go the next day. We arrived in Murray to see the star attraction, Charlie, at about 6:00PM. Well there were actually five star attractions, Kyle, Tiff, Ellie, Erik, and Charlie. He is so cute. See for yourself!I finally figured out how to get him to sleep. But he would not stay sleeping very long if not being held. We camped out in the kid’s room again. Anna was there and she had gotten the “swamp cooler” working. So the house was very comfortable. The days we were in Utah turned out to be some very hot days with triple digit temperatures. The hottest was 104ْ .
On the patio fence, we made chalk murals that included Little Red Ridinghood, The Big Bad Wolf, The Three Little Pigs and their houses, Shark Eating Man, Deep dark woods, The Temple, The Moon and Sun. You get the picture. An all-in-one mural.
We all went out for dinner to the "Golden Corral" and filled up on the buffet. The best part for Ellie was the ice cream.
And the best part for Eric was the chocolate chip cookie with ice cream.
This was make your hair like grampa day.

We spent Tuesday at the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. Kyle had started a temporary job checking out voting machines for the county and was not able to go. As we drove in, our jaws hit the floor. The line was four abreast and about 500 feet long, and it didn’t open for another 30 minutes. It was stinkin’ hot, too. But Anna had a plan. She has handicap plates on her car and went to the front of the line to ask if we all could get in right away (she had a knee replaced). Well low and behold, it worked, because they said to go to the member line and buy our tickets. Yippy! Ellie complained that it was too noisy there (they had guttural noises that was supposed to sound like dinosaurs). The museum was done very well and was very interesting to us adults. But 30 minutes was about all the kids could take. We dragged them along from exhibit to exhibit until we got to the kids area – sculpting sand and water. Thanks to me, I found it by taking an uphill path, nobody wanted to travel. We thought that was the end of it. WRONG! That was about half way. We still had the sea creatures and the woolly mammoths and more play areas, digging in the sand. It was lunch time so that was it. I ran in to TJ Halverson and his daughter in the lobby.

They explored a dark cave, which they did not want to enter at first, mainly because there was already a hundred kids in there. They could see them but us adults couldn't.
It only took 30 minutes before they had enough. And then they discovered the dinosaur play area.
And then I discovered the water and sand play area.

We took family pictures on the stake center lawn across the street. It would be nice to only have to go 200 feet to church. Just look at this handsome family.

They liked to climb on daddy's back. They liked it so much that they thought grampa was a horse and got horsey rides.
The clan.
Her we are with Ellie, Erik and Charlie.
What wonderful kids. Can't wait until we visit again.

Charlie was quite fussy and liked to be held a lot. A few days after we left we found out that he had acid reflux and vooah-la, after taking medicine, it was gone. Just like that he is now a happy baby.

Sorrow abounds

It is a very sad day at our house. My Eagle was set free to join another household. She backed out of the driveway one last time before leaving for good. It was just like dropping off your kid at a far away college. I didn't name her before so now, posthumously, I will call her Jessica. Remember Snowy River? It was hard to watch Jess drive away without me in it. New owner, Brett, is below. I promised Judy a long time ago that I would give her a driving lesson in the Eagle on a manual transmission, so this morning, while it was still dark out, we went to the Regal Theater and drove up and down the parking lot. And wouldn't you know it, there was a car right in the middle of the lot. No we didn't hit it.

End of an era

Important news flash! More important than vacation photos (but they are coming). You see this great car? On Tuesday we closed a chapter in our lives. Our beloved 1994 Ford Explorer XLT that have given us great service for the past dozen years (we put over 100,000 miles on her), has gone to that happy car hunting ground. We traded it in for “Cash for Clunkers”. I never thought it was worth that much but the FEDS thought it was. So I went for it. The Explorer hauled a lot of dirt, bricks, wood and grand kids over the years. Every piece of furniture I built was hauled in it. It made a trip to Olympia, WA after my dad died, to bring a piano back.

Things were starting to go on it. I had to replace the transmission three years ago after a mechanic changed the transmission fluid improperly and caused contaminates to get into the valve bodies and it stopped working. I got my three years out of it for the warranty. Last March the AC compressor froze up so I needed to disconnect it before it ruined the serpentine belt. I noticed a tear in the boot on the left front caliper while trying to fix an “O” ring seal that split on the front hub, causing axle grease to leak out. I put manual hubs on the front several years ago and I could not find a 3 inch “O” ring to fit. So I Permatex’ed it. To fix the AC would have cost about $1500 and about $400 for the caliper. One of the hangers on the “original” exhaust system finally rusted through earlier in the year and I wrapped bailing wire around it to keep it in place (no exhaust leaks though). The interior lights would not go out when the doors were closed, so I ended up taking all the bulbs out to keep the battery from draining (I checked all the door switches and they were good). So the time was right to put her out of her misery. She was getting old and needed a rest.

So now you are wondering about the “Cash for Clunkers” statement. Well see for yourself:

This is a Toyota Rav4 – Red. I ordered it last March 26 and since it was a special order (the only thing special about it were Aluminum Alloy Wheels), it took this long to get it. It came in on Aug 7 while we were on vacation in Montana. That gave the dealer time to install the dealer options I wanted (mud guards, trailer hitch, body side molding, rust proofing, paint sealant, upholstery protector and hood guard). Cash for Clunkers was so popular at Toyota City that my Rav4 was one of only a couple left in the Twin Cities and everyone wanted it (I’m so lucky I have a popular car). I hope this car gives us just as good of service as our Explorer. Thanks Randy and LuAnn!

Let me tell you what they do to the "Cash for Clunkers" cars. Mind you, the Explorer has a great engine that has at least another 150K miles left in it. It purrs like a kitten. Well, they take a substance called "Liquid Glass" and they pour it into the gas tank. Then they run the car until the engine seizes. A co-worker told me yesterday that she has a friend working at Walser who said "After you have killed ten cars, you don't hear them screaming any more". It is a sad thought.

The last bit of news:

My great little Cobalt Blue 5 speed sports car, the 1995 Eagle Talon Esi, is also saying farewell to our house on Dupont Ave N. It has less than 52,000 original miles on it (stored in the winter) and still gets about 32MPG on the highway and about 26-28 in town. I hate to give it up because of the mileage.

My best mileage was in the Montana mountains at a steady 85MPH (that was before the enforced speed limit when the speed limit was “reasonable and prudent”) when I got 40MPG. I took all the “S” curves and the ups and downs of the mountains without changing the speed and with cruse control engaged it did not change in speed by more than 1MPH. She hugged the road and you didn’t even know you were taking a 55MPH curve at 85. Well, actually it was the second time. First time I got 40MPG was when it was brand new (before I got plates for it) and we went to the Chicago Temple. Then when I got home I found out that the dealer put 40psi in all the tires when the rears were supposed to be at 29psi and the fronts were to be at 31psi. After I corrected that problem, I got the advertised 32MPG. I guess the dealer thought it got 1MPG for every pound of air in the tires. But I have since increased that by about 3 pounds in all tires to keep mileage up there. Also in Montana, before the speed limit law, I did bring her up to 135MPH for a mile or so, just to see what she could do. She was fabulous (I should have named her). I’ll miss you babe! But she will be going to another member of the family. Brett has bought her. So he better take care of her or I will have to come and take her back!

This will be the first time since our oldest started driving, over 20 years ago, that we have not had an extra car in the driveway. We are down to two. We had an extra car or two because we always had one that needed some type of work done and was out of commission for a few days, and we would not let the kids drive the good cars. Mean parents!

Vacation almost over

We left on vacation two weeks ago and are heading home. We will be back on Sunday. I have tons of pictures and there will be several posts. We spent time in Utah with Kyle and Tiffany and new baby Charlie. Then we went to Missoula, Montana to the Thompson reunion that included four from Norway. It was great. Then I went with Kirstin and Jeff to Glacier National Park and spent three days with them and then Judy joined us. We headed back to Minnesota across northern Montana and are visiting with Gramma G. Watch for the posts. I have not had internet or cell service for a week.