Some Good Times; Some Bad Times

A lot has transpired since my last blog entry - a trip to Choteau, MT to visit our little fixer upper during my wife's spring break from teaching; a wind storm here at home that knocked out our power for two days; and, finally, the tragic shootings at Va Tech where, regretably, our niece's roommate was a victim.


A brief note on our trip to MT. As usual, we had a great time. We arrived on Saturday evening before Easter. Got to review the work the contractor is doing on the house, which is very slow, and is costing a whole lot more than we budgeted, but we like what he is doing. We will enjoy this little house as we get the opportunities to go visit, especially this summer when we will get an extended visit.


On Easter morning, it was a gorgeous day in MT, so we drove the 90 miles from Choteau to Glacier National Park. Most of the roads up there were closed due to snow, but we were able to see some wonderful mountain sites and eat a great breakfast at the East Glacier Deli.


During the week, we experienced most of the different weather patterns of MT - sun, rain, snow, and of course, wind. But it was a great week. We also got to see the Canadian Snow Geese migrating through Freezeout Lake, which is about 15 miles south of Choteau. We were returning from a Great Falls shopping trip and saw the sky filled with geese, and were close enough to see them go into their landing pattern and come to rest on Freezeout Lake. Quite a site.


We returned the following Saturday and I was able to scarf some free USAir tickets for volunteering to delay to a later flight in Charlotte, which ended up only making us 1.5 hours later than we had planned to arrive back in Roanoke.


Sunday night was a real monster around here with the heaviest wind I ever recall at this house. It ended up blowing over several trees, some in my driveway (of course, my chainsaw wouldn't start when I needed it), and taking out our power for two days.


That Monday morning was when the tragic events at Va Tech unfolded. We, as everyone else, were mortified, but especially so when we discovered that our niece's roommate had been killed in one of the classes. I had originally planned to go back out on a driveaway trip on Wednesday, but delayed that because of all the stuff going on around home. We went to Tech on Thursday, along with our youngest daughter, who had come in from Richmond to see her cousin at Tech. We spent the day visiting the memorials and helping her with the sad chore of packing up her things that were in her dorm room.


Dispatch was deperate to get some trucks moved from Forest, VA to Sugarloaf, PA, so I agreed to take one up on Friday. I planned a round trip of about 800 miles for the day, which is too much, but it was a beautiful day and offered a nice drive up through the Shenandoah Valley and into the mountains of northern PA. A good trip to help clear your mind.


The truck I took was the exact same as the very first truck I took out in driveaway back in September, 2005. It was a GMC 7500, 6-spd. No radio or A/C, which for this trip, worked out fine for thinking. I also towed my newly outfitted chase car, which was very fortunate. Sugarloaf is in a beautiful area west of Hazelton, PA, but is very remote and it would have been next to impossible to get a cab out of there and the guy at the delivery point said he would not have been able to take me on the 40+ mile drive to the nearest airport.

So, that brings things up-to-date. I plan to hit the road fairly heavily next week if we can keep things settled here around home.