Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Day 8 - Hardin to Dillon, MT

All day long, I kept hearing Grams' voice in my head, "It's a big country, De'Etta, it's a big country." It was a pleasure to drive through Big Sky Country one more time.

Before we hit the road, Mike and I decided to run out to the cemetery. THEN we decided we needed to take some photos of the infamous Twin Rivers Detention Center. It's highly doubtful that Gitmo detainees will ever be housed here....but maybe someday, someone will?


Photobucket


Photobucket

Stacia with Grandma Lorraine
Photobucket

We decided to pop into the Newspaper office. Some old friends are fairly involved there.....we walked in and Barb said, "Welcome home!" and that is truly what it felt like. Wes wasn't at the paper yet, so we all ran out to their home and visited. They came back to KOA with us to see the younger kids (who weren't born when we lived in Hardin). We enjoyed more visiting time with Ken and Sandy, who now own KOA.

THEN we hit the road and stopped to have lunch with Cindy. Honestly, the photo that I have of Cindy and I isn't very flattering...well....it's probably accurate but I don't like the way it looks. ::snort::

The drive up here to Dillon is wonderful. This is simply a pretty part of America. I would be happy to stay here a bit of time but tomorrow we head on to ID. Krista did laundry when we arrived. I watched kids as Mike and Jared set up camp. Then I cooked dinner and they all went swimming. It really isn't a sacrifice because I'm a tropics sort of gal and swimming when it's in the 50's is just not enjoyable to me. ::snort::


Photobucket

Photobucket
Photobucket

White Truck Count -
8th of June - 1,000; Zander won
9th of June - 460; Michael won
10th of June - 509; Jamin won
Thanks to all in Hardin who made yesterday and this a.m. such a special time for us. Wonderful new memories to tuck away with our old memories of by gone days.....I've been heavily reminding myself to cherish the memories...but don't cling.

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~ Coram Deo ~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Day 7 SD - Hardin, MT

Lois, SD is beautiful! I always pictured it as desolate. I'm not sure why.

We got widely split up yesterday. The GPS sent Krista, Stacia and I on a back hwy. The scenery was gorgeous. We got stopped at construction for about 20 minutes but the rest of it was fine. I began to worry as Wyoming never showed up....but eventually a sign saying, "Welcome to Montana" appeared and the mileage to Billings. I knew I was on the right track. ::snort:: We arrived in Hardin an hour before the trailer.

When we arrived at KOA the owner recognized me. Mom, Sandra and her husband are the owners. It's funny as she is about the only one here who told me they could recognize me. ::snort:: We had a quick catch up talk.

Coming to Hardin is like coming home to me. I spent summers visiting my Grams here. Eighteen years ago, Mike took his first paid ministry position here as an assistant pastor. When we moved here we had four children and they were ages 6, 4, 2 and 6 months. We have fond memories of our time here. Uncle Bill would come over every a.m. and bring a thermos of coffee (for himself - we don't drink) and the Billings paper. We'd walk over to Grams' house every afternoon. The kids could walk to the corner store by themselves for penny candy. The pool, church, groceries were all a quick walk away. We had wonderful "back fence" friends, who we still hear from. Phil, the young man we've been praying for, is from here.

When we arrived early we ran up to the cemetery real quick. We had dinner when all arrived. Then we went out to meet about 20 folks who wanted to see us. What fun to catch up on old times. Time really does move on.....but Hardin seems stable. We left Hardin 13 years ago. Since then the four children we had when we arrived, have become adults and moved out. The toddle we had when we left is now 15 and the baby I was pregnant with is 12.

Here is the first home we owned. It was smallish for 7 of us....but holds many, many fond memories for us. We were all surprised that it is still the blue....the color we painted it so many years ago. It was SUPPOSED to be country blue....but ah well....this color has held up.....even after it faded for a decade. ::snort:: Psst...the sat dish wasn't there when we lived in the house. LOL

Photobucket

We had a wonderful time visiting last night.... Does Hardin, MT sound familiar to you? Maybe you read recently that it is a small, dusty, desperate town , with the "redneck posse" willing to take in the Guantanamo Bay detainees. Yep, THAT Hardin....I'm here to tell you that the 3,000 folks who live here are some of the friendliest you'll ever meet and that I've lived in MUCH "dustier" spots than Hardin.

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~ Coram Deo ~
Living all of life before the face of God...