We Can Drive for Miles and Miles...

...and miles and miles and mi-iles. Oh ye-ah.

But now we're home. At the official count, according to the official familial mileage tabulator, we did 4800 miles.

We stayed the first night in Billings, MT, with Ron and Val F. Very gracious hosts. Lovely people. This was a somewhat unusual thing for me, because I had never met the F. family. According to the way I was raised, one ought never to impose upon the kindness of those one barely knows. But my husband was raised in a more gregarious manner and he was totally comfortable with it. I told him that he'd have to baby me along. His mom said something to the effect that our lives are richer for taking these risks with regard to the proffered kindnesses of others. And boy was she right! I feel very privileged to have met Ron and Val and we very much enjoyed our stay.

We left Billings the following morning and drove to Ontario, OR. That was kind of a long haul. We planned to stay the next two nights in a hotel, so it was not so important to arrive at a polite hour. I think we pulled into town at about 10:30. (The time changes work in our favor when traveling West.) We stayed two nights in Ontario, and visited with my Aunt Beth for one full day and had breakfast with her before leaving town the second morning. Aunt Beth is a very spry 80 year old lady. In fact spry is not even the right word. Spry implies something different. But Aunt Beth has been blessed with good health and healthy joints and a sharp mind. I always worry about visiting older relatives with my entire crew, but it seemed to be no problem at all for Aunt Beth.

Beth's great grandson, Craig, is expecting his first child and he stopped by with his hopefully soon-to-be wife while I was there. This was fun, because his mom, Teri, was a playmate of mine whenever we were together as kids. I had never met Craig and have not seen his mom, Teri, during adulthood but for a brief "Hello-Goodbye," over 13 years ago.

Another of Aunt Beth's grandsons, Franklin, lives with his grandma, so I got to see him, too. Frankie is another cousin I remember playing with during childhood visits. He graciously romped with my kids during our breakfast visit on our final day there. We reminisced over many fond memories and had fun catching up.

Oops it's getting late. More later.