On The Road Again......: Northeast Montana (Scobey, Flaxville, & Whitetail)

September 7-12, 3013

After leaving Grand Coulee, WA, our next destination was the Northeast corner of Montana. We had two overnight stops before arriving at our friends, Gary and Connie Brenden. We have known Gary and Connie for many years, having met at our church in Alpharetta, GA when we lived there. We were both in the new members orientation at church and found out we had many similar interests.

Chuck and Gary are both of Norwegian descent, so there are always a lot of Norse comments. In addition to that, we discovered we all like to bowl and ended up bowling on leagues together while in the Atlanta area. Golf was another passion of us all and we golfed together almost every weekend--Gary and Chuck with the guys, and Connie and Phyllis with other ladies. Lots of fun memories. They are also our grandson, Lucas', godparents.

We had so much fun with them. They are staying on their family farm for the summer. Until this year, they lived in Southern California, but their house was sold while they were at the farm. So if you don't count the farm and their fabulous motorhome, they are "homeless". They left the Atlanta area several years ago moving to the Phoenix area. After a few years, they moved to Southern California. Looks like now they are returning to Arizona. We have visited them in all of their homes now since we finally made it to the farm.

Chuck helped Gary work on some of the farm's outbuildings the first day, and Phyllis and Connie canned tomatoes from the garden. This really brought back memories for Phyllis, since her family always had a large garden, her mother was always canning and freezing all kinds of vegetables. We had wonderful sweet corn, tomatoes, and cucumbers from the garden, and Connie's brother shared some tasty steaks from his herd of cows. Something to be said about farm life and good eating.

We celebrated Chuck's birthday the second day by playing a round of golf on their neat little course in Scoby. Lots of laughs, some good shots, and many not so good shots. Later that evening we got to experience the "nightlife" in Flaxville by going to the Bum Steer. Gary was from Flaxville, and Connie was from Whitetail. Unfortunately both of these towns have decreased dramatically in population since Gary and Connie grew up here. There isn't much left of either town, but it was interesting seeing where they went to school, had their first kiss, etc.

Bella and Scamp had a marvelous time on the farm. They were able to run free, chase cats, play with each other, and just get plain tuckered out. We may have a hard time getting them to be okay on a leash now. Of course, since we heard coyotes howling at night along with an owl or two hooting, we didn't let them out at night without being leashed. They weren't sure what to think about the coyotes howling.

Now we are on a direct path to Bar Harbor, ME. No we are not crazy going all the way across country. Our good friends, Mike and Pat Dizazzo, are in Bar Harbor, and we are going to spend a few days with them before our CHOC rally in Mystic, CT. It will take us about a week to get there.