Road Trip!
May 23 - 25, 2015

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We hooked up a U-Haul trailer to 'Old Red' (my little 2005 Hyundai Santa Fe), threw the cats in the car, and headed for Montana.  It took three very long days (10+ hours per day) to get there.  We had some close encounters with tornadoes and drove through a lot of rain, but we were thankful to be safe and that we still got along by the end.  What an adventure! 
 
   
 Here's Old Red with the trailer on Day 1 - Feisty is drugged but the other two had to face the day without kitty valium
   
 Rocket adjusted quite well, and thought he should get a turn at driving If Feisty's eyes didn't give away her medicated state, the fact that she's 
allowing Lily to be this close to her would!  She considers Lily her arch enemy.
   
 Eric's lap became the most-coveted (and least convenient for us) place to nap

 

 

These were some neat skies from somewhere along the way.

We drove into a big storm near the Kansas/Colorado line which contained some tornado warnings.
Thankfully we hit it head on and got through it quickly with no issues.

 
   

Camels!  We didn't expect to see that in Colorado
  Day 2 - We didn't drug Feisty, but she was fine if she got to stay inside
the crate.  Then Lily decided SHE should get the crate.  They both were
so stubborn that they stayed in there all day.  

We would occasionally hear hisses and swats and see the thing rocking,
but they spent the whole day in there together.  

    

Wyoming
  At the Best Western Kelly Inn in Billings, they had carved bears looking 
in some of the windows (for decoration.)  This totally blew Feisty's mind.
   
The cats never did get comfortable with this little Peeping Tom, 
but we sure had a laugh over it. 
As we were out walking that night I asked Eric, "Is it just because I'm an Okie 
that I think I see tornadoes everywhere?"  This sure looked like one to us.
   
 Day 3 - spent crossing Montana.  This is our first view of some mountains there.  Fast forward to that evening - we're here!  Costich Lake is still beautiful.
   
 This picture shows our house on the right side, but you can barely see it. New house numbers were a priority.  I want Amazon Prime to find me! 
    
 Views of a coyote pup we saw when turning off the irrigation on the wheat field Blurry shot of the coyote pup in front of the den
   

 


A view from the wheat field
  A top priority for Eric was a grill.  When we filled the propane 
tank Eric remembered working at this very spot MANY years 
ago - with the same equipment! 
   

 

This shows an idea of how much sand we have in our well.
The picture above is from a couple of hours of running the water.
Deer greeting us - hi deer! 
 
   

These are two views of the same picture.  In the one above, I don't think you can see
the two coyotes.  There were actually three but I was too slow to get them all in one shot.
 

 

   
 Canadian geese with LOTS of babies - living on Costich Lake  The geese with our house in the background
   
 The deer are very thick here and very unafraid - see the one over 
 Eric's right shoulder? They just watch us unless we get real close.
This shows our brother-in-law Keith Bloomer's beautiful hand-made chair
as a featured part of our living room.  It really works great there, we love it.
 

      
This shows the Indian painting we bought from Debi Doble about 20 years ago. 
We've hung it in so many houses where it didn't "fit" - but that's no longer an issue!

 

 
 This shows a view into the bedroom with one of the pictures
 we hauled up from Oklahoma.
Until we get patio furniture, we'll enjoy lunch on the porch 
however we can make it work!  
   
   
 Deer watching us as we go for one of our nightly walks Rainbow seen across the lake
   

Cool skies over the mountains
  Mark at the wheat field with one of the more interesting rocks there
   

This is a hawk (I think!) resting in the top of a tree I can see from my office window
 Eric took this artistic shot I like to call, "Rock Pile with Cows."   
   
 We often see osprey and bald eagles fishing in the lake.
 I'm no longer sure what this bird was, maybe an eagle. 
You're going to get tired of deer pictures - they are everywhere! 
   
Here is a "dear" instead, isn't she pretty?  OK, maybe beauty is in the eye 
of the beholder.  I love my Feisty. 
 A view of the wheat field from the road - this is a joint venture between Eric 
 and Mark.  It is doing very well! 
   
 Can you see the moon rising just above the trees?  It sure was pretty in person.  
 
On one of our nightly walks.  The thing that doesn't come across is how secluded
it feels in the woods and how amazingly clean and fresh the air smells and how 
you can hear the water burbling and the coyotes howling.  It is really amazing.
   

 A lovely view of the end of the lake in the evening
   Four or five deer watching us from up the hill as we walk
   



An absolutely beautiful shot of our house across the lake one evening. I was tempted to PhotoShop a yard to make it look even better!  

   
   
 The cats like having us both working from home all day.
 There's twice as much supervising for them to do now. 
 
   
   
   
 

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