Journal Entry ~ Day 4

Leaving well before 7 am. Sun is shining down on the sprawling town of Butte. When we stepped outside it was 40 degrees. Beautiful. Rocky out-croppings reminds us of Colorado. Steam rises from ponds and waterways.

As you may recall our last stop, yesterday was Pompey's Pillar. It was raining and so we couldn't get up close to it. So, we went on to arrive in Butte. The sun came out as we moved on. That was promising. The motel, Days Inn, was a much nicer place, and Papa Johns was right around the corner. Even though we'd had pizza the night before (Pizza Hut), this was much better. Besides, their garlic sauce rocks!

The next morning we had a very good breakfast, so we got out the door in record time!

Montana is nothing if it isn't big. Big enough to have plenty of farm land and room for lots of rugged mountains, buttes and flat-topped mountains, and endless roads.

I make notes along the way of several sites to stop for. We try and stop for lunch, but they weren't serving when we were hungry. Why does it have to be 11:30? We walked out, and the woman stopped us and said they'd be willing to fry up a hamburger.

Hamburgers, and sub sandwiches have been our fare for days, now. Not interested. Sorry.

We continue on, and eventually reach Browning. This is an Indian Reservation. It shouldn't surprise me, therefore, that a lot of horses in pastures.

We reach a bridge that is being re done. A major operation, let me tell you! So, we take the road that has always been in used, going beside the newer bridge.

Because I had gone on-line and had figured out the lodge was not within the park itself, I knew that it had to be coming up soon. We soon came to a small town (East Glacier), and Dennis sailed through. We saw the sign, which was large enough, and it wasn't exactly saying TURN HERE or OOPS, YOU MISSED IT, DUMMY, TURN BACK!!!

I knew we had to turn somewhere and got my mule--er--husband to turn around and go back.

We had to go through this archway, and there it was. OMG! Exactly like I had seen it on their site, but these are OUR pictures:

We were early. And I mean about 3 hours early. They were not going to check us in (or give us our room number) until 3 pm.

We went and had lunch, I had a scrumptious chicken sandwich on flat bread. Our view out the window, looking at the mountains was the kicker that made our lunch perfect. We made it! I could have been eating cardboard, for all it mattered, we had so many upsets, a few times not really thinking we'd be able to go, and then Dennis' back problems...

Tomorrow, or Friday will be continuation of the trip.

Vacation Time

Not everyone gets one, I realize, so I feel grateful for getting one. Especially in my job, when I take time off I don't get paid, so there will be no money coming in for these two weeks I'm off. And this is a stay-at-home vacation. Vacation is vacation, no matter if you go anywhere or not.

I'm taking time off to regroup, relax, and get a few things done I might otherwise never get to. The things I plan on doing may not get done, but I have a mental list, and some of it involves a real mop and soap *wink*. Since my flowers are all in, I only need to keep them watered in this terrible drought we are having. Weeds seem to take off in this sort of weather, too, so there will be some kneeling on the ground to pull the pesky things out of my flowerbeds. I can't wait to see the flowers flourish and fill in. I use Miracle Grow on anything I plant. It really helps make them grow better.

But my husband needs time off too, and he's going to take some days off--he is able to be paid, up to the hours he's earned. There will be shopping on some of those days we're together--for clothes, and I need new glasses. We need to hit a few antique shops in the area, too. Oh, and some places for lunch that we have not tried. We want to go shopping in a nearby town (Sycamore), and want to pop in and see what's new. There's a new wine shop that opened up, and an antiques shop, as well. I don't know about you, but I love to look at old stuff and old photographs.

I've been working on short stories lately, and since one was not picked up, I'm going to self publish it (which makes me happier than you can imagine!) It will be my very first attempt at this, and I'll certainly post about that when the story is up. More on that in another blog post.

My current WIP: Well, it was number 4 book, but lately number 5 book wants to come out of me. I've got scenes in my head. I see this one individual who gets on my bus everyday, and thought he would make an interesting character, and I had to write a scene, and figure out how adding him would be beneficial to the story. I don't like to write too much on something that I'm not sure about. And then, this guy wrote himself in. He's American/Japanese, and his name is Cho. To quote another new character, "He's lethal". And I'm working on how Sabrina sees something from the guy's past where he has killed an opponent during a Martial Arts tournament--by accident, of course--at age 15. Well, naturally, I need him for the book! Sabrina could use a human to protect her during the day, when the vampires are away.

A lot of holes to fill in it, and so I'm writing scene descriptions on note cards and pondering where they will be placed. That's the only "outlining" I will do. It's actually called "story board", and it works for me. I've got the plot-planner taped on my wall. Looks like an odd M, with an extension going up in front of the M. If anyone needs this, send me an e-mail (loreleibell4[at]gmail[dot]com). I'll gladly send it to you. It's really good for plotting a novel. I've drawn mine large so that I can tape it on my wall, and tape my post-it notes, or note cards to it, so that I can see how I want things to progress. It's the handiest thing I've ever found for plotting.

So, for my very first day of my vacation, although I have been busy, I'm enjoying the thought of not getting up early--unless I have a scene slam into my head and I have to get it down. Happy Dance!