So it has been a busy week for the Webb family. I flew in to Seattle on Saturday and had some time with family and friends on Saturday and Sunday. It was very nice but also pretty sad to say goodbye to our people up here. My wife and I are both from the Northwest so you can imagine. The worst was when we had to say goodbye to our daughter #1 on Sunday. She is the one who has given us our the two little grandsons, and they live on the Eastern side of the state. We love being Nana and Papa, so this is hard, especially on my wife, because she calls our oldest grandson her "kindred spirit." But we got through that, and then on Monday the packers were at our house to pack us up. Monday evening we had dinner with our daughter and her husband (this is #2 daughter, the one that just got married last summer, almost a year ago exactly). A good friend and neighbor also came along. This lady is one of my wife's very best friends and she talks to her nearly every day.

Tuesday morning the moving truck got there and loaded up everything the packers had packed, and all the furniture along with it. That evening we stayed the night at daughter #2's house. They just bought their first home and they were proud to have us sleep in their new spare bedroom. We hadn't seen our son (just turned 14) for more than five minutes all weekend because he was pretty much with his friends most of the time. On Wednesday we went to do last minute things to the house and then had dinner with daughter #2 and husband once again. Then came the very difficult goodbyes, but we tried to just make it quick and then get in the car. That's how my wife likes to do sad things. Quickly, then make her escape. Our son was pretty sad to leave his friends (and newly acquired girlfriend). We hope he will adjust but we also realize at his age it is going to take time, so we are doing our best to make it fun for him. Any suggestions on helping teens cope with a move would be greatly appreciated.

So now here we are in Wyoming for the night. Last night, I accidentally drove until 3:00 AM. I say this because I fully intended on stopping soon after the Montana border, but as it turns out, there is one small town, with one good motel, and every room was full. This is where planning would help a lot but we are not very good at planning, we just take our chances. So the lady at the "good" motel told me about a place with little bungalows just down the street. She said, they are old, but "Linda keeps them very clean." We were so tired, and knew this didn't sound great but decided we'd give that a try. So off we went just down the street. Unfortunately, I had to wake Linda up. Felt kinda bad about that. She lumbered to the door, flicked on the lights and invited me in. She told me that all the bungalows were taken up but she had some sort of very long mobile home that had five or six rooms in, and we could stay in one of those. Unfortunately, she said she did not have any non-smoking rooms. I just said oh, knowing that my wife and son may not go for that since our whole family despises the smell of smoke. But we went to check it out. The lady at the other motel was correct, Linda does keep them very clean. But my suspicions were correct, too. You could smell the smoke in the carpet. This would never do. And that is why I had to grab a cup of coffee, bite the bullet, and drive another 75 miles to Missoula, Montana. Luckily they had a non-smoking, very nice room where we could also bring our dog, Willow. She is a little dog, but that was one perk we weren't even expecting. We thought we'd have to leave her out in the car in her kennel every night.

Today we got a late start, still had to deal with some moving sadness with our son and occasionally my wife. It will take them some time but I know they are troopers and will be alright after a while. We finished Montana, which is pretty beautiful, by the way. If you've never gone, I'd suggest you do so or at least put it on your Bucket List. Just God's country out there. Somewhere in Montana we had our first roadside ripoff. The signs said, "See grizzlies up close and personal - no cages!" We saw several similar signs, and we just wondered what it was all about, so we decided we'd just get off the freeway and check it out. I pulled in and the lady told us that there were two out, and a person there to answer our questions. One of the bears was kind of a movie star, what with having had a part in a major Animal Planet commercial, and then some guest shots on some National Geographic specials. They apparently use trained bears for some up close and personal shots of wild grizzlies. I did not know that... In any case, after paying $19 for the three of us to see the bears, and having only seen one bear from afar laying on his back (facing away from us), and the other one had dug herself a hole around the other side of a big rock, we had to admit that we'd been victims of a roadside ripoff, and sadly, we got in our car and drove on. We did learn a few things about grizzlies we didn't know, but we didn't really get to see one very close up.

Our main goal for today was to make it to the Little Bighorn battlefield before they closed. If it weren't for the roadside ripoff and an unexpected dog clean up (enough said), we would have made it, too. We didn't get a tour or to go into the interpretive center, but we did get to walk all around and see where General Custer died, and read what happened (while my wife kept a lookout for rattlesnakes because we were warned we were in rattlesnake country). We came to Little Bighorn about nine years ago and took the tour that time, and we can say it was much better with the tour. A storm was just starting up while we were there, and I took some fairly good pictures of some mammatus clouds.

This evening we have settled in much earlier so we intend to get some good sleep tonight. I will post some pictures tomorrow. We are going to Mt. Rushmore and through the Badlands tomorrow. My wife wants to go to DeSmet SD to see the Little House on the Prairie stuff but since we saw that nine years ago I am hoping to dissuade her from that (OK so Little House on the Prairie was never my kind of show). I mean, how many times does a person need to see Mary Ingalls' piano?

2 Comments

Cindi said:

I had never visited the website before tonight and got interested in your blog. I can't imagine leaving my children and moving across country (although there are days I might consider it). My husband and I have 7 grandchildren and all but two are pretty local.

You have come to a great state and a wonderful city. I hope Kentucky can be everything you hoped for...and who knows, maybe your children and grandchildren will move this way. Find time to enjoy Western Kentucky (the Kentucky Lake, Land Between the Lakes and Lake Barkley area). There is nothing like it anywhere.

And, I hope you love sports! While you live in Louisville and the University of Louisville has a great sports program, you LIVE IN KENTUCKY and we have our challenges but a rich tradition. GO BIG BLUE!! Enjoy both teams and what they have to offer as long as you are for Kentucky first and UofL AS LONG AS THEY AREN'T PLAYING KENTUCKY!!! State over city...always! If you don't understand what I mean, you will in a very short time.

July 24, 2008 10:48 PM

Alan said:

I've lived here in Kentucky all my life and I couldn't imagine leaving all my family and friends like what you talked about in your blog. That had to be rough. I hope you all enjoy Kentucky and the rest of your trip down goes smoothly.

July 20, 2008 12:34 AM

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