Well – many days, many miles and many adventures have passed since the last post here…I started writing stuff down on paper during our trip to keep myself busy and so I wouldn’t have to think so hard when it came time to do this, so lets get back to where I left off last time!
The Cradle – After the last post I had a few problems with the finishing of the cradle…I ended up destroying the bottom piece that holds the legs together – late on Monday night. I went to bed extremely frustrated! On Tuesday after prayer meeting, Trevor helped me make a new piece while I put the finishing touches on the rest of the cradle. Wednesday night I did the finish sanding and pre-conditioned the wood – then stained it. I ended up staining the basket and stretcher a medium brown with a hint of red and leaving the legs a blonde colour – I need Amy to send me the pictures she took of it! On Thursday evening along with packing and cleaning I managed to put a clear coat of finish on the whole cradle. It was a long week of late nights – but everything got finished!
The Trip- We left Pilot Mound at 6:30 on Friday night and headed West. There were blizzard warnings galore for Southern Manitoba and North Dakota….a great time and place to be driving through those places. The first hour was good driving, but just before we crossed into the US, we hit high winds and snow creating intermittent total whiteouts – what fun! As we crossed the border, the border guard warned us of an oncoming blizzard and cautioned us to be careful along the way. The next few hours were VERY windy and in the open, it was almost constant whiteout – with only the occasional glimpse of the white or yellow lines. The Lord really held us on the road – as I don’t know that any other force could have done that! Along the way I finally relaxed enough to fall asleep, but when I awoke the conditions were worse then before! I was very glad that Trevor was driving! After a few more hours, we reached Williston (sometime around midnight I think???) where the weather wasn’t as bad – and here we were able to find a hotel room at the second hotel that we tried – the first one was full and told us there was only 1 room left in town!! We slept well after a stressful evening!
Saturday – In the morning we stopped for Trevor’s favourite breakfast at McDonalds and picked up a few things at Walmart before hitting the road around 9 AM. We drove straight through with the exception of Potty stops and a quick stop at the Montana Silversmiths outlet store in Columbus MT. It was a great store with lots of highly marked down stuff along with some normal priced merchandise. I got a great purse – I’ve been looking for a western purse forever but they’re always extremely expensive – I’m glad I waited because I love this one – and I got it for $26!! Original price - $150!!!
The Cradle – After the last post I had a few problems with the finishing of the cradle…I ended up destroying the bottom piece that holds the legs together – late on Monday night. I went to bed extremely frustrated! On Tuesday after prayer meeting, Trevor helped me make a new piece while I put the finishing touches on the rest of the cradle. Wednesday night I did the finish sanding and pre-conditioned the wood – then stained it. I ended up staining the basket and stretcher a medium brown with a hint of red and leaving the legs a blonde colour – I need Amy to send me the pictures she took of it! On Thursday evening along with packing and cleaning I managed to put a clear coat of finish on the whole cradle. It was a long week of late nights – but everything got finished!
The Trip- We left Pilot Mound at 6:30 on Friday night and headed West. There were blizzard warnings galore for Southern Manitoba and North Dakota….a great time and place to be driving through those places. The first hour was good driving, but just before we crossed into the US, we hit high winds and snow creating intermittent total whiteouts – what fun! As we crossed the border, the border guard warned us of an oncoming blizzard and cautioned us to be careful along the way. The next few hours were VERY windy and in the open, it was almost constant whiteout – with only the occasional glimpse of the white or yellow lines. The Lord really held us on the road – as I don’t know that any other force could have done that! Along the way I finally relaxed enough to fall asleep, but when I awoke the conditions were worse then before! I was very glad that Trevor was driving! After a few more hours, we reached Williston (sometime around midnight I think???) where the weather wasn’t as bad – and here we were able to find a hotel room at the second hotel that we tried – the first one was full and told us there was only 1 room left in town!! We slept well after a stressful evening!
Saturday – In the morning we stopped for Trevor’s favourite breakfast at McDonalds and picked up a few things at Walmart before hitting the road around 9 AM. We drove straight through with the exception of Potty stops and a quick stop at the Montana Silversmiths outlet store in Columbus MT. It was a great store with lots of highly marked down stuff along with some normal priced merchandise. I got a great purse – I’ve been looking for a western purse forever but they’re always extremely expensive – I’m glad I waited because I love this one – and I got it for $26!! Original price - $150!!!
It looks just like this top purse - minus the rhinstones along the edge of the dark leather - and the tooling is painted like the purse in the bottom picture!
Trevor got a $50 belt buckle for $10 too! Sometime in the afternoon I started driving so Trevor could sleep. We took a short cut on a two lane highway to save a few miles since it was a beautiful day and the roads were clear. It took us through a gorgeous area in the foothills between two mountain ranges with tons of black cows along the way and horses too! Shortly after 5 PM as the sun was getting low, I crested a hill just as a semi entered from a side road and started slowly up the next hill. I slowed down quickly, but when I was sure it was safe, I stepped on the gas, planning to get past while the coast was clear. The engine red-lined for a second as the sluggish transmission didn’t shift properly, and finally the car took off – that was when I noticed copious amounts of smoke behind me!!! Something didn’t seem right, so I nudged the sleeping Trevor and asked whether I should be worried???? By the time he was awake and aware – the smoke had dissipated and things seemed somewhat normal for a mile or so – then the car began acting strange. We could see the town of Dillon, MT another few miles ahead and we hoped we could limp the car into town, but after a couple more miles it became evident that the car would be going no further! As I pulled over, the car stalled and smoke was pouring from under the hood. Once we popped the hood, we could see that the whole engine was steaming or smoking. During the process of looking at the car – a truck pulled up – it turned out to be the driver of the semi I had passed when the problem started. He noticed that we had problems and when he reached his yard he got in his pickup and came down the highway – knowing we wouldn’t get far! During the course of the conversation we found out that he wand his family have the biggest sheep ranch in four states – with over 9000 head of sheep! I could have probably chatted with him for a day or two about sheep stuff, but as it was, there were more pressing matters – such as a dead car and nightfall rapidly approaching! We tried adding some antifreeze – but it just poured right out on the road. Mr. Helle volunteered to tow the car into town where we could decide what to do next. Once our car was in the parking lot of the Ford dealership – we got directions to local hotels and restaurants and thanked him for his help. We unpacked what we needed and walked the three blocks to the nearest hotel. We checked in for the night – made a few phone calls to those expecting us down the road and discussed the possibilities. Later – Trevor walked back to the car to see if he could find any obvious problems. I was pretty bummed out at this point and decided to stay at the hotel with my trusty laptop and do some surfing. Trev came back with “good” news. The block heater had popped out of the block – causing us to loose all our antifreeze very quickly. We went for supper with slightly lighter hearts – hoping we could just replace the block heater and be on our way. We were just thankful it wasn’t the previous night we had broken down. We headed for bed early after that stressful day! I think I’ve written about enough to bore most of you – so I’ll cut it off for now – stay tuned for the rest of the story !
2 comments:
Long story! Glad you guys are home safe and sound. The cradle sounds wonderful! Can't wait to see photos.
Ah, the trip misadventures! I'm hoping the return trip was much less exciting, and a lot more fun! I posted cradle pics on my blog finally. They would have been up earlier this week, but blogger was having fits and I gave up for a few days. Love you!
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