welcome (gasp!) home

We left Bozeman yesterday morning on the 7:30 flight. It was cool, clear and bright as we lifted out of the lush, green Gallatin valley, over the snow-dusted mountains and into Salt Lake. From there we took an 11:00 flight to Sacramento. Cait had told us that getting seats would be dicey; there had been some slow-downs in Atlanta that then have a ripple effect for all Delta flights. But we did make it onto the plane, along with about 20 service men and women returning from duty in Iraq. The passengers and crew gave them a rousing round of applause, well deserved. Mr. C sat next to their sergeant; they were from a reserve unit and all came home safely. We landed in Sact'o at noon, stepped out of the terminal and were blasted by the heat. Thermometers registered at 103º! I feared for my newly planted garden which, alas, took a beating despite the sprinkler system. Heat is supposed to keep up ~ 106º today ~ for a few days, then cool off. Replanting is ahead.

Back to Bozeman. (Couldn't report in as trusty LapMac didn't like the connection and one day there was no internet at all, so I gave up. Obviously I am not a serious blogger!) We had great weather of all sorts; sunny, warm, cold, chilly, wet, dry. Let's start with the sunny. Faithful followers of this blog may remember this in October, 2008. Now, seven months later!


The meadow was green and lush, trees and shrubs in beautiful bloom. Spring/summer in Montana is not to be missed. Although we didn't get there, the word on the street was that the park ~ that would be Yellowstone ~ was exceptionally beautiful. After two days of warm sunshine, we got two good rain storms, both in the late afternoon. This is the view of the coming storm from the front deck.



These afternoon storms keep everything green and fresh. And speaking of storms, I got the word on Hurricane Andres that was threatening to hit the Colima coast. He didn't come ashore but cause a lot of havoc with water and wind. Here's a photo that I copied from over at the Beach Circus.

Message from Jack said over 3" of rain, heavy gale force winds, high tides that carved out parts of the beach. But no damage to our house. I was afraid that if the winds got too high our palapa might blow off. Looks like we dodged this one.

Friday night we went out to dinner to The Montana Grill. Owned by Ted Turner, it serves mostly bison meat raised on Turner's various ranches. Something I learned: he is the owner of the second largest land holdings in the US. First largest? The federal government. I had bison pot roast; sweet, tender, lean. Mr. C had bison meat loaf; it was a hit.

In fact, the whole trip was a hit. It's always good to know that your children are thriving.