Day 1

A word from Alan:

Yesterday was a long day.  I realized the last time I was trying to keep up with a blog that I had to get the day’s events recorded quickly or they began to merge with previous and subsequent ones until I was left scratching my head wondering what happened over multiple days.  Mimi and I got out of bed at  5:45 yesterday (8/31/12) to get Clancy, Holly, Hattie and Penny to the clinic and go meet Mel with Michael and Megan at Stax for breakfast.  From there we headed back to Simpsonville to meet with David Winchester, the representative for Crescent Properties, to sign a contract and deliver earnest money for some acreage we are buying in Mt Carmel.  This is the culmination of five years of searching, walking, examining, bidding and losing.  For this deal to go through seems truly momentous- we’ll see.  After this Mimi and I left for Atlanta to begin our trip to Montana.  There was something special contemplating this trip with her.  I ended my and Michael’s blog from our motorcycle trip last time with an un-posted summary and in it I said that Michael was a great friend as well as a son, though, I said, the two are not exclusive.  The same can be said for me and Mimi.  After thirty-one years of marriage, raising kids, running a business and just general life, it just seems fitting to take a trip to retrace some motorcycle paths from ’09 with my best friend.  I’m not bragging on us but it does seem that this is the way it should be if marriage is done right.  From Atlanta we flew to Minneapolis for a three hour layover before flying on to Billings. Our little plane had engine trouble and the three hours turned into about four and a half and our arrival in Billings was about 1:30 a.m. local time or 3:30 a.m. home time.  Twenty-two hours in one day was enough and we crashed at the Crowne Plaza in downtown Billings.  Tomorrow we’ll rise and trace a route on the map to bring us into Great Falls from further east than Michael and I rode.  We should see prairie shading into coulees and draws, the reverse of what we experienced on bikes.  Looking out our windows in Billings the landscape is already beautiful.