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Health & Fitness

On The Road Again...

Road trip to Montana, Royal Gorge, Reno, Haute Stuff Bistro

On The Road Again

Unlike the Willie Nelson song of the same title, I am not in a hurry to be back on the road again.  We drove to Montana in an impromptu, quick, and what I call, a “drive by” to check on Bill’s mom and step-mom.  Monday morning at 8 AM, hubby springs the idea that we should take this opportunity to go to Montana before the winter, and in between construction jobs, and he wanted to leave before noon. 

OMG, before noon.  I had just gotten up.  This meant I had to get a prescription filled and pick it up at the pharmacy, do laundry, pack for at least a week, pay some due bills, arrange for staffing at my shoppe, go to the shoppe and prepare a payroll check, pay payroll taxes on line, and get some water and snacks for the long long drive, as well as get myself pulled together and be ready to roll.  I think we were on the road by 11:30 AM.  Mission accomplished although I don’t know how. I think the clock must have stopped for a while.

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We saw mom for a quick visit when we pulled into Helena on Tuesday evening after checking into a hotel, took her to breakfast the next day, then headed four hours north to the ranch to see his step-mom.  Had a nice dinner at the lodge located on one of the lakes on the property with step-mom, step-sister, her hubby and son, spent the night, and left the next morning back to see mom one more time before going home.  We got back in time to have dinner with her and two of Bill’s brothers and their families, spent the night at a local hotel and we were on the road again by early morning. 

I did not anticipate that I would be spending my birthday weekend on the road and that is exactly what we did. 

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Going 75 mph in Montana and Idaho, you get pretty far pretty quick.  The scenery leaving California, going through southern Idaho, and southwestern Montana is boring.  Sagebrush is ugly. Farm land is boring.  There is nothing to see.  I prefer to snooze through it all, which I did as often as possible. I wish I could help hubby drive, but I fall asleep in the car and I value our life too much to try to do that, so I leave the driving to him.

Didn’t get any moving violations for speeding either.  I do nag at hubby for going over the speed limit.  When it says 75 mph, I don’t understand why he can’t just set the cruise control at 74.  But no, he sets it at 78, so we are always speeding.  Although we did get a ticket one year going through Winnemucca, Nevada.  The female highway patrol officer was not very nice to us. We were talking in the car and did not realize we were traveling at 100 mph in a 75 mph zone.  Both of our cars are fast, especially the Porsche SUV.  All she could say was, “You California people are always in a hurry.”  I wanted to say, “well heck yeah. We were trying to get out of this hell hole asap.”  It is always good to keep your mouth shut when you are getting a ticket.

Last year in Montana, we were stopped by a highway patrol officer and I thought we would get a ticket.  But guess what? He only wanted to see our car and drool over it.  Apparently there are not many Porsches in Montana. He was nice.  People in Montana are really nice.   

Being on the road on my birthday only happened once before.  I was a kid then.  I think I was about nine years old.  We were on a camping trip and Dad wanted to go to Reno so we left the camp site and drove over there in the afternoon. I remember vividly the time and temperature sign which said it was 108 degrees. Dad went into the casino, I think it was Harrah’s, and left mom and us kids (there were only three of us at that time) in the car for three whole hours.  Mom was afraid to get out of the car because she was afraid she would get lost.

Bless her heart, mom had a horrible sense of direction.  I remember one time on a trip to Europe, she had to use the bathroom on the plane and got lost trying to find her seat. She had to ask the flight attendant to help her.

Anyway, there we were, mom and three kids aged nine, seven, and two, in the hot car for three hours.  What a horrible way to spend my birthday.  Where was Dad?  Who knew gambling was such fun and that you lose all track of time. No wonder there are no clocks in the casinos. 

Reno, Nevada, “The Biggest Little City in the World” is a favorite of ours.  When we both lived in South Lake Tahoe, that was a very regular weekend getaway for us before we moved back to the Bay Area and got married.  Reno has lots of good memories for us and it was the perfect place to stop and reminisce. 

So this birthday we were once again in Reno.  Stayed the night in one of the El Dorado’s Jacuzzi suites and we gambled from 9:30 PM to 3:00 AM.  Bill usually turns into a pumpkin at 10 PM but somehow, he just kept going after driving 13 hours that day.  He was my energizer bunny for sure. At the stroke of midnight we celebrated with a couple of Bailey’s On the Rocks. I had hoped to hit a big jackpot on my birthday but that was not to be.  We broke even and to me that is a big win. 

We had my birthday lunch at the Rainbow Lodge, one of our favorite spots along the way in Royal Gorge, and we dined at Haute Stuff Bistro tonight for my birthday dinner where I was surprised with a cake and a birthday balloon.

It is good to be home and not on the road again and no matter where I spend my birthday, spending it with my favorite person in the world is the best present I could ever have.

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