Stupid music in my head

On the road again,
Wish I wasn't on the road again,
Rather be back home with my kids and my best friend,
Wish I wasn't on the road again.

Yeah, I'm on the road working again. It's the first time since D Money was born, so it's an experiment for all of us. I know it's necessary, at least for now, but I still feel like I'm ditching the fam'. I did the best I could for Franny. My folks will be there part of the time, and her folks part of the time, but she'll still have a couple days by herself with two little tyrants demanding the world. Good luck, F. I wish I was there to help you.

I'm back in Montana this time. I've made this trip a few times, but the last was February. It occurred to me maybe half way here that I took off without a map and without looking up any directions. Apparently I've been here enough to find it familiar. I must have been right since I didn't get lost.

The trip to Missoula took about nine hours, and at least it was decent weather. I was worried about 4th of July Pass in Idaho, since I've found poor road conditions there in the past, but all was clear yesterday, so it was pretty smooth. Today I continued on to Bozeman over the Continental Divide. 6,380 feet up if you're interested. The weather wasn't so hot although it certainly could have been worse. It sleeted part of time and I'm sure the pass is pretty icy at night. There's melting snow all day and 20's at night, so I'm sure it gets slick. I guess it's supposed to get more wintery later this week. It is Montana, I suppose.

I did find that the last hour or two in the dark last night was a lot less fun. I knew I had been driving too long when I realized the I was emphatically (and loudly) singing that I am indeed a redneck woman. I was half right anyway. Actually, although I don't even know any Tanya Tucker songs (much less all the words), and I'm hardly the girl next door in my neck of the woods, the song wasn't entirely wrong. I would rather drink beer all night than swig that sweet champagne. I definitely ain't no high class broad. My Christmas lights weren't on the front poor all year, but they did make it to March or April. And most importantly, I can certainly buy that same damn thing on a Wal*Mart shelf half price. Hell Yeah.

It looks like I should drive less and sleep more. Sounds like a plan. Good night.

Montana notes

Well, I made it back to civilization, at least compared to Montana. No offense, but there're more people in Portland than in the entire state of Montana. The biggest city in Montana (Billings, I think) still doesn't even have 100,000 people. (I sure hope nobody from Chicago or New York reads this and decides to start spouting statistics at me. I'm guessing that New York probably has more people than the whole Northwest. And don't even get me started on Tokyo and Mumbai and whatnot.)

I actually got back a day earlier than I expected. One of our customers declined service, so I could speed things up a little bit. They never said it explicitly, but I got the idea that money was tight, so they decided to forgo calibration this year. I'm not sure that's such a great plan. It's a little like deciding to do oil changes every 10,000 miles to save a few bucks. You'll probably still spend the money later and then some. It worked out for me though, so whatever.

I make a lot of noise, but I actually like travelling to Montana as far as travelling for work goes. People are friendly. The scenery is beautiful. This time around, there was some winter weather, but nothing that slowed me down. Lots of the rivers and lakes were frozen over, which is always cool. Lots of miles though. I think I put on about 2,400 miles in two weeks and stayed in 8 hotels, which is at least 6 too many. I have to give a shout out to La Quinta Inns though. Their rates are usually decent ($49.00 in Missoula for a single king room), the rooms are equipped well enough, and the beds I've had have always been extremely soft, which is a nice change from the ultra-firm plywood beds of the Super 8's and such.

I did have to be amused with Rock Creek, a little town near Missoula. Much of Montana is ranch land. Part of beef ranching is the annual activity of turning bulls into steers. Long story short -- you drive east from Missoula and see billboards for the Rock Creek Testicle Festival. That's all I'm about to say about that. I'll let the fine folks at TestyFesty.com deal with any further details.

On the way home, I happened to catch a radio story about a barge that hit and damaged the locks at the John Day Dam on the Columbia River last Friday. This is somewhat interesting in its own right, but it struck me because I was driving by the dam when I heard to story not too long after it happened. The lock was actually out of service for a few days, but the Corps of Engineers has since installed a temporary gate to restore passage to vital river traffic. The broken gate is floating on a barge until they can figure out how to make a permanent repair.

If this post sounds little random, it's because it's taken me almost a week to write in tiny bursts. I came back home to a sick toddler and last night was the first real good night's sleep this house has seen since I came home. Fun.

In penance for taking so stinking long, here're some interesting/funny videos that are not remotely related to Montana.

I'm still out here

I'm still running around out here on the far side of the Rockies. I'm not exactly absorbing the local flavor this time around. I'm at the 6th hotel in 8 days (Kalispell, Missoula, Helena, Bozeman, Billings, and now back to Bozeman again). That kind of sucks, in case you're wondering. Moving in and out every morning isn't exactly fun, and it's especially annoying considering the cart full of work crap that I can't leave out in the car due to the fact that it's something like 20 degrees out at night.

Enough with the complaining. I got some sad news from home today. Not personal news, but somebody close enough. Just a reminder that there are people out there with bigger problems than my traveling woes.

I woke up to a couple inches of snow this morning. It wasn't enough to cause any problems, but it looked nice anyway. Despite the snow, Montanans consider winter to be about over. It's above freezing most days, at least in the populated areas, so it's almost business as usual.

I got to go clothes shopping yesterday. I say "got to," but "had to" is more appropriate. As usual, I managed to get away from Portland without something critical. In the past, I've left without sneakers, jeans, work pants, work shoes, underwear, and about every third time, sunglasses. This time, I found that I was the only person in Montana without a coat. I had a raincoat (Go PDX!), but nothing warmer than a fleece (Go PDX again!). Given the weather, that's not so good. I was going to buy a cheap winter coat and donate it to Goodwill when I got home, but I couldn't bring myself to buy something that I already have at home, especially something that hardly ever gets used. My other option was finding something unlike anything I own, but I am inherently thrifty (pronounced "cheap") when it comes to clothes, plus I lack a sense of style. I usually figure I'm pretty safe with something from Old Navy. I may not look stellar, but I probably won't look too bad. Anyway, as luck would have it, it's late in the season, so coats are on sale all over the place. More specifically, some pretty nice leather coats are on sale at Macy's. So, without assistance, I managed both to spend money on clothes for myself and to get something that actually improves my wardrobe. Now if I can only get some decent pants, shirts, and shoes, I can go out with Franny without embarrassing her.

Enough rambling. My laundry's done, so it's time to go.

On the road again

I'm a couple days into what should be my last long work trip for a long time. Montana this time. This is a busy trip. I'll be in 6 different hotels in two weeks this time, although I'm cooling my heels for four nights in Helena right now.

The weather's been beautiful out here. It's a bit cold at night, but it's been totally clear. On my way out on Monday, the night was clear enough and the moon bright enough that I was still able to see all the mountains around me, which makes for much better night driving.

Speaking of the moon, I've monitored the eclipse from my window this evening. It looks like the moon is going to make it. I tried to check out Saturn's rings too, but my little binoculars were no match for the distance.

I'm pleasantly impressed with the radio on the new minivan they gave me for this trip. I've been able to find something to listen to for almost all of the trip, even picking through the mountains. I do admit, however, that at one point I had to choose between James Dobson of Focus on the Family yammering on about something and loud angry music. I went with Metallica, Ministry, and Tool, along with a bunch of more recent bands I'm too old to recognize.

All in all, this isn't too bad a trip, as far as trips go. Montana has some beautiful scenery, and if you have to travel, this isn't too bad a choice. Plus, unlike Hawaii, I appear to be healthy this time. That helps a lot.