Monday 18th August 2014

Driving through southern Montana, the landscape changes to huge expanses of cropped hay fields.  These guys must supply quite a few states with animal chow.

We stayed a few days in Dillon.  Dean was trying to figure out how to get this vehicle up and running.

The tacos were authentic and delicious at this converted school bus/ food truck.

The sign at the bottom of this sculpture reads “Binding Contract”.  Remember those handshake days?

A local ghost town had this prison still in working order.

Dean looks a little anxious behind bars.

Dean felt a lot more comfortable in the schoolhouse.  By the way Dean and his brother Melvin actually attended a schoolhouse like this back in the day.  We were comparing inkwell use.  In England in the late 50’s we were also still using a dip type pen in the ink well.  A bit later onto the fountain pen and once the biro came on it was easy peasy.  My kids have no idea what I am talking about!!!  We are ancient parents.

Onward to Arco, Idaho. As you can see from the pic we are in a pretty historic town.

A trip to the closed down nuclear power plant was very interesting.  I needed Jay to decode some of those 20 letter words.  Why do scientists use a vocabulary of extremely long words that are unpronounceable to most of us?  Jay’s expertise is in chemistry/biology but still those pesky 20 letter words.  Can you imagine,  he asked us to spellcheck his papers in graduate school!

With a population of less than 1000, Arco is actually not much of a town but the county fair was fun to watch.  After the animal showings the kids put their animals up for auction.  This lad got $4.50 a pound for his 1200 pound steer.  We found out parents and other family members mostly bid on the  animals.  Chickens were bid up to $70 each.  Hopefully they would be good layers or make a nice chicken soup.

A trip to Craters of the Moon National Park  was fun.  Dean was showing his strength holding this volcanic rock on his noggin.

O.K now he is showing off.

My turn, O.K, O.K, the rocks are light weight volcanic stuff. But I am going with the 2 rock heave up in the air.  Rose is the winner.

Goodness knows how long these dried out limbs have been around. ( I mean the tree limbs)

It sure feels good to be back in nice warm sunny weather.