Losing Track.....

For my sister-in-law, Phyllis, we have arrived in Sidney, MT for the sugar beet harvest and will be here until 10/21/2013....give, or take a few days.....no need to read any further if you do not wish.  Love you, and miss you!

I have to admit some days I forget what day it is.  For a while Tuesday I was convinced it was Wednesday.  That's more understandable if I was still part of the "workaday world" when I looked forward to "hump day"....the half way point of the work week.....just as, no doubt, many of you still do, or once did.  If it wasn't for the day clock on the wall of our living room I would have had to pull out my phone and check the calendar.  I had written my entire blog entry yesterday about Tuesday, not Monday, and had to go back and fix every reference I made to the wrong day.  I guess if that's the worst problem I have in the next 3 weeks I will be in good shape.

Tuesday gave us clear blue skies, and temperatures in the high 60's until late in the day when it topped 70 briefly before the cloud cover arrived.   We wanted to take a bike ride around town to get a better idea of where everything is.....nothing like exploring any place at under 10 mph.....so while TLE cleaned up after breakfast I headed over to the trailer to get the bikes put together, and the tires aired up.  

As I prepared the bikes for our ride RV's continued to roll into our "getting more crowded by the hour" little RV ghetto here in the far corner of Richland County Fairgrounds.  There aren't many spots left, so I think just about everyone is here.  We've met a number of interesting people here so far.  One particularly interesting fellow is someone I have wanted to meet ever since I began reading his blog entitled "Goin' RV Boondocking".....his name, Brian Gore.  He describes himself as a "Broken down Ol' cowboy goin' RV boondocking....and Yondering to the beat of a different Cowboy biker drummer".  Now anyone who can write that colorfully about himself I have to meet, and as Miss Serendipity would have it Brian and his wife are here for the sugar beet harvest, too.  Brian is a writer of westerns, and I have read all of his books so far, and thoroughly enjoyed them.  He writes under the name B.K. Gore, and if you click on his name the link will take you to his publishing page and his books.  If you like westerns you will enjoy his books.

I started following Brian's blog back before he hit the road full time.  It was my interest in "boondocking" that led me to his blog in the first place, and Brian is a certifiable expert "boondocker".  Just for the sake of those who may not be familiar with this RV'er term let me send you to a page in Brian's blog where he describes it much more eloquently, and poetically than I.  The short version of "boondocking" is parking your RV far from services, towns, sometimes cell phone reception, in beautiful rural settings with no access to electricity, water, or sewer.  Some think boondocking is parking in the parking lot of a Walmart over night, but that comes under the title of "dry camping", which is a whole 'nother thing.  He is able to go a lot places with his modest 5th wheel that I could never take the Newell, and trailer, but many places he has been I can also get to, and plan to visit now that we are in the western half of our country.

We headed into town on our bikes a little after Noon heading first for Main Street, and a couple of thrift stores, and a hardware store.  TLE needs a better pair of work shoes, so we stopped first at a local Tru Value Hardware store where they had a large selection of boots, but none of them fit properly, and even if they had they were quite expensive at over $100, or more.  So, our next stop was a thrift store at the far eastern end of Main called "Goodcents".  While I was securing the bikes, TLE headed inside.  I was barely in the door when I saw her waiving me over to the shoe section....she had found a pair of steel toed leather work boots for $20, and they fit her feet nicely.  Again, one of the things I love about Montana is NO SALES TAX!  All I had to do was hand the nice sales lady a $20 bill, and we were on our way.  Next stop was the Salvation Army store back up the street a few blocks.  This is probably one of the smallest Salvation Army stores I have ever been in, and the prices were just as small!  We found two heavy duty winter work coats for $3 each....the kind of coats we can get filthy dirty, but keep us dry, and warm.   When we are done with the harvest we can just toss them out, or re-donate them.

After packing our "finds" in our panniers we rode over to a little cafe we had passed in the car a few days ago for lunch called the Fireside Cafe.   We arrived around 2 pm for a late lunch.

This is actually the table we sat at!

TLE had their Rueben sandwich, and I the Chicken Fried Steak sandwich.....after eating these nicely prepared entrees we can now understand why Urbanspoon gives them 3 stars.....for us the ambiance, the service, and the food get a solid 4 stars.  There was only one review on Yelp from a year ago, and he gave them 2 stars.....our experience more mirrored Urbanspoon's assessment.

From there we headed over to the IGA where TLE got some envelopes....one more thing we were out of when I was getting ready to mail in my taxes the other day, so now we are set to get those puppies in the mail.....finally!

By the time we arrived home it was after 3.....I settled in for a short nap as the clouds rolled in, and then spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning the car, and the front of the coach.  Around 7 we watched "Castle" which had recorded on our DVR the night before, then we watched NCIS, NCIS L.A., and Person of Interest.....all new shows.   Since prime time starts at 9 pm now (Mountain time) we didn't get to bed until after midnight.  Starting Sunday we will be in bed very early for the next 3 weeks as we will be reporting to work at 6 am each day after that for close to 21 days straight.

Thanks for stopping by!