Ahead of schedule.....

8:22 am - Thursday - October 12th - Medford, OR - 48° F, humidity 80%, wind 1 mph out of the north by northeast......cloudy today with a forecast high of 74° F.  At LPG&RVR it is foggy as I write, and the high is forecast to be 61° F.  We should be home between 3 & 4 pm.  On this date in 2015 TLE and I were having lunch at Wenatchee Valley Brewing Company.....↴ 

I am so happy I chose an early evening flight back to Medford, OR!  As a result we, in effect, had another whole day with my sister and brother-in-law, and even though we were only there 3 nights, we had 4 full days with them.  Of course that makes for a very late arrival in Medford, but I get ahead of myself.

We were up, as has been our Montana custom this trip, around 7:30 am....so nice to sleep in, and not have to get up early, rush around, and then race to the airport.  Our flight out of Missoula was scheduled for 6:30 pm Wednesday evening, so no rushing.  Bob and Hilary had arranged for an employee of the Rock Creek Cattle Company to drive us to the airport, at their expense, and we were not scheduled to be picked up by Walter Hill until 3:30 pm that afternoon for the 75 minute drive to the Missoula Airport, so we just lazed around drinking coffee, and enjoying the beautiful RCCC* scenery that surrounds their home.

Early in the day there was the heavy cloud cover left over from the rain Tuesday evening, but the clouds began to move out around noon.  I was able to catch up on some of the YouTube channels I follow, but around 1 pm Bob suggested taking a RZR ride into the local hills to see the rest of the property.  TLE wasn't interested, because even though the cloud cover was clearing, it was only 57° F, and a little too breezy for her, so it was just Bob and I.  In about an hour Bob took me from one high side of the valley to the other.  It is amazing how spread out this project is, and how many large homes are being built.  The cost for all the infrastructure, and off site improvements must be staggering.  The average lot size is 3 acres, which is the size of Bob and Hilary's home site.  This preserves the views for all who come later.  I wish I had taken pictures, but I was just enjoying the scenery, and the drive.

We were home a little after 2 pm, and it was time for me to begin packing, and putting away my computer.  Right on time, Walter Hill, arrived to retrieve TLE and I for the drive into Missoula.  We bid our adieus to Bob and Hilary, vowing not to wait another 18 months, and were off to Missoula arriving at the airport around 4:50 pm....plenty of time to get through security (for us TSA Pre-Check®), which took just a few minutes....no disrobing (shoes, jackets, etc), no opening up your computer bag.  You just put your bags on the conveyor belt, and walk through a metal detector....takes 2 minutes.  

By the time we reached our gate it was 5 pm, and we had an hour until boarding would begin for the first leg of our journey which would take us to Salt Lake City where we would have a 3 hour layover.  We passed the time reading, and taking multiple bathroom breaks....I hate having to use the restroom on the plane....lol!

We boarded at 6 pm, and were in the air a tad after 6:30 pm.....love small airports!  

....the flight duration was around an hour and 15 minutes, and soon we were seeing the lights of Salt Lake City......we landed around 7:50 pm (Mountain Time)....about 12 minutes ahead of schedule.....

....since we had a 3+ hour layover we decided to have a small dinner at Uinta Brewing Company, which was a short 100 foot walk from our gate.  I had a Wedge Salad chased with a Tito Bloody Mary, but TLE decided she would just have water (she was still full from lunch)....ultimately she did order a Scotch on the rocks....lol.  By the time we finished our leisurely meal it was after 9 pm, but we still had another 90 minutes until boarding would begin for the final leg of our journey to Medford.

We boarded a little ahead of schedule, and before we knew it we were seeing the city lights of Medford....originally we were not to land until 11:55 pm, but we actually landed ahead of schedule at 11:41 pm.  By the time we retrieved our bags (yes we volunteered to have our bags checked for free at the departure gate), and called the hotel shuttle service it was just after midnight, and by 12:30 am we were in our room, and getting ready for bed.

Time to get dressed, and head for home!  We'll make a stop in Alturas for TLE's final eye appointment at 2 pm, and we should be back at the Newell before 4 pm...time to head south!

Thanks for stopping by!

*Rock Creek Cattle Company

'4 Days in Utopia.....'

8:01 am - Wednesday - October 11th - Deer Lodge, MT - 40° F, humidity 99% (makes sense....it has been raining all night....lol), wind 5 mph out of the northwest....cloudy today with a forecast high of 55° F.  On this date in 2011 TLE and I were getting ready to fly back to SoCal from Spokane, WA after a long visit with my sister Hilary, and her husband, Bob....ironically, today we are getting ready to fly back to Medford, OR from Deer Lodge, MT after doing the same.....↴

.....the view this morning after rain all night.....↴

Tuesday was our next to last day here in Montana.  We awoke to clouds on the eastern horizon as the sun slowly rose into the sky.....

.....portending the rain that would come later in the morning, and then in the evening.  It was cold and breezy outside, so we spent the better part of the morning indoors.

Around lunch time TLE came into the bedroom to let me know Hilary was grilling Elk Burgers for lunch.  I've only had elk a couple of times in my life, and loved it each time, so no one had to tell me twice....I 'dropped' what I was doing and headed into the kitchen to claim my Elk Burger.....

....have you ever in your life seen something more tantalizingly delicious?  In case you are wondering, those are 'kettle chips' next to the burger.  I cherished every bite.  Little did I know at the time that the evening meal entrée would be Roast Elk, and that is a whole 'nother story as they say.

After finishing my lunch I returned to what I had been doing, which was watching the movie version (on Amazon Prime) of the book I wrote about yesterday.....'7 Days in Utopia'.  As is typical of movie versions of books the writers changed up a lot of things, but they remained true to the essence of the story.  I cannot compare the book and the movie as they were significantly different as far as the story line goes, but the message was the same.

After the movie I laid down to take another Montana nap, which lasted almost two hours....there's something about this Montana air!

Around 2 pm TLE, Hilary, the dogs (Georgie and Archie) and moi took a 2 mile loop walk up Big Horn Road where we could see the house, and the valley in perspective.....

.....at some point we left the dirt/gravel road and walked back across the golf course to the house......

....I discovered that in addition to 'punching' the greens, they also punch the tee boxes here at the Rock Creek Cattle Ranch golf course....there are anywhere from 3-5 tee boxes for each of the 18 holes, so that is a lot of punching!

'Punched' tee box at #9

.....upon our return to the house I changed into my swim shorts, and headed out to take another soak in the Jacuzzi.  I've taken one each day we have been here, and it only serves tro remind me of how much I miss Glamis North Hot Springs, and their wonderful mineral hot spring pools.

We ate a late dinner, alfresco once again, and were treated to a wonderful Elk Roast dinner with roasted vegetables, and fried, smashed potatoes.  The meal was paired with a wonderfully smooth and silky Malbec, and great conversation, which kept us outside until well after 8 pm when we headed indoors to continue our conversation over more wine, and some cherry ice cream, which we ate directly from the container.....how decadent....lol!

By 9:30 pm the bell was tolling for TLE and I so we bid our hosts adieu, and headed off to dreamland here in Montana one last time.  We will be leaving Rock Creek Cattle Company around 3:30 pm for the drive back to Missoula, and our 6:30 pm flight back to Medford, OR.  We will arrive at the Rogue Valley-Medford airport around 11:55 pm, so it will be a long travel day with a 3+ hour layover in Salt Lake City.  

And with that our 4 days in a utopia that is called Rock Creek Cattle Company has come to a delightful conclusion.  It has been a wonderful interlude between our summer season, and the approaching winter season.  In just two days we will be rolling our wheels southward from LPG&RVR to new adventures in the low desert of SoCal.

Thanks for stopping by!

'7 Days in Utopia'.....

6:46 am - Tuesday - October 10th - Deer Lodge, MT - 50° F, humidity 71%, wind 5 mph out of the south by southeast......heavy cloud cover today with a chance of rain in the afternoon, and evening.  The view this morning......↴ 

The view to the east

The view to the southeast

.....on this date in 2010 TLE and I were in Santa Fe, NM at Santa Fe Skies RV Park.....↴

Like LPG&RVR, it is soooo quiet here at Rock Creek Cattle Company at night. The views are enormous, just as one would expect in Big Sky Country.  Bob and Hilary's home site has a wonderful 360° view of the horizon.  One can watch the sun rise and sun set from their rear patio....

Bocce Ball court, and horse shoe pit side by side

The view looking out the front door

Snow on the local mountains

....Monday was another beautiful autumn day with the high temp hitting 78° F.  We took a hike around the golf course, which, just like LPG&RVR, closed for the winter this past Sunday....

Suspension bridge

This hole has more sand traps than the entire LPG&RVR golf course....lol!

.....upon our return I sat down to read a book....a real book, not an e-book....something I have not done for quite a while.  There was quite a long nap thrown in for good measure.

There are three guest rooms, and ours is a large ensuite.....

A sitting room/TV room

The bedroom, with another sitting area

The bathroom which features a separate bathtub, and shower, along with two sinks, as well as a great view to the east

.....of course, the living area is 'open concept.....

Living room with kitchen to the right

There are blue accents integrated into the entire interior decor

.....we all convened to the rear patio around 5:30 pm to watch the sun slip westward to the local mountains.  Sundown is officially around 7 pm here, but due to its proximity to the mountains it happens closer to 6:15 pm....

.....we had another lovely alfresco dinner, lots of wonderful conversation, and then retired indoors as the temps dropped quickly into the 50's.  I finished the book I was reading (7 days in Utopia....highly recommend....made into a movie starring Robert Duvall and Lucas Black), and then  TLE and I were headed off to slumberland before 9:30 pm.

Thanks for stopping by!

Home again.....

7:52 am - Tuesday - July 28th - Deer Lodge, MT - 57° F, 69% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the southeast.......cloudy today with a forecast high of 86° F.....the view this morning.....↴

 We are back at the Newell after a two day hiatus

.....on this day in 2012 we were in Raymond, WA camped on the Willapa River......↴

Our brief vacation from our 'vacation' came to a conclusion Monday morning.  Bob and Hilary were heading back to Spokane, and we back to the Newell in downtown Deer Lodge.  We had a wonderful fun packed two days with them, and we will see them again when we reposition ourselves to Coeur d'Alene near the end of this week.

It's about a 30 minute drive from Rock Creek Cattle Company back to Indian Creek RV Campground, and about 70% of that is a well maintained dirt road.  We were home by 10:30 am, and within minutes had the patio awning deployed (we do not deploy it when we are going to be gone for more than a few hours), and were relaxing in our anti gravity chairs reading, and listening to Classic Vinyl on XM Radio, and that is how the bulk of our day went.....reading and listening to music.  Around 2:30 pm it was close to 90° F (the high for the day), so we opted to move inside to the air conditioned comfort of the Newell for the balance of the day.  It looks like we are in for another heatwave of temps in the 90's and low 100's over the next week, so we will need shore power to survive the heat.

We had a rather dramatic sunset sequence lasting about an hour......

 Takin' a walk

....we took a walk around the park around 9 pm, and got back to the Newell just before it began to rain.....it didn't rain hard, or for long stretches, but I heard the rain falling periodically throughout the rest of the night and early morning hours.

Thanks for stopping by!

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"RAZRing...."

8:15 am - Monday - July 27th - Deer Lodge, MT - 55° F, humidity 50%, wind - CALM.....7 days in a row without morning wind  Skies are clear, and blue with a forecast high of 90° F.  

Day 2 at Rock Creek began with Bob and I heading to the driving range.  I haven't swung a club in a few years, and just wanted to hit a few balls.  I started with a pitchig wedge, and didn't do too bad.  The same with the 4 iron.....not too bad, but with a 7 iron I stunk.  I moved onto the 3 wood where I shined the best.....out of ten drives I hit 7 pretty straight, and (for me) pretty long.....about 225 yards.....of course, straight is the operative word.  Next up was working on my putting at the putting green. After 3 years I did okay I think, but that was enough golf for the day.......hitting the links will have to wait until we get to Spokane.

Next up on the menu was a RAZR ride into the local mountains to get a view of the little valley in which this upscale developement is located.....TLE joined Bob and I for the ride, while Hilary went to play a round of golf with her future son-in-law, Jake.  As always, the ride to the top of the mountain was a blast.  On one side of the mountain you can see I-90 in the distance, as well as the Clark Fork River......

.....and on the other side the Rock Creek development.....

.....below you see the 16th and 18th holes of the golf course......

......and then a short video of the ride to the top in Bob and Hilary's 4 seater RAZR.....

.......Bob drove us over to the shooting range, and then  to the site where he shot his first elk last year.  By the time we had finished with that it was time for lunch so we headed directy to the poolside grill to meet Hilary.  We sat talking and eating until almost 3 pm before heading back to the house.  Then I did something I have not had time to do for a few days.....take a long nap! 

Around 6:30 pm we all conveyned to the firepit area for pre-dinner cocktails followed by a sumptuous dinner prepared by Hilary on their patio.  We drank good wine, ate great food, talked, listened to some Nora Jones until after 9 pm when we retired to the living room for more conversation until almost 10:30 when we bid adieu to our hosts and retired to our unit for the night.

Our two day interlude with my sister and her husband has exceeded our expectations in everyway, but Monday we will return to the Newell to continue our journey westward to Coeur d'Alene, ID.

Thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which over the course of a year adds up to enough to by a tank of diesel for which we thank you very much!