Super 8 Motel - Butte

Okay, montana is wonderful and all, but i'm sooo ready to go home and get ready for our trip. as of yesterday, both of us finally hold the ticket for our flights, at least the international part (JFK-IST). i'm stoked to see ny on the way. now to tackle the rest of my to-do list!

... what to teach the kids this year and how to best Mentor them - we have some digesting of what we have learned on this trip and books to read that we bought along the way. It is sad to be ending this journey but exciting at the same time to look forward to a new season ! Bob has an excavator and blasters in our yard at this moment preparing the long awaited site for our new building and then we can begin work on some more family living space which hopefully will ...

We moved today! We left Issaquah, WA at 6:30 this morning and just arrived in Butte at 7:00pm. We lost an hour but almost 12 hours in the saddle was plenty. It was a great ride though. No big towns at all and some fantastic roads. We stopped for breakfast in Ellensburg, WA and both got off the bikes saying, "this is why people ride motorcycles". Great smooth roads, cool but clear weather, great views from every direction, virtually no traffic and topping ...

Today we left the vast openness of Montana and climbed into the mountains, through Idaho and into Washington. We crossed the Columbia Plateau in Washington with its huge wheat fields and semi-arid range land for about 100 miles. Besides wheat we passed fields of alfalfa, corn soy beans, peas, as well as vineyards. After crossing the Columbia River at the Gorge we again climbed into the mountains. The day was very hot until we stopped at Cle Elum in the mountains, where it was very pleasant

We arrived in Butte at around 7:30 pm. We found the Copper King Mansion up near the top of the hill and had a moment of pause... was it haunted? We went to the door, where we rang an old fashioned (of course) twist mechanical door bell. The giant door creaked open to reveal a small older man in his stocking feet. Perhaps we had interrupted him from sharpening his knives?

But no, he was one of the owners and a very nice fellow. We felt at ...

... we did a trolley tour first. We had a high school history for our tour guide and driver. A jovial fellow who you could tell loved his history. Obvious he taught the right subject. We got the history of how mining came to Butte, a look at the Berkley open mining pit with its contaminated lake (long explanation of what is being done and why) and a tour of the uptown Butte. I forgot to ask what is the difference between uptown and ...

... pans immediately and cool.

Microwave Oven Directions: Use 3 cups flour in first step; reduce flour in second step to 2 cups. Mix and let rise as directed. Microwave each loaf on high for 6 minutes and 30 seconds. Surface of loaf will be flat and pale in color. Allow to rest 5 minutes before slicing.

Note: I haven’t tried the microwave method; I don’t have anything but metal loaf pans. Also, I was a little short of all-purpose ...

... wrap it up in 15-pound burlap and tinfoil packages. On Saturday night there's a dance at the local bar and at about 1 a.m., it's time to bury the meat. The coals in the pit have been burning all day. We load the meat packets in pick up trucks and hop on (and hang on tight). The guys uncover the hole and we form a line and start to pass the meat up to the hole. After it's all unloaded, the hole is covered up again tightly to cook slowly all night long. Before ...