1. After a La Quinta breakfast, the Deke and I packed up, loaded up the car, and pointed the Sube west and set the homing device for Kellogg, Idaho. It was 7:30 PST when we left Bozeman. We enjoyed a very easy and gorgeous drive across Montana, over the Continental Divide, and over Lookout Pass, before we descended into the Silver Valley -- Mullan, Wallace, Osburn, Big Creek, Elizabeth Park, and soon, Kellogg. We arrived in the very early afternoon.
It will be a while before I can refer to the house as our house. To me, when we walked in the front door, we were walking into Mom's house. But, it really wasn't Mom's house. So much is gone: the angels, the television and console that housed it, the many many antique items Mom had hanging on the kitchen wall; the kitchen hutch is gone, books have been cleared out, living room chairs and tables, shelving in the front bedroom is down along with a book case. Mom loved to fill her house with all kinds of material items and the Deke and I marveled at how much roomier the house is with fewer things in it.
I don't know where the Deke and I will start as we continue to do the immense amount of work Christy, Carol, Paul did after I returned to Maryland and the work I already did before I headed back east to clear out and refashion this house. I said to Christy this afternoon with a chuckle, "Wow! We've done so much work in the last couple of months. It's hard to believe there's so much left to do!"
But there is.
And, slowly, we'll get on it after we deliberate and imagine what we want and as we get going with some more hard work.
I'm thankful we arrived safely, for our new house, and for the projects that lie ahead.
2. At about 3:00, the Deke and I headed uptown to have a little party at Radio Brewing. Paige was pouring this afternoon. She and the Deke had established a knitter's friendship earlier in the summer and today I found out that she worked as a costumer for theaters in Portland and did costuming work in New York City. For a while, the Deke and I were the only two customers at the bar, so we got to talk a lot with Paige and the other woman working there, Shailey (sp?). We also enjoyed smoked salmon flatbread and an order of homemade, fresh, and hot to the touch tortilla chips with salsa and guacamole. I loved the conversations, I loved the food, and I was, once again, over the moon as I quaffed Radio Brewing's smooth and juicy IPA, X Minus Zero. All of this eating and talking and drinking was accompanied by the sounds of radio music from the middle of the 20th century playing quietly in the background -- it is a totally unique scene in comparison to anything I have experienced in Kellogg over the last sixty years. We love it.
3. Possibly the best news of the day? Our dogs, Maggie and Charly, made friends right away with Christy and Everett's dogs, Riley and Tucker. The Deke and I were apprehensive about how Maggie and Charly would respond to Riley and Tucker because they haven't had many dog friends over the last several years. The four of them hit it off immediately and, if our neighbors don't mind the noise they make while playing, I am very happy for all four dogs that they will have each other as playmates. I'm staggered with delight that Maggie and Charly will have a social life in Kellogg.
Christy fixed a great soup along with cucumbers and bread for dinner and we had a family dinner in Christy's back yard -- Christy, Everett, the Deke, Carol, Paul and I. We started to talk about a little business together, but it wasn't long before I had to retire from serious discussion. After five glorious days of driving across the USA and pushing myself to stay at it, I finally let down tonight and hit the wall. We'll get the stuff taken care of over the next several days or few weeks and I'm glad Christy, Carol, and I are all eager to get things done -- even if I didn't seem all that eager by evening's end last night!
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