We’re about 25 miles west of Missoula, Montana on I-90 headed east. We’re following the Clark Fork river which goes past Heron, Montana where we started this vacation trip a couple of weeks ago.

Nina is driving. We’re holding the speed down to 55 mph to save gas. Hopefully we’ll get upwards of 10 mpg on the freeway. At these speeds even the ancient VW camper vans are passing us. I think I should make a sign to go on the back of the tracker saying why we’re going slowly. We’re going to take some more trips, including out to Daryl’s wedding in October.

The west half of Montana is quite pretty, even from the Interstate. I was expecting more traffic, though, as this is a holiday and the start of a three-day weekend. We’ll be home around 8 pm tonight. Another 7.5 hours to go.

There’s supposed to be wifi in this campground, but the signal is so weak I can’t connect. We’ve got good cell phone service, though, so this post is coming by email via my cell phone.

We left Heron this morning with the motorhome full – four adults and five children. The kids were excited about riding in the motorhome for the first hour of the four-hour drive over here. Then they were quite bored. We’ll have to find something more to keep them amused on the ride back tomorrow. After getting here we drove up the Highway to the Sun as far as it was open, 16 miles. An avalanch has closed the road near the pass. Tomorrow Kirk will take the older kids on a short 1-2 hour hike and we’ll drive back to Heron.

Kirk has a nice fire going and we’ll soon have hamburgers, brauts, and hot dogs on the fire. Definitely Celestial food!

We’re coming up on Glenns Ferry, Idaho, a picturesque small town on the Snake River. The town was recently hard hit when the major employer announced that is was moving operations overseas and closing the plant there.

A little while ago one of the fellows I follow on Twitter (phil801) tweeted that he was at the hospital with his 2-year-old daughter getting blood drawn to check for leukemia. A bit later he said the results would be available this afternoon and they were on their way home. That was followed by information that the doc had called and they were to return to the hospital immediately. Then came the news that the baby was in an ambulance on her way to Primary Children’s Hospital for treatment of probable leukemia.

Interspersed were dozens of messages of sympathy, offers to help, and support. Here I am in a car in the middle of Idaho getting news about an emergency going in in a guy’s life. A guy I barely know, and then only through a meeting I attend each month in Provo. He’s well liked and respected and I also think highly of him.

Never-the-less, reading the news from Twitter on my cell phone was emotional. I feel some of his pain as we’ve been there, in that same hospital (as well as others) with our youngest son. It is a nerve-wracking, painful, emotional roller coaster. You hang onto every hopeful word from the medical staff while trying to ignore all the bad news.

I feel for you, my friend Phil. May the Lord’s blessings be with your daughter, your wife, your family, and you.

We’ve just left the Pocatello City Limits on I-86 westbound. Jill Garmin says we’ll arrive at our Hilton Garden Inn overnight stay at 3:11 pm. Little does she know that we’ll need a lunch stop, potty stop, and a gas stop. Probably can’t get them all to coincide.

My visit to the dentist to have a temporary bridge replaced by the permanent bridge successfully brought to a close this round of dental work. It’s been going on for almost eight months and included two bridges, three crowns, four root canal’s, and a crown lengthening. Good dental insurance has been valuable.

The Social Security Admin has responded and our claim for retirement has been approved. The first check arrives on June 18th (symbolically as it’s being direct deposited). The envelope contained a thick booklet on all the do’s and don’ts (many, many more of the latter). With SS, we’ve let the gov’t into our lives in a big way. Income always comes at a price.

American Falls going past on our right. There used to be some beautiful falls on the Snake River here. No more. The town was moved to make way for a reservoir which covered the falls. A huge cement grainery stands in the middle of the reservoir as a reminder of what used to be. They couldn’t get the grain elevator to fall, so they left it with a big gaping hole on the right side from the final dynamite attempt.

Today is the General Session of Stake Conference. The majority will be a satellite broadcast from Salt Lake, along with some 67 other Stakes in the Region.

The session is available in two buildings here in our Pocatello Stake (plus out in Arbon Valley … About 45 minutes south of here). One is at the Stake Center and the other at a chapel close to the house. So I decided to go to the closer building. I was very surprised to find the building quite full!! I ended up sitting on a folding chair in the overflow area. The buillding is full, including the stage. It’s amazing. I should have gone to the Stake Center which looks, on TV, to have seats available in the chapel.

It’s a lovely day today. Nina’s at the prison this morning (as usual). After our respective meetings, we’ll take a drive and see what pictures we might be able to take.

The broadcast from Salt Lake will start in about three minutes. People are still coming in. I’ll never understand being late in the Church. Time to pay attention, I guess.

Yesterday I saw in the paper that the All State Choir, Orchestra, and Band concert was at the Performing Arts Center this afternoon. We made an outstanding decision to come for the afternoon. There are four sections to the concert: Treble Choir, Mixed Choir, Orchestra, and Band. the music so far (we’re at halftime between the vocal and instrumental sections) has been outstanding. These kids can really fill the hall with music.

We got here to find the place packed. The only place we could find seats was up in the balcony. But, we found the sound up here to be delightful. It’s probably a better place to sit. Nina’s trying out different seats.

We’re having a great afternoon. Next is Applebees for dinner. Happy Birthday, Daryl!

My Twittering For the Past 24 Hours

• Installing Ubuntu on a new PC. Love this distro. (21-Jan-08 09:36 am)
• Headed to Soda Springs to clean up dad’s workshop. (21-Jan-08 12:40 pm)
• Some great tennis happening at the Australian Open. That’s got my attention tonight! (21-Jan-08 09:35 pm)

My Twittering For the Past 24 Hours

• Breakfast done. Now getting ready for Church. It has started snowing. (20-Jan-08 08:40 am)
• Church Stake Conference starting. Pres Stucki giving the welcome. Nina’s at the prison this morning. (20-Jan-08 09:59 am)
• half hour of conference left. It has been enjoyable! (20-Jan-08 11:26 am)
• The turkey for dinner smells wonderful. Reading “Hacking Ubuntu”. (20-Jan-08 06:00 pm)
• @psmith553 Good Luck on the rebuild! (20-Jan-08 08:22 pm)
• My post on the Annual Performance Review and how blogging can improve the process: http://techmatters.rnsmith.com/?p=16 (20-Jan-08 09:02 pm)
• Finished blogging … tagging pictures … reading interesting blogs. Headed for bed! (20-Jan-08 10:01 pm)