To Get Y'all Up To Speed...

Good news first: the library is within walking distance!

We are several days into the trip now, and what are we doing? Eating, sleeping, and fishing. That’s about it. There is so much to tell, but I don’t think it will be all in order. Oh well.

Never mind that I am way way way behind in my reading for school (I should have finished Gulliver’s Travels by now). I can’t remember the last time I checked my email, though, it will be checked as soon as I get to wifi, and probably before this gets posted. 23 emails later…

Let’s go back in time to the day we arrived, Sunday, I believe it was. We arrived in Augusta, Montana, tired and hungry. But after dinner, we felt ready to try out a lake several miles out of town. Just don’t tell anyone that my license didn’t go into effect until the next day. We didn’t catch anything. 

On Monday, we met up with a friend of Grampa’s and went fishing at a couple of lakes. I think Christian may have caught something, Grampa caught a really big one (five pounds, three ounces, we ate her the next night), and I caught rocks and weeds. :/

Christian had been dealing with a cough before our trip, fortunately, he was completely fine by the time we actually drove off, but unfortunately, he passed it on to me. -_- I caught it the day of departure, and was coughing up a storm by the time we arrived. Somewhere along the drive, we bought cough drops and cough syrup, but since those didn’t help enough after almost a week, Grampa found a clinic in Choteau (at least, I think that’s how you spell it), about 25 miles away. They prescribed a heavy-duty cough medication (with a really bad aftertaste), and said I should be good to go within the next couple of days.

On Wednesday, we packed up, and headed to a pond to fish. By this time, I was feeling a wee bit discouraged that I hadn’t caught a fish yet. When the wind picked up, against me, I’m not strong enough, or experienced enough to cast into the wind, a few tears were shed.

I was reminded, by Christian, that “these fish are smart. The first time I came out here, I got skunked for the first couple of days too.” 

We stopped for lunch, and then got back to it, but this time, we walked to a section of the pond where the wind would be at our backs. Still no luck. It was when we were walking along the edge to go back to where we originally were, that we saw a huge fish, just at the edge. Of course, my line chose to get tangled just at that point in time, and we lost the fish. Christian saw him too, and casted but must have scared him, because he came back in my direction. I dropped my fly, and the fish had to take a few runs at it, he was so excited! Long story short, I caught him. Third time’s the charm. But, I didn’t get a picture. Fish are extremely slippery, and I was not expecting them to feel so slimy. 

I hooked another one around the same spot, but he spit it out after fighting for a bit. 

I moved back to a small point, and fished there for a while. I caught another fish, and this time, I have a picture.

Me: "Eww eww eww. He's gross. Can we just get a pic when he's in the net? No? Okay, fine."

Christian and Grampa both caught several that day

Christian: "Hurry up and take it Chloe. Come on, he's slipping! Hurry!"

Dad comes on Friday. 

It’s slightly awkward when the old guy you’re staying with says he’s got a boyfriend all set up for you. (he was serious, and I told him no thanks)

It’s awkward when a really old guy calls you “little lady.”

It’s super awkward when a really really old guy looks at both you and your brother, then asks your Grampa whether he is going to “take the boys fishing.” (in all fairness, I did have a hat on, and my hair was pulled back, and I was in boy’s swimming shorts, and he was really old.)

There’s a time difference of an hour, but I can’t remember how to change my watch. I know what time it is at home, so now I can keep Lydia up past midnight, but go to bed at just past 11pm here. In fact, I’ve done that a time or ten. 

Wifi is nice. 

You can do stuff. Don’t ever take it for granted. You have no idea how nice it is to be able to look something up spur-of-the-moment, or to go on youtube to figure out how to do something, or to just email your family a few pictures.

The general store is also within walking distance. They have movies for rent there, three for $5. Though I can’t vouch for the quality of the discs (let’s just say that I still don’t really understand what happened in The Dark Knight, Lydia would have been completely and utterly lost beyond measure), the price is not bad. They also have some pretty good ice-cream options. 

I’m surprised that there are several restaurants. Ok, ok, they are really classified as bars, but there is one place that serves some pretty good breakfast (and also has ice-cream). The variety is not big though. It’s basically burger and fries, or a burger and fries, and the description for pizza is “pizza”. I’ve heard rumors that one place has a “Taco Tuesday”. It’s a good thing those burgers are good.

The town is small, try finding it on a map. It’s an hour away from Great Falls, Montana.

There are a few…ahem, characters around here. One of which lives next door, and is known as “the crazy lady”. But she owns a gorgeous rose roan gelding.

Since I really didn’t want to over-do anything and get any more sick, I asked to stay home today, and catch up on school reading, email pictures to Gramma, figure out how to work the laundry machines, and go stay at the library for a bit to catch up on blogging and a few other things.

Tomorrow, I believe we are going to a museum, then picking dad up at the airport, then picking up pizza and going to a family friend’s house. 

The mountains are really pretty up here. There’s this funny sign just outside of town, that I got a picture of. Maybe y’all will have the same reaction as I did.

Final count of antelope thus far: 47. Of deer: 18. 

~Chloe