June 26 Bozeman, MT

I think I want to move here. The weather is fantastic. It's the end of June and most days we still wear jackets or have the heat on at night.

The town of Bozeman is really neat. It's a college town. They say it's a tourist town too, but I don't know why.

Downtown Bozeman is alive and well. It has so many stores and restaurants and most of them are unique. So many of them have outside eating areas, either on the front sidewalk, back patio or both. We've eaten at the Soup Garage a couple times. This is in an old filling station, believe it or not! Their menus have license plates for their covers. And they have a urinal decorated as a moose head for a wall decoration. Several of the restaurants are just little 'hole-in-the-wall' places, specializing in one meal only, usually breakfast.

Today we wanted to go to a little Mexican restaurant that doesn't even have a name. We got there about 2:30. They close at 3:00. We forgot our money. So we hurried back to the academy to get it. We got back a few minutes before 3:00 but they had already closed. We decided to walk down a couple blocks to Mackenzie's Pizza. We've eaten there a couple times.

About half way, I realized that a man was following us. He was a few steps behind Jim. He matched our speed, step for step. Finally, I stopped at a store to look in the window. He stopped quickly and turned to face the street, like he didn't want us to see his face. He just stood there until we started walking again. Then he followed like before. Scary! At the corner, I turned around to look at him, so he turned to cross the street the other way. He still didn't let us see his face. I don't know what he had in mind, but I'm so thankful that I was aware of him. I would not have liked leading him to our car.

Mt Ellis Academy has a really neat summer program. Last week the campus was full with the people for campmeeting. For the next month, several homeless families will be living here in the girl's dorm. The Church member bring in food everyday to feed them. So they get free room and board for a month, so they can save their money to get in a house or apartment. What a great program.

We started inventory on Monday. By Tuesday night we were finished. The next two days we packed and packed and PACKED boxes. A book store with no books sure looks empty. The room echoes now.

Terry Chestnut came from Pacific Press to work with us. So with Terry, Kathleen, Jim and I, we were 'smoking'. Today we finished packing the back room. Jim has most of it packed in the truck, but we still have a ways to go. You know how the left over stuff always takes the longest.

I've sold almost all the shelves and equipment in the store. Now that they are empty, everyone is busy or on vacation and can't get them picked up. If they were gone, it would feel like we were getting finished. So we have maybe another week here to finish up. Chad will be here on Tuesday to take the storage shelves to Minnesota. Maybe we can leave on Wednesday. I hope that we don't have to come back for a second load, if it all doesn't fit in the truck.

I think tomorrow we will go back to Yellowstone. I still want to see bear and moose.

June 20 Montana Campmeeting

We have worked at full speed getting ready for Campmeeting. I didn't know that days could be so long.

Not only have we worked on the hundreds of details getting the store ready, we have been working on getting the physical place ready to close. I've made that part a high priority for me. I've sorted through boxes of stuff from years past, deciding on what to throw away, shred, or take to Boise. Then there's office and store items to pitch, sell or move.

As of yesterday, I have sold most of the book shelves in the store. I have also sold the desk, computer desk, chairs and so many other things. Hopefully we'll be down to only moving food, books and little else.

If you love to buy good books at a big discounted price, you should see our bargain room. There are too many of several older books. Some of these have been marked down to 27 cents each. And tonight those will even be discounted 15% more. What a deal!

Campmeeting actually started on Wednesday. Our business has increased steadily everyday. Yesterday we were busy non-stop. After we close, we work 2 - 3 more hours restocking, cleaning and cashing-up.

We are working with some wonderful people. Kathleen has worked here for several years. She has been a real blessing. She's a detail person, so it's been a smooth week. Jim and I haven't worked at a campmeeting before, so we really needed her. Christina is a student worker. She's worked here about a year. She's very smart and a sweetheart. She loves to stand behind me while I'm working at the cash register, and show me how to do something! When I grow up, I want to be as smart as she is! Sandi came from Idaho to help us too. To know Sandi, is to love her. She was about eight when we first met her.

We've eaten most of our meals in the cafeteria here. Vonnie is a wonderful cook. She's a neat lady besides.

So while eating at the cafeteria, we've been able to visit with several people and get acquainted. And no big surprise, we have made several "connect the dots" connections.

Vonnie lived in the same town in Missouri as my sister Ruth's academy roommate and her husband, David and Jean Tucker. Vonnie and Jean even worked in the same office and are good friends.

Arlene, a lady who used to be the ABC Manager here, is a cousin to my sister Martha's husband.

Kathleen and the maintenance man here at this academy, know a classmate of mine, Judy Beltz Bieber.

And the rest of the people, I haven't been able to visit with all of them and make the connections, YET............

Campmeeting is over tomorrow. I've loved it, but it's been long, hard work. We go to work right after breakfast and several nights it's been 11:30 when we get out of there. Eight hours later we start over again. My energy hasn't been too bad, but my poor feet. I'm not used to standing on them all day. They are so swollen. And they hurt! Poor, poor me!!

After tomorrow, we start doing inventory. At least we still have something big and time consuming to look forward to.

June 13 Palisade Falls, MT

After Church we drove to Palisade Falls for a mountain hike. It's only about 25 miles from here. I have to share a few pictures with you. It was so pretty up there and the waterfall was majestic. It was about 1 1/4 miles to the falls, all up hill. By the time we got to the top, it started sprinkling. Part way down, we heard lots of thunder. Being in a forest is a good place to be in a thunder storm, right? It was a wonderful place to spend Sabbath.

















Yes, that's snow! Can you believe it? It's still June, the middle of it even! The middle picture is part of the trail going up the mountain. And the flower is a rare and unique kind. I think they call it a "dandy lion". Pretty, isn't it?


















The first two pictures are when we were coming down the mountain, after the rain. I like the rain drops. The next shows the lake and the mountains. Look for the snow.
















These are pictures of the mountain after we left. It's raining over there now.

June 7 Bozeman, MT

We woke up to SNOW!!! I thought it was summer. It snowed several hours this morning, but nothing stayed on the ground. I talked to my sister, Martha. She said it was 94 in Wichita, KS and my friend Lynette said that it was 104 in Harper, KS. What a difference!

June 6 Yellowstone National Park

Be sure to double click on the pictures to make them bigger!!!


















Since Yellowstone is only 75 miles south, we decided to make a day trip. What a wonderful way to spend this Sabbath day, enjoying God's nature. There's lots of mountains, trees and animals that we saw today. We saw several elk. We were really excited about the bison. First we saw one by the road. I got a close picture of that one. A little later we came across a herd of bison with their calves. If you look close, you will notice the lighter colored ones are the babies. There must have been more than a hundred and they were right by the road. Some were even crossing the road, they didn't pay any attention to the traffic jam they created. Finally we got to see Old Faithful. We found a place to park very close to the geyser. Just as we walked up, it started erupting. What timing! By the time we ate supper and then walked around more geysers, we were able to watch Old Faithful erupt again.















Several times during the day we drove through light rain. We were on the same level as the snow, with patches here and there. We were on the 45th Parallel, half way between the equator and the north pole. After we left Old Faithful, we drove through rain about 30 minutes before it cleared up. We drove up the western part, into Montana. Later tonight, it's suppose to get colder and snow between 8"-10" of snow. Several places we drove through already had snow. What a day!