Mon, May 9, 2011

Monday, May 09, 2011

A birthday celebrated while on a road trip is pretty much guaranteed to be a great day! – Donna Downey

Today is my birthday and I am now one year older than I was yesterday.  Don’t feel any older but am reminded of the number of my years when I look into a mirror!  I am pretty much happy wherever I am, but have to admit that a birthday that falls while in the middle of a road trip is pretty good deal. 

Then there are those surprises we talked about earlier in the trip.  First one was Charles at about 5:30 am this morning:  “Honey, would you like me to make you some coffee now?” ... a slight pause and then “or would you rather go back to sleep for a while?” I mumbled… sleep and we must have slept at least another hour and a half.  Second surprise was breakfast in bed!  Way to go Charles!  Third surprise… phone calls, facebook messages, and emails wishing me a Happy Birthday.  I could get used to this.

I had known since Friday night that my computer at the office had lost connection to my office server which meant I could not get my emails on my Iphone but would have to wait and get them at night via an Internet connection.  I needed to try to get that fixed.  The room we had last night was perfect for us and it had the fastest wifi service I have ever run into while traveling.  It also had a nice sized desk and a super comfortable desk chair.  All of this came in handy when I began the process of getting all of my services restored.  Unfortunately, the next surprise was that the reason I had lost connection to the server was because it had gone down sometime Friday evening.  So Renee called and had a technician come to the office to check out the server.  Me just having to wait to get my email is an inconvenience but if the server were to go down, well that would bring an abrupt end to this wonderful road trip.  

So we spent the morning getting a few kinks worked out and finally got everything running again.  Hopefully the server will stay functional a while longer.  We had arranged for a late check out of 12:00 pm and had already decided that if there were any questions about the server then we would just stay in Dillon another night.  Luckily we finished up about 11:55 and then we were off.

Some people would consider the weather today dreadful.  Charles and I, however, like changes in the weather and even though it did cramp our style a little bit it was still gorgeous and we enjoyed our day.  We had planned to stop at the very remote ghost town of Bannack, MT.  It is the first territorial capital of Montana and is now a state park and has a number of old buildings to explore.  Unfortunately, after making the four mile drive down a dirt road, we arrived at the town only to find the snow had turned to mostly rain and it was raining just a little too hard to walk around the town.  It looked like a really neat place so we vowed to come back on another trip.  We did make a quick stop at the Bannack Cemetary just outside town.  It was beautiful with most family plots surrounded by old wooden fences.  One particular plot was surrounded by a very ornate iron fence. 

The weather today was rain in the lower elevations and snow anytime we got above 6,000 feet.  So as we traveled across southern Montana we got to see it all before the day was over. Since we didn’t get started until after 12:00 it was a short driving day anyway. 

Tonight we are staying in a wonderful remote lodge in Powell, Idaho which is located on the Lewis & Clark Scenic Byway.  We are staying in a neat cabin and have no TV, no telephone, no cellphone service and no internet except in the lodge itself.  It sits amidst a huge forest of trees and on the bank of the Lochsa River.  We had a delicious dinner in the lodge, played one game of pool, and Charles has been reading various things to me while I do my journal and prep some photos for uploading tomorrow night. 

We have had a good day and I have had a wonderful birthday.  Thanks again everyone for all the birthday wishes.  We are very well tonight and hope that y’all are too.

Peace, Hope & Love,

Donna, Charles, Paris & Dodger