The Long Trip to CA

For those of you who don't know, twice a year, we deliver grass fed/ grass finished bison (and this time beef and Icelandic lamb too) to wonderful people in Southern CA and then stay in our old stomping grounds of San Diego for couple of weeks.  This June, we left Kalispell in a downpour that had already lasted all night and most of the previous day.  We (well, not all of we, actually) loaded the rental truck, our trailer, and the Dunham fun bus with beef, bison and three weeks worth of our stuff in the pouring rain.  Super fun trip already, huh?  We headed out in the rain, got snowed on in Marias Pass, about blew over near Browning, and finally hit sun (and wind) in Valier. Welcome to MT.
After loading up the other 10 ½ beef still at the butcher's (cut and wrapped, of course) we blew into Butte, MT (pronounced byooooooot, but everyone affectionately calls it butt - who could resist?) for the night.  The drive between Valier and Helena is beautiful.  Josiah took these photos of Wolf Creek pass (I think that's where it is). Beautiful.  You probably can't tell in the photo above, but there are little white specks...that's snow blowing sideways.  Then, below, look how sunny it is. Crazy? Yes.

Day 2 we drove from Butte to Cedar City, UT, and then after day three on the road (there are no good photos between southern Utah and our destination unless you like cactus, shrubs, and billboards that I won't let my boys look at) we arrived at "the resort" - the home of our good friends the B's.  More on that later. 

McGyver Strikes Again

Have I told you that I call my husband, McGyver? No? Hm, well, I do, because it is fitting. He can do/make/figure out just about anything. One time, on the way to a church camping trip, we came across friends of ours who had broken down on the way to the campsite. We pulled over and with a mag-light handle, a bicycle handlebar, duct tape, and something else that I cannot remember (something strange!), he had them back on the road and running fine. Not only did they keep on trucking that weekend, but they ended up driving around for 6 weeks with it that way until they could afford to have the car fixed. ha. Well, there are similar stories, but that's our favorite. So, this week, McGyver did it again. We have been renting a truck/trailer each time we go to San Diego for a bison delivery, and this time, McGyver decided to turn our trailer into a permanently insulated box. We had friends over working with him all week (we really do have great friends!). We now have an insulated box that will require much less dry ice. We have another insulated box that goes inside the insulated trailer too. We should be good to go and no more renting trucks for us. That McGyver; he's amazing! :)

McGyver, with his lovely assistant, painting the trailer. Tad working on cooler box. Tad was here all day long - from bright and early until after dark. What trooper. I wish I had taken photos the day before too when Chris Miller and Jay Rickel were here helping out.