Tuesday, August 4, 2009

A Vacation or a Staycation?

Bryan took the last week of July off. Total off! NO e-mail or cell phone. It has been a long time since he did not have to call costumers on Monday morning of any vacation.
The adventure began with numerous days of preparation. Kim was focused on getting free water for all new plants in the RL yard. Bryan's focus was getting the two newly acquired Honda Trail 90s running. I am not sure they had the same goals.
I watched Kim walk up and down the hill next to our RL house about a hundred times trying to get the two hundred feet of hoses to suck water out of the spring. I really think she was doing something wrong because it took her HOURS. How hard can it be?
Meanwhile, Bryan took apart the carburetor on the orange "his" Honda to "fix it". Then he dropped it loading it on to the "new"trailer. He seemed really "cheery" when he was fixing the mirror with JB Weld.
(I heard him tell Kim, they could have went to Cancun for what this vacation was costing. She said she did not know that was an option or she might have chosen Cancun. I reminded her that dogs could NOT go to Cancun. She said something under her breathe about that being the point.)

Finally Sunday afternoon, the Honda 90 Vacation began. We all loaded up and headed to the West Rosebud to camp, fish, and ride dirt bikes. As a dog, I thought this trip had potential.

Monday, Kim, the sled dogs, and I hung out at camp while Bryan went fishing. It was cloudy and cool so Kim wasn't too motivated to fish. She read a book and made a fire. The sled dogs and I hung out on picket, BORING.
After what seemed like a long time she decided to check on Bryan. We watched her push the orange Honda up the hill a bunch of times until she could coast and start it. I remembered that Bryan said it was not running very good. But I guess Kim thought she knew what she was doing.
A while later, Bryan showed up (No Kim), took the gas can and left again. Finally they both came back. I guess they were trying to push start the bike that was out of gas.
(That's pretty funny!)
It was about this time the rain started. It rained all night and I mean rained. I am surprised we didn't float away. We had rivers running under the van. The sled dogs and I were happy to sleep inside but it was fun to run around and get wet and stinky.
It was clear for a while the Tuesday but started to rain again in the afternoon.
So we broke camp and headed back to Red Lodge.
(Note: Kim didn't get any good pictures of our campsite on the West Boulder, too much rain.)

Wednesday morning brought upper 30's and more rain in RL. So we took some R, R, and R-rest, repair(try to fix bikes), and regroup (try to find all the things we forgot on the first trip- like fishing waders and coffee creamer). We came back to Billings so Bryan could work on the carburetor again. At the end of the day gas was still running out on the ground.
So back to Red Lodge.
The sled dogs and I were really beginning to wonder about this vacation. It seemed more like a staycation to us. And get this Kim unhooked her spring water because she was afraid that her plants would get too wet. All those hours of work for nothing.
Thursday was a dog day :-). Bryan, the sled dogs, and I went hiking on the tundra. Bryan and Kim even went on a date- dinner out.
Friday, more rain, but we packed up again. This time we ended up camped on the Boulder River near Big Timber.
This a great DOG campsite. We were along ways from the road so we had plenty of room to hang-out.
Saturday morning we all slept in.
Bryan went fishing again. Kim, the sled dogs, and I hung out in camp, AGAIN. Maybe I would be less bored if I took up reading. Kim seemed to get a lot of books read on this trip.
Saturday was actually HOT. Our campsite was kind of a long way from the river so we had to hike and bushwhack down to the river where it was nice and cool.
Unfortunately, coming back from our second trip to the river Lucy ran into a stick. She had a puncture wound in her chin. I guess it must have looked bad because Kim and Bryan loaded everything back up and we drove out.
Would you believe they do not carry First Aid for us dogs?
What kind of dog owners are they?
They talked to the vet, bought some Betadine, and used a turkey baster to squeeze it into the wound. They got it all over themselves and Lucy. She looked like someone had used yellow and red paint on her.
At this point I guess they had had enough because we went back to Red Lodge again.
Sunday we woke to sunshine. I thought "Oh, good it is not raining."
Little did I know, it was not a dog day.
It was a boat day.

Bryan and Kim hung out with friends on the Stillwater River.
So there it is. I still don't know if it was a vacation but it was nice having Kim and Bryan hanging out with us most of time.
Now they're back to irrigating and mechanicing.



2 comments:

The Farmer's Wife said...

I have to laugh at the "out of gas" thing! It's something I would do.

That sounds like a great vacation! No phones....that's the best.

But I can see all the canine angst, over the lack of action.....

MTMare17 said...

Classic Busch adventures for sure.