Our summer home: Dickinson

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(Dickinson, ND)

We’ve done some traveling since I last posted; we went Salt Lake City, and on the way to Townsend (to meet up with Bob’s siblings) we drove through snow! I’m not kidding. June 12 it snowed 4” in Great Falls, and we as we drove through the Bozeman area there was fresh snow on the sides of the highway! Let’s talk global warming! Traveling through the state we were grateful to see the snow in the mountains, and the rivers are running higher and faster than we can remember seeing them. Much of the state is in drought conditions, so this should help some. The countryside is such a brilliant green.

(On a side note, remember when we were in southern California and everyone told us by the beginning of June the countryside would be dried up? I read last night that there are 119 fires in California right now. We’re getting their smoke here in Dickinson. Also, I kept talking about how nice the weather was down there~~it’s been in the 90s or 100s since the middle of May. So their miserable summer is our miserable winter!)

Ok, back to Salt Lake: what a beautiful city that is. It was in the 90s while we were there, but everyone said it had been cold and cloudy the whole month. Then back to Billings for a couple days, where we picked up the motor home with newly painted storage doors, and dropped it off for a new windshield.

We dropped the motor home off in Dickinson (actually about ten miles south of Dickinson) and headed for Mankato to see the kids and the rest of the grandkids. Wow the little boys have changed a lot~~the older ones have just grown taller (and smarter!) but Logan and Tyler have turned into little people while we were gone. It’s been five months since we’ve seen them. While there we went to our first tee-ball game (if you haven’t been to one, it’s well worth going~~puts a whole new spin on the game of baseball! Apparently they don’t teach scratching and spitting yet, but those kids are all about sliding! And they do NOT brush the dust off their pants~~rather, they wear it as a sign of skill!

We’re back in Dickinson now, and Bob and Jean are working hard on the kennels. The beginning of the project is always the slowest, as they go through the barn and figure out what stays and what goes, and how their plans are going to work. But they’ve cleared the space are nearly ready to start setting the forms for the concrete.

And now to some pictures…I know most of these are scenery pictures, and maybe I’ll have more variety next time. I wish everyone a happy and safe 4th of July! We'll be at Medora, watching the musical with Jean, and friends from Sidney!

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Photos

Storm clouds--
notice how they part and you can see the calm sky up there!

Working some drills
at the Billings Airport. Two more helicopters had taken off in this same formation just a couple minutes earlier.

Just a pretty summer shot
with sprinklers working and snow still in the foothills.

Summer water
See how low the snowline is? And this was taken the middle of June! That's good news!

This was taken outside Bozeman,
Montana.

Dakota Badlands
This was taken between Glendive and Medora.

More of the Badlands.
Are they beautiful this time of year? I'm not sure how long they'll stay this green, but this is awesome.

Comments

[chris viets]

You even make Dickenson sound exciting
OK- I have suspected this for awhile. You need to do travel commentary for a living. There is your next career. Bob navigates, Vickie comments and imbues where ever you end up with fun and a joy for living. Love those Grand kids. Chris

[Margo]

Badlands
AHHH I love those Badlands! I believe a have a picture almost exactly like this one hanging in my office. Yours has a bit more green than mine. Glad to know you are in ND and doing a little relaxing!

[Danielson]

Hi, Margo!
They are greener than I remembered too, but I think it's because June was so cold. It is so beautiful, and I could make one entire entry with just pictures of that area.