Fun Adventures

Good evening (or morning, or afternoon as the case may be). I write to all my devotees from almost the tippy-tip-top of the U.S. of A. I'm in Kalispell, Montana, to be specific, and what, you may ask, am I doing here? Well, tomorrow morning, bright and early, we drive across the U.S./Canada border to attend the temple with my cousin, who will be going through for the first time. It's an exciting time, and we're very proud of her, but we've had quite an adventure getting up here. Let me begin at the beginning ...

Yesterday, I spent the day in Logan with my coworkers. We completed our disaster training by destroying things--books, fur, photos, maps, newspapers, etc. We dumped them in tubs of water and practiced drying them to get some hands on experience in what might happen after a disaster. It was all kinds of fun throwing our trainer for a loop with the odd things we brought to play with. After the requisite visits to Pepperidge Farm and Gossner's Cheese factory, we returned to Ogden, and I returned to my apartment for last minute getting-ready-ness. By about seven we were on our way to Draper to begin our trip to Montana.

Why Draper you ask? Well, Jess and I aren't the only ones on this trip. We've traveled with a cousin, her son, and an aunt, and we had to head down to Draper to run errands, pick people up, and ultimately, pick up our car rental. At 10 p.m. we got to the airport where our car rental was waiting for us. Only we hit a small snag. Turns out the company we rented from requires proof of insurance if you don't purchase theirs, and we were completely unprepared for that. My cousin had purchased some insurance online when she reserved the car, but was planning on using her personal auto insurance to cover the liability on the rental. When the lady asked for her insurance card we almost panicked. We were exhausted, we still had a full night ahead of us, we had never heard of a rental agency asking for proof of insurance, and now we were facing the real possibility of returning to Draper to pick up her insurance card, then coming back to get the rental. Fortunately, the rental lady offered us a complimentary upgrade to a minivan to make up for the unexpected expense of purchasing their insurance. In the end, I'm completely glad we got the van, because I don't know how we would have made this trip with the five of us and all our crap in car--even a full size one.

I must pause the story telling for the time being, as there are preparations I must make for tomorrow, and this post is already long enough. Coming up, look for tales of sleep deprivation, gasoline woes, an excess of bars and saloons, and an interesting local festival where one can "Have a ball!" All in the next installment of MELISSA'S MONTANA MEANDERINGS!