Adventures in Vacationing (Day 1)

The first day of our vacation was really more of a set-up day. We drove from Missoula, Montana to Spokane, Washington - not a far drive. On that trip, we learned that the Army poncho we had on our gear in the roof basket might be problematic. It was nice to keep out any rain and bugs, but the corners couldn't be secured well and flapped around, smacking the top of the Jeep.

We rolled into Spokane in the mid-afternoon and first drove up to Aud's (recently decreased Grandmother) house to check on the Estate Sale and see how Bill was doing. He was snoozing, but his motion detector fish gave us away with a rousing chorus of something I can't recall.

Then we entered the "gym" and stared in awe at the wonder of it. The huge room was full of five yard sales worth of other people's crap. It appears that a fully enclosed space is perfect for garage saleing during any weather. Why not take advantage of such a perfect space??? It appears as though many neighbors have. We browsed around, tried desperately to keep the kids from snatching anything up, and chit-chatted for awhile.

After breaking away from the never-ending-sale, we went to our favorite local pizza place - Pizza Rita - for some decent pizza and visiting with past co-workers.

Pizza Rita is a funny place because its like a black hole. Once you work there, you always come back. It pays too well (or at least it did in the days of $1.25 gas) to quit for a different job - especially with tips; but it doesn't pay enough to really get ahead at any point - and there is definitely no future in it. Its like purgatory, with free (or reduced) food.

After that, we took the pizzas back to Grandma Betsy's and Bill's house and ate up. We chitchatted for awhile while the kids played in the pool. Eventually, it turned into a game where I would try to throw balls at the kids. They like games like that for some reason.

All of our talking made them miss going to see Ben bowl - too bad. Finally, we put the kids to bed downstairs and after awhile, we went to bed as well. Needed to get a good night's rest for the upcoming vacation.