We finally made it to Montana!!

Our road trip began Wednesday December 26th. We (Chris, Ashleigh, Rick) left Venice, Florida at 6:00PM. Dad was just starting to get over a nasty flu bug and little did we know Chris and I were just getting it.

The day we left was was a frenzy! In an effort to spend as much time with friends and family we left packing and a few other essential trip details until the last minute. We went to the health department that morning to pick up some Malaria pills. After a long conversation with the nurse we left with no pills (we are waiting until Africa gets closer) 5 shots between the two of us and $250.00 dollars poorer. Bad bad move getting shots 6 hours before we left. By the next morning Chris and I were sick as dogs.

We drove from 6:00 Wednesday night until 7:00 Thursday night. Our plan was to drive straight through, but it started to snow a bit and we didn't want to chance icy roads. We stayed in Kansas for the night and left the next day around 10:00AM. The car was one big germ. The three of us sounded awful. Chris and Rick were slowly getting better, but my head was so congested I thought it might blow up any minute.

We finally arrived in Montana at 6:30 Saturday morning. God is surely good. We hit a small bit of ice in Wyoming, but other then that the drive was good. My 2 wheel drive Explorer handled the snow, ice and cold like a champ. She had no problems at all. Again, God is so good!

We drove to Opportunity (population 600) and rested up at Nana's house. We explored the neighboring town, Anaconda (population 8,000) the next day. My dad grew up in Anaconda and I have spent a lot of my summer's here. It was really neat to have Chris experience the town and my family history.

Today, the 30th, we are heading off to Whitefish to meet up with my uncle and his family. We are staying at a condo up there and are going to be doing some skiing/snowboarding.

So far the trip is great. It was unimaginably hard saying goodbye to those we most love, but the things we will experience while away are priceless.

Until next time...

...Loving life