It's time to head toward Ocean City, NJ for the annual meeting of all the cousins, aunts, uncles, grandchildren, and assorted friends. It's 2,500 miles to the Atlantic Ocean ! We can do it! We did all the laundry, packed up and headed out. Our destination is Billings, Montana. ..We retraced our steps down Swan Drive along the beautiful Swan Lake and stopped at our old stomping grounds for lunch - Trixie's. I played a little video poker and won $5.25. The kids were very impressed. They put the quarters into the pinball machine. and Jimmy had such a good score that he almost made the permanent record on the machine.

On the road again, to endless miles of rolling hills and not many signs of life. We saw endless lines of fences and telephone poles and pasture land. I won't bore you with any more of the details of that drive, but I will tell you that we were on the road for nine hours, and we were still in Montana! We made a diagonal line across the state. We stopped in Billings and decided to stay in a motel as the sky was very threatening. Before we could get in our rooms, it started to rain. By the time we were in our bedrooms, it was hailing and blowing like crazy. We were very aware that a tornado had passed through this same area the week before. However, it was just a thunder and hail storm. It was grand having a big tv, our own private showers and bathroom.