Tidbits and Travels

Another Spring and another graduation. This year it was Matt Gallagher's turn. As valedictorian of his high school class of 17 he gave a speech. He will be off to Notre Dame this coming Fall. The keynote at the graduation was given by the governor of Montana. Pretty impressive for this small Montana school (Gardiner, MT). Also impressive was the list of scholarships to major colleges awarded to the seniors of this small town school. Full rides to Duke, Smith, Williams, etc.

Our trip to Montana started in the rain and it lasted all 500 miles to Billings. We also learned that a tornado hit Windsor, CO that day and passed within 10 miles of Fort Collins on it's way to Wyoming where it damaged the Wal-Mart where granddaughter, Katie, was working. Windsor, which is only about 15 miles from our home, was really hit hard. Our friends that live in Windsor escaped unharmed and with very little damage.

In Billings we enjoyed lunch and dinner with friends from 25 years ago when I lived in Billings for about two and a half years. Then it was on to Gardiner to visit Nancy's brother and attend Matt's graduation. The attraction at the Gallagher house was the three puppies that were only 4 weeks old.

After graduation we headed to Salt Lake City to visit grandson, Jason and his girlfriend, Samantha. Jason works for ARC of Utah and gave us the opportunity to volunteer at a fund raising breakfast while we were there. Then it was off to Vernal for a few days to explore Flaming Gorge and Dinosaur National Monument. A final stop at the KOA in Gould, Colorado gave us the opportunity to photograph Moose. We managed to site 10 in all.


A sampling of pictures from our trip are at http://picasaweb.google.com/JonLMendenhall/2008MayJuneTrip

Till next time ...