Friday, July 4, 2008  -  SHE SAID:  Here we are in lovely Meadow Glacier RV park in Montana, just watching some rain droplets fall from our awning. We had a brief but pretty good rain roll through, so that was a treat for us rain-starved Californians. Mind you, I may be singing a different tune by the end of our trip, depending on how much of the wet stuff we hit!

It was a short travel day, maybe 150 miles, and we finally saw some deer. One beautiful doe and I made surprised eye contact since she was less than 5 feet from my window when I looked wide eyed at her and she returned the startled stare. The others were out in the fields and one was just laying in the tall grass taking a rest and I also saw a big old moose standing in a river, watching the traffic mosey on by.

And Lord help anyone who might be moseying if they happened to be in front of old lead foot Donald, who gunned past some moseyiers in a rented RV and some probably now traumatized folks in a van who defied the 60 mile per hour speed limit crawling along at about 30 mph as we made our way up the mountain road. A lengthy double blast of our horn alerted them to the fact there were people who actually wanted to make it to their destinations sometime this year. Oh yes, Don truly enjoyed his driving duties today!

Actually, he did enjoy driving in the Choleau, MT 4th of July parade...no kidding...we were coming through this little town and all of a sudden we were part of the parade, driving behind a float topped with a paper mache elephant and some clowns (actual clowns) riding their atop their riding lawn mowers. There was a marching band and even these old Shriners in crazy little go carts pelting the crowds with handfuls of hard candy. I had to lock the doors so Don didn't dive out of the truck to get a handful! 

But, seeing all these small town folks, grandmas, farmers, new moms, and excited little ones smiling and laughing as the parade made its way down Main Street, made it a special 4th of July memory. It's been close to 48 years since this 58-year-old grandma marched down Main Street in a parade in my old hometown of Union City, PA...so grabbing a flag and getting in step with one of the Girl Scout troops didn't seem like such a bad idea! We actually did get some fun waves from folks on the street--so looks like the state of CA was represented pretty well here in MT!