When Family Comes to Town

A Visit with Family and Other Exciting Adventures

Welcome back to the blog!  Thanks so much for reading about our crazy adventure.

Jerry and I had a fun week getting ready for my nephew, Mikey, and his girlfriend, Kelly’s, arrival on Friday.  We cleaned the RV (which of course needs cleaning EVERY day), and made sure their cabin was ready for them. Yes, we booked a cabin in the RV park as having more than one visitor sleep in our RV is really not an option. Even one is a challenge, which we will be experiencing later in Nov with our niece, Katie, driving from Austin to the Bay Area with us, but you’ll hear all about that down the line.

Being that this is such a small RV park, the cabin Mikey and Kelly were housed in was only 20 feet from our RV which made things super easy. The family that runs the place knew how excited we were to have them visit and made sure everything was just perfect.  They even added extra coffee in their room and continually asked if they needed anything.  They were as excited as we were to have them here as they knew these were our first “visitors” since starting this adventure.

During the week before we picked Mikey and Kelly up at the airport in Missoula, MT, which is about 1 ½ hours away from Darby. We then searched different areas to take them fishing and plotted out other places we wanted to show them.  We were ready!!! 

I cannot explain how happy I was to see them getting off the plane. Even though we have only been on the road for almost 3 months, I have missed my family dearly. What I have learned is that even though you might not see your family all the time, when you are living stationary you can pick up the phone and say, “Hey, let’s get together for lunch next week.”  Now that we are full time RVer’s, we can’t say the same thing. I know, I know, we chose this lifestyle and we love it.  However, you do miss your loved ones and friends when you are out on the road. As you may or may not know, I did not have children of my own. That said, my niece and nephew have been the lights of my life.

We had the best time with them! We took them fly fishing (emphasis on the fishing, not so much on the catching). Jerry, The Fishing Dude and Guide Of All Times, could not get a nibble, but it was beautiful.  We really wanted to show Mikey and Kelly the beauty of the area, which is something we have been lucky enough to take in throughout the entirety of our stay here in Darby. We showed them around all 1 ½ miles of this adorable town. We showed them Kevin Costner’s home, where they film the show Yellowstone, and of course… we had to show them all the bars in Darby.  

One of our favorites was Brigand Brewing Co (formally Bandit Brewing).  They had incredible beers, or so I was told. I, on the other hand, drank their very yummy hard seltzers.  They had amazing popcorn, incredible music (with a singer that blew us away, and we really could not have had more fun! From there, we went to The Sawmill Saloon  where there was, you guessed it, all types of chain saws on the ceiling; and the music playing in there was heavy metal.  Who knew cowboy towns loved their heavy metal??  We had a blast and ended up almost closing the bar. Interesting fact here in Montana is that all breweries must close at 8pm, but the “real” bars can stay open until 12am.  I’m sure there is a reason, I just have no idea why.  

Honestly, the weekend was wonderful and went by way too fast. It was beyond incredible having them here. When we dropped them off at the airport for their flight back I waited to cry until I got back into the truck. I had no idea I was going to react this way, as I will be seeing them in November for Thanksgiving week. As I said, it’s a new lifestyle in which we are getting used to. It’s definitely an adjustment being full time travelers, and we’re learning that we have to just make new traditions! 

As you are reading this, we have finally left Darby after 5 weeks.  We are on the way to Albuquerque, New Mexico for the Hot Air Balloon Fiesta.   We will be traveling through Pocatello, ID, Price, UT and Farmington, NM as we make our wayl to Albuquerque. Darby was incredible and we loved it, especially visiting with our friends, Lisa, Amie and Kenny who live here.  What a treat!  Montana is beautiful and we highly recommend visiting the adorable town of Darby.

We are beyond excited about the balloon fiesta and will share much more in the upcoming blogs and YouTube Videos!

Just One More:  Family Visit (but of course for only a few days. JK)