Continuation.....
Sunday, June 12th got checked in and on to the Early Bird dinner, where Serk Jr. got one of his most favoritist foods ever, hot dog with mustard and Cheetos...
Some socializing and lubricating occured in the parking lot, and off to bed we went.
Monday June 13th
On a shopping trip into town I made the discovery of something I found poetically ironic. A Chuck E Cheese with a casino next door.... Same audience, different age brackets...
Later on Serk Jr made his first of many, MANY trips to the nice (But slightly chilly) indoor pool with water slides...
Serk Sr. may have gone down the slides a few times as well...
https://rumble.com/v19wxra-water-slide-at-billings-hotel-and-convention-center..htmlSerk Jr. took his job as raffle prize runner VERY seriously..... And wore me out just watching him zip around!
https://rumble.com/v19wxy8-serk-jr.-running-raffle-prizes-at-inzane-2022.htmlTuesday June 14th.
Block party! By this point I was already worried about riding my bike so had to arrange alternative transportation to and from the block party, but had a great time anyway...
Serk Jr. ate a VERY blue ice cream which made him look like he'd been nom'ing down on smurfs for a while...
Back to ground zero and more philosophizing in the courtyard ensued...
Wednesday, June 14th.
Joe Boyd memorial ride and lunch to Zoo Montana.
I figured with a short 2-3 mile ride and plenty of trailers available at GZ it was worth the risk to ride along. Had fun blaring Wagner's Ride of the Valkyrie's from my 'Wing as we rode (The irony not being lost that it was a Wing that was malfunctioning that was declaring these were Valkyries.)
These two Bald Eagles just watching the humans come by
Reminded me of these two guys for some reason...
Thought it was cool they had a Grey Wolf named after my elder spawn:
Although Kali was too busy snoozing to hear the tales of the history of her name...
Later that night there was a thing with some pies.....
I'd made it clear to all who came to my table that this would be the sopapilla cheeseecake table, and indeed, it was.... I think I started too high though and scared other bidders off, will need to remember to start a little lower next time so I don't have to outbid myself just to make it interesting...
I didn't manage to get a taste of the pecan pie (PUH-Can, NOT Pee-Can), but I hear it had an extremely rich taste...
Thursday, June 16th
Serk Jr. has had an obsession with, as he calls them, "Slug Bugs" the last few months. Has to be the original ones. He's only managed to "slug" me once in all that time, but he's done many false ones that he THOUGHT was a bug.... I walked around the corner of the hotel and saw this beauty parked there, had to call him over and give him a (light) Slug Bug Blue!
Never did find the owner, but they also had the good taste to be Army connected too! Bonus points!
That night I was introduced to a thing known as pitchfork fondue, which does have something to do with pitchforks but I saw no connection to fondue. It was yummy though.
Take a cauldron of boiling oil. Take steaks and stab 'em on the tines of a pitchfork. Dip the steaks in the boiling oil.
The frying gave it a nice char on the outside but kept it moist on the inside. Could have done with a bit more seasoning but I'm one of those who keep seasoning 'till I can't see the meat, so.....
It was almost a relief to learn that even if Kali (The spawn, not the wolf) had made it she would not have been awarded Youngest Rider this year. That title went to this incredible young 15 year old lady...
Who, although the family trailered to IZ, she rode, as the operator, her Valk Trike that she helped her dad build several hundred miles around the IZ location....
Not enough of 'em, but glad to see any of the youngens taking to the big bikes!
Friday, June 17th.
643 miles (In a cage)
Should have been ride into Canada day. Couldn't do that, so instead rented a car and drove into Canada so Serk Jr. could be the first of the triplets to leave the USA, and on his 11th birthday no less...
No Valkyrie, but a 2020 Corolla will get us there and back at least.
(I wasn't aware of the level of autonomous driving that's made it into mainstream cars lately. While driving to Canada I was on a 4 lane rural Montana road, cruise control at 95, I was catching up to a silver pickup but I never caught up to him. Eventually looked down and noticed I was going 75. That's odd..... Saw a little thing on the dash that looked like a scanner out the front of my car with a car icon in front of it. Hmmm.... Without touching the gas, brake or anything else moved to the left lane, the car accelerated itself back to 95 and passed. I tested this all the way to a full stop at a stop sign, the cruise control tracks cars ahead of you and will pace them. I expect that sort of thing from a Tesla or a Mercedes or something, but it in a 2020 Toyota Corolla rental really shocked me! It would also scan left and right for road markings and steer itself to stay in the center of the lane as long as you kept your hand on the wheel... Wild!)
Anyway. We now return to our regularly scheduled program.
Got to the international border. My how times have changed. Bringing weed across the international border? That's cool, just declare it please...
And the money shot...
Turns out the Canadian city at this crossing was TINY. Coutts Alberta has a single restaurant, one motel and a bed and breakfast, and that's about it.
The little cafe was very nice, the ladies running it were fascinated in Serk Jr. and the story of the failed bike trip and taking him up there anyway..... Alas they didn't have poutine, so I had fish and chips and he had pancakes... (Noted their syrup bottle still had Aunt Jemima on it)
Another fun observation - The AC was out at the cafe and they were apologizing profusely for the scorching heat.....
...it was 79 with low humidity.
Quick stop at the duty free for t-shirts, hoodies and Scotch and back across the border we go...
Quote from my writeup on social media:
"Got into Canada quick and easy, few usual questions, and Have a nice Day, eh?... (Having Texas as our state of residence on our passports I was fully prepared to be searched to make sure we hadn't brought any Freedom with us, which of course I hadn't because I'm not an idiot.)
Leaving was also easy, but the US border patrol asked where we were from, told him Dallas, Texas. Asked how long we'd been in Canada. "About an hour, came in, had lunch now driving back,"
*Blink Blink*
You drove all the way from Dallas just to have lunch and go home?
I told him the story of the aborted bike trip and Brian Jr's wish to be the first sibling to set foot outside of the USA, he got it, asked if I had anything to declare ("Yes sir, three bottles of Scotch" (That I was fully prepared to pay the duty on).
Thank you for your honesty. (Hands passports back) Welcome home, have a nice day!"
So back to Billings...
And Serk Jr. got to play in the pool one last time. We thought. Our flight got canceled on Saturday and Sunday was the soonest they could get us home, so we had a bonus day in Billings and still had the rental so.....
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade, so I referred to Saturday as a Making Lemonade Day.
Drove up to Zimmerman Park to check out the view from the Rimrocks.
Biggest dandelion I ever saw! (I do NOT have small hands)
The views from the Rimrocks are very good, but not the Rockies, but still very nice...
It kinda surprised me, in a good way, he wanted to sit and read the entire history of Zimmerman park and why it was called that, the original Zimmerman Trail, etc...
(I think this might have been the longest he sat still the whole trip!)
The things we do for our kids. A consolation prize for missing all the stuff we were gonna do, I sacrificed some sanity and took him to Chuck E. Cheese...
(He had a blast, and I managed to resist the temptation to go to the aforementioned casino next door!)
Last night in Billings. I bellied up to the hotel bar, was telling the barkeep the story of the canceled trip, canceled flight, etc. Asked for a bourbon, neat....
I can't tell if she felt sorry for me or was trying to put me outta my misery...
GZ was eerily quiet and deserted Sunday night as (I believe) the last Inzaniac on site...
Sunday, June 19th. Early flight, up and atem, check out, drive to airport, turn in rental, get boarding passes, Serk Jr's first experience with TSA (He couldn't figure out why he could keep his shoes on but I couldn't.) and to the gate.
Excited to see the plane for his first ever airplane flight.
Thought it was kinda cool, the spousal unit was tracking the flight from the ground, and managed to get a pic of the plane landing for his first flight...
.....and home.....
