Broke Down and Birthday Party, Wednesday, 6/11/14

Wednesday, June 11, 2014 

We checked out of our hotel and took the shuttle to the Ford dealership before 7:00 a.m.  When we got there we discovered they didn’t open until 7:30 a.m., so Chuck went truck shopping and then we stood in the cold until they opened. 

At 9:30 a.m. we were informed that the part we need is not available anywhere in the state, so they were going to overnight the part from Denver, Colorado.  They said they had one car (a Lincoln) available for us to rent and it would cost us $50.00/night plus tax.  Cindy thought that was high so she called Enterprise Rent-A-Car which was located about a block away.  They did not have a single car on their lot to rent today, so we settled for the Lincoln.   

We stopped at Wal-Mart and bought Chuck some new shoes and then headed downtown.  We parked at the beautiful capitol building and took pictures of both the inside and outside.  It was built in 1899 and the inside was laden with marble and stained glass.  We enjoyed an hour long trolley ride through town and saw many mansions that were built in the late 1800’s.  Some of them still had hitching posts standing near the street.  We drove down “Last Chance Gulch” where there used to be a stream where gold was discovered in 1864.  That area is now a trendy looking pedestrian mall which was revitalized in 1975.   

After eating pizza and buying some peanut butter we headed home at 2:35 p.m.  We arrived home at 5:00 p.m.  The Ford service rep. thought the car might be ready tomorrow.  If so, we will make the long round trip after work tomorrow to pick up the Mustang. 

Today is Jaimi’s 21’st birthday and the inn mates threw her a birthday party tonight with cake and ice cream at the rehearsal hall.  Several people attended that we work with and also the two Ukrainian girls that me met recently.  Also in attendance was a new guy from California who is a volunteer with AmeriCorps.  (There are ten AmeriCorps young people here and they are being housed at the horrible house where Chuck and I got our mattresses from the first week we were here.)

Tanya, our lead employee, was at the party and she said that the Montana Heritage Commission has been asked to sponsor a bed race team for “Brothel Days” coming up on June 21^st.  Since we have that day off, we will be a part of the four man team representing the state employees.  If any of you have any great ideas for our team (decorations, strategy, etc.) please let us know as soon as possible.