A Montana Wedding - Part II

3:00 AM comes around waaaayyy too quickly. John and I stayed at The Estates (thanks, William!) on Wednesday night so we didn't have to get up as early had we slept at home. We left out and met Freddy and Val at Val's around 4:00. Then we had to pick up Mike in Reston (at William's office) where Mike was leaving his car. Our 6:00 AM flight left without incident and the first stop was Chicago and then on to Denver. After grabbing a bite to eat, we chilled out at the gate for our flight to Great Falls by playing Hearts, reading and knitting (me, of course!):


We ran into Heidi's hubby, John, who was on our flight and on his way to a business meeting in Helena before joining his family (and us) later in the afternoon. On the plane, I was seated next to a guy who kinda looked like Ronald Reagan with very gray hair and was in the funeral home business. He was an ultra conservative living outside of Denver and was NOT happy so many Prius-driving ultra liberals were moving into his neighborhood. Are all conservative republicans this cranky???

We drove about 40 minutes or so from the airport in Great Falls to Fort Benton. We stayed at the Grand Union Hotel, which first opened in 1882. Here's a view of the Missouri River at the park in front of our hotel:



After checking in and chillin' out for a bit, we headed to the convenience store to get some (LOTS) of beer and then drove out to Shonkin. Once we turned off the main road towards Shonkin, it was all gravel. Here's Freddy enjoying the beautiful Montana scenery:

We arrived at the H family home just as Tiffy, Heidi, mom Nancy and a some of Tiffy's gal pals were heading off to a bridal shower in nearby Geraldine. Although Val and I could have gone to the shower, we decided to stay with the guys back at the house, where dad Merle had a few hats available to keep the sun off our heads:

Bart, one of Heidi's childhood friends, was helping with the wedding and brought his brush mower to clear some of the grass around the perimeter. Freddy took over the mowing, so Bart enjoyed a beer with William:

It was getting close to 9:00 PM and we wanted to get back to the hotel (and to get some dinner) before it got too dark. We ate at Bob's Riverfront Restaurant, where Val had her first Montana steak (yum!). I was so tired, I can't even remember what I had to eat. Should have taken a picture! Some type of sandwich? I think I wrote it down in my little notebook.

Thus ends Day 1 in Montana... stay tuned for more!