After we were done exploring the Lava Tube Caves at Craters of the moon, we made dinner out of the back of our van in the parking lot we had parked in, and then headed for our next destination of Dillon Montana where I had booked us two hotel rooms.
I had originally planned to try to find us lodging in Arco – a nearby town close to Craters of the Moon, but I had read that Craters of the Moon closed at around 6pm so I figured we might as well drive as far North as we could so as to reduce the amount of driving time we’d need to do the next day. However, it was actually only the VISITORS CENTER that closed at six, so really we could have easily spent more time there. I think we ended up leaving Craters at around 8pm.
Our route did take us through Arco though and we were fascinated as we drove in because the nearby mountain was COVERED with numbers. Just covered with them! I’d never seen anything like it. Adam ended up googling to find out more about the history of Arco and discovered that the graduating class has been painting their numbers on the mountain since 1805 (I think). Really quite the interesting history.
From Arco we continued heading North East toward Dillion (a 3 hour drive), but we were just flabbergasted with the lack of ANYTHING around us for miles and miles and miles. It literally was just big open fields of grass and weeds for as far as the eye could see. We were sure glad we had filled up our gas tank just before Craters of the moon so that we didn’t end up stuck off the side of the road. We hardly even saw other cars as we drove and the lack of of cities or lights or people or anyone was a little eerie. Apparently too this is the land that Chief Joseph was famous for protecting when he finally declared he “would fight no more.” Adam told us the story as we drove.
We didn’t end up getting to our hotel (America’s Best) until after 11, but then still had to check in, take in all our luggage, and then get kids to bed, so I don’t think we ended up actually getting to sleep until almost midnight. Boy were we all bushed!
The next morning we got up and took baths, and then headed downstairs for a yummy FREE hotel breakfast of belgium waffles, cereal, fruit, yogurt, hard boiled eggs, bagels, donuts, and an assortment of juices. The owner of the hotel just happened to be a man from India (who we enjoyed talking with) and then we also met a group of older single ladies who were on a girls trip to see all the “ghost towns” in the area. They were pretty fun to talk to as well.
I think we were all a little sleep deprived that morning though because after getting all our luggage packed back in the van, we took off for Poulsen, only to realize that we had forgot to get gas! So we ended up making an illegal turn around on the freeway (we figured the police would rather we turned around than make them come rescue us stranded on the side of the road) and that illegal turn allowed us to get back to Poulsen to fill up our tank. Sure was a crazy way to start out the morning.
Then after driving for a few hours, we all started getting hungry again so we stopped at a rest stop along the way and made sandwiches, fruit, and chips for lunch. At some point the kids and I all needed to use the restroom so we headed towards the bathroom where we found what looked to be a homeless girl trying to find a ride to Seattle. It ended up that she wasn’t homeless at all, but was hitch hiking from place to place, and was trying to get to Seattle where she had a job lined up. We ended up taking her a big plate of food to be nice and since she didn’t look like she’ed eaten a good meal in awhile. It was nice to do some service along the way. Afterwards we all headed down to the nearby river to do some rock throwing and puddle jumping!
It ended up taking us just over 4 hours to get to Poulson where we were able to check into a 2 bedroom condo we had rented. It ended up that we’d had a miss-communication about our lodging though (I thought we had a much bigger place that slept 15, not 4) and so the owner was nice and gave us a second 2 bedroom condo to use during our stay. It ended up that he actually had 5 different units and could sleep up to 15, but Vrbo didn’t allow him to split up the units for some reason so he had to advertise it funny. It all worked out though and we were able to get two units to fit our family.
Also, I should mention too that during this trip Adam had been going back and forth with a company called Domo who had made him a job offer. Originally the offer came in much lower than his current salary, and so he turned it down, but then they came back with a better offer, but even the 2nd offer, would have meant a pretty significant hit financially due to some vested stock we would have missed out on (close to $40,000) as well as about $10,000 in benefits Adobe offers, and a $2000 referral bonus Adam wouldn’t get if he moved. So although Adam was super excited about the job opportunity, the move just didn’t make financial sense at the time to make and we both felt like the timing just wasn’t right. So Adam counter-offered again with a number that would have been a no-brainer for him to go over, but the company didn’t end up being able to match that offer – and so negotiations ceased. But it was fun to think about some big possible changes in our life. And we are both grateful for prayer and the spirit to help us know how to move forward with possible big life changes.