IRONMAN COUR D'ALENE.

Packing up to leave tomorrow! Can't believe its time already. Bruce, Tom, and Mike all left today. Don and I leave tomorrow (driving of course) but plan to stop at Mt. Rushmore and Badlands Tues./Wed. I would love to spend more time at some of the historical museums, like the Wounded Knee Museum, but am not sure how much time we will have. The focus of the trip at this point, of course, is the Ironman race, not sightseeing, so I will have to be content with whatever time we have.

Shelley is flying in on Tuesday, and Dan, Libby, Kim, and Pat on Wednesday and Thursday. We will have a large group once all assembled: 12 in all. I'll try to keep up on the travels and the IM activities as best as I can, but my laptop is not wireless at this point and is as slow as a turtle. I will be hanging out with a photography and internet guru, so maybe I can finally get some tips on posting pictures and fixing this blog to link up with others' blogs.

From South Dakota and Wyoming, I am thinking the best course would be to go through Bozeman, MT. where my son is living. I had told him the week after, but it might work better on the way out. We have to go right through there anyway, and it is only another 5 hours or so to Coeur D'Alene.

We are also planning on staying at Glacier Nat'l Park, and I won't go home until I see Yellowstone again. A sad thing about Yellowstone. A woman from the area, and on the school board of my kids' schools, fell to her death from a ledge in Yellowstone. I am so glad I wasn't there then.

So two whole weeks away from home. I don't think I have ever been gone that long. Of course I will worry periodically about what's going on at the house, etc., but will have to hope to make contact by phone. Last time I was out that way, no phone service most of the time, so that was frustrating.

I'm glad too now that I did the tri yesterday, because for the next two weeks it will be hit or miss on the workouts, especially with the travelling. And I'm not too sure about running through wooded areas with bears, buffalo, and any other wild creature there is. Don has delusions of grandeur about all the hikes, etc. we will be taking, forgetting the fact that 1) there are wild animals out there, and 2) he will have just done an Ironman. I'm thinking we will be driving more than hiking.

So I'm off to bed finally only to get up at the crack of dawn to hit the road.