Ray learned from online that you shouldn’t drive over 50 mph and over 50 miles on a donut spare and being the cautious engineer he is, was worried that we would damage the transmission. So I got to work in the am to find a tow company. I decided to try AAA first and again they came through. Tow truck would be here in an hour, plenty of time for the 2 hr drive to Bozeman for our 12 o’clock appt at Firestone. Also in time for me to have lunch with Megan, my former coworker at POST. We’d been trying to meet up after her plans to come camping got cancelled due to rain, and our plans to meet in Big Sky didn’t work out with the road closure and our tire mishap.
Yellowstone Towing arrived, the owner of the company that came last night. He lives in Island Park ID in a 5,000 sq ft house on 2 acres he bought for $1.3M decades ago. We didn’t even know there was a subdivision of close to 30 houses as from the highway, we always pass just a few fly shops. Apparently wealthy mostly Californians own houses in the tens of millions. He grew up on a dairy farm in northern Illinois, son of the lical police chief and started out with United van lines then trucking, and now owns the tow company but also transports large construction equipment. He survived stage 3 prostrate cancer and has been a deputy working with youth in trouble with drinking and drugs. He hired the deaf boy a few months ago, formerly in trouble drinking but now good. He said he checks up on youth to help them get clean – they need someone who cares as most have absentee parents. He was anti Pelosi, anti Newsom; we didn’t go deeper than that! He talked about how they never shut down during Covid and said the autopsies showed those vaccinated had sticky blood ( it did something to the coagulation) and those who got Covid had been vaccinated, the rest of them had natural antibodies. No one died. We kept our mouths shut. I asked if there is a doctor shortage and he said no, local kids have come back to practice in Rexburg about an hour away. All in all he was a nice guy and a decent person and we got to Firestone on time.
Lunch with Megan was fun. She brought her son Weston,an adorable 8 yr old. Their lives are so different than before they moved out 5 yrs ago from Pescadero. Their kids raise 5 pigs and 10 chickens for 4 H and they have goats and dogs. She said life is less stressful, people have better work life balance, where they work so they can do the things they love. She said she’s seen too many people get degrees because they have to and don’t end up doing what they love.The schools in the area are good but the kids learn practical skills in 4 H instead of academic enrichment after school. There are a slew of campgrounds and ski slopes close by. It’s a good life if you can stand the winters!
We got our new tires and stayed in until the rains stopped then spent the evening fishing. The snow capped hills made it feel like early spring, not summer.
