Montana

We left Montana in Mom and Dad's white Subaru Outback, which they had kindly lent us for the time we visited in the west. Unfortunately, Mom and Dad were already in Montana when we realized that all was not well with the Subaru. As we drove along, the engine temperature needle steadily began to climb. By the time it became a real problem, we were already way up close to the Idaho/Montana border, which as you can see above is not exactly a heavily populated area. As the engine overheated, we had to open all the windows and turn the heater on high, roasting on an already hot day. The kids were sweaty, we were miserable.

We stopped in a teeny tiny little town in the middle of nowhere (Dubois, ID, pop. 647) for a while in hopes that the radiator was just low (and tried to make it fun by visiting the "historic site" which consisted of a site saying that some native Americans once camped several miles north of this spot. Not exactly historically meaty.) But when the engine cooled, Michael took a look and the radiator was full. So we were 6 hours from home and three hours from Montana, with nothing north of us and not much for several hours south. We didn't know what to do.

So Michael prayed for us. And we started to drive.

After a few minutes, the clouds moved in. Within ten minutes, we crossed the border and joyfully noticed that the outdoor temperature, previously at a rather warm 89 degrees, had dropped to 80. Our astonished eyes watched as the clouds kept rolling in and the temperature dropped like a rock. Within thirty minutes of our prayer, the outdoor temperature had dropped to 65 degrees and a cool rain poured down over the hood of our car. The weather stayed cool for the rest of our trip, and a mere twelve hours after setting out on a nine hour trip, we finally made it home.

Ha, I just typed that without thinking. Back to Montana. Home!