followed by...

AARGH.

This was not the best day, though it started out just fine. We saw an osprey nest

and watched the 3 birds for a short while. But after that...

It all started with pulling into a rest stop and realizing that our sunroof wouldn't close. This was problematic because of the heavy rain that was falling. So we had to find a Ford dealership who could help us. We did that by calling Dave and asking him to look it up for us, and send directions, which he did. He found the Brook-Hannah Ford Dealership in Butte Montana.

We pulled into Butte with the realization that we had just missed a hailstorm, and a dandy one at that. The dealership was shovelling out their car bays. We pulled in, and found out that there was a technical service bulletin out on just this problem with our car. But, it was going to take several days for the part to come in. The service guys didn't know how to close the sunroof, and none of us thought that the little blind inside the car (that slides under the sunroof) would keep out the rain.

And then one service guy genius had one more idea. He took apart the back of the car, and removed the motor for the sunroof. Then they were able to manually close it and duct tape the whole thing shut. Woo hoo! But wouldn't you know it, there was a weather warning out for another hail storm, possibly worse than the one that had just gone through, and we could see it coming. So the friendly Ford people suggested that we keep the car inside and wait with them, even though some of them were waiting to go home because the service shop was closed.

We LOVE the Brooks Hannah Ford People!!

The storm passed and we were on our way. For an hour. And then, there was another hail storm to deal with. It resulted in this

and this

and this

We were quite late getting to the B&B, but we were certainly made to feel welcome. A key had been left for us, and clear instructions on where our room was. We walked up the stairs and opened the door to find a gorgeous room, great big huge jacuzzi tub and a stuffed moose to say hello.