Saying Goodbye

We just arrived home from a very fast, unplanned road trip to Montana to say good bye to Grandma Shirley Melon (Tara's Grandma). Grandma Melon passed away a few weeks ago in Spokane Washington.

The last week before she passed I kept thinking about her and remembering silly little things like the treats she would keep around the house for us kids. There were always drumsticks in the freezer, butterscotch candies on the side table that held the newspapers and magazines. On the kitchen counter were wintergreen certs that I would constantly eat.  She would also always have powdered donuts and milk for us.

On the day Grandma passed away I went to the grocery store and bought some powdered donuts and milk because I had a random craving for them. It wasn't until a few days later we got the news of her passing.

Aunt Annette and Uncle Frank took the ashes to Missoula, Montana on Monday Oct. 4th at about 4 pm and placed them in a beautiful black stone mausoleum in St. Mary's Cemetery. The same cemetery where her infant daughter, my aunt Carol is buried. It's a beautiful place with lots of unique tombstones.

We weren't planning on making the trip but Monday morning when we woke up for work, I decided I would regret it forever if I didn't go and say goodbye. So within 20 minutes Steve and I were packed and out the door with a rental car waiting for us.

We rented a little Chevy Aveos and started the long drive up to Missoula. It's about 8 hours from Salt Lake. We made really good time, stopped at the usual places along the way and captured the epic buffalo just out side of Dillon.

We missed Annette and Frank by about 20 minutes which was sad but we were able to find the mausoleum, still unmarked since the stone hasn't been engraved yet, and say our good byes. We also stopped by and said good bye to Carol.

We stayed in Missoula for about two hours. While there we found grandma's old house which was once pink and brown and is now black and white and updated. It looks very different. The pigeon coop and garage however still look the same. The pigeon coop had insulation in the openings to keep the homing pigeons my grandpa raised from coming back. I always wondered how that work since they sold the pigeons after he passed. The old dog house my grandpa made for my mom was still outback next to the garage.

We also stopped and grabbed hoagies and hoagie cheese fries from hoagie ville. You can't make a trip to Missoula without getting one. Then we started the trip home.

We managed to get to Idaho Falls at 11 but were to tired to finish the drive home so spent the night at the same hotel that saved us during the snow storm of doom a few years ago. The room was non-smoking but man it smelled awful and all of our luggage and belongs share the wondrous sent now. Fortunately it can all be washed.

We left Idaho Falls around 9 and finished our 1079 mile drive at about 12:30, totaling 16 hours of driving in 27 hours.  Needless to say we are super exhausted but really glad we were able to say goodbye.