Big Sky Country

Wed07/22/09

On Tuesday, my Dad and I took 16x on a cross-country trip to my Aunt and Uncle's place in Round Up, Montana.

We left our house in Idaho around 5am, and landed at the Round Up airport almost 4 hours later. The flight was beautiful. I wish I had taken pictures, but they wouldn't do justice to the amazing feeling of flying at 9500 feet above sea level over mist covered mountains of western Montana. I'll try to get a good picture or two on the way back to Idaho this Thursday. The flight in was the best I've ever taken, and I'm sure a lot of that had to do with the fact that I wasn't just a passenger on this flight, rather, I was one of the pilots. On this trip I've learned a lot about charting a course ahead of time and using VFR tools to navigate that course. This stuff I've been reading in books the last couple months started to make some sense as I was applying it to an actual flight.

Yesterday, after arriving, uncle Pat and aunt Maureen took my Dad and I out on a hike to see a large, and seemingly out of place, sandstone formation that sat upon the top of a hill in the middle of what seems to me like wilderness, but was actually a huge ranch. The ranch and the rock are both named Chimney Bute. Many people had carved their names in the stone over the years. Some signatures dated back to the 19th century. I added my name to the stone too.

Today we went to work on the fence to my aunt Maureen's garden, which is the main reason we made the trip out here in the first place. It was a good day of hot sun and tough work, but the garden is now 50% larger than it was.

Jared M. Thiele

Lisa's Visit

Mon07/20/09

My girlfriend, Lisa, came out to visit me from July 17th to the 20th and we had a blast together. It was the first time my parents have got to meet her and get to know her, and of course all went well with that. Very good!

The weekend went by so quick that I wish we had more time, but I feel like there was enough to keep us busy. We went biking, swimming, attempted boating, disc golfing, and my Dad even took us for an airplane tour around the lake.

(I'll have to add more pictures as I get them from Lisa.)

And if that wasn't enough, we stayed at a beautiful lake front cabin that belongs to some of my parents friends, and inside they had the whole DVD set of the HBO series John Adams. We watched all 7 episodes. Ha.

Jared M. Thiele

Fourth of July Weekend

I took my Grandpa to a Padres game at Petco Park yesterday. Grandpa is a big fan and watches almost every Padres game on TV. Here's a picture of us at the game.

I've been moving around a lot since I put up my last blog post, but I'll try my best to catch you up without making this too long winded.

First off, I was back in Minneapolis last week for Lisa's birthday party weekend where a bunch of people set up tents, hung out by the fire, drank beer, and had an awesome time pretending to be camping. I say pretending because there was no amount of roughing it the whole time, I mean, there was a Wal-Mart within walking distance.

I tried to catch up with as many people in Minneapolis that I could, but sorry if I missed you. I'll be back at the end of August.

After getting back to Idaho, I had 2 days before I set out for San Diego for the 4th of July weekend, and most importantly, my Grandmother's 80th birthday. I haven't been to see any family in San Diego in maybe 9 years, so it was a good reminder of how much these people mean to me and that I shouldn't take that for granted.