Montana Trip

I'm gonna talk about some things on this here Google Map. Prep yourself at

No, the blog post title is not slang designating a sex worker in the Big Sky State; it means more like "Off to Montana we go!" I'm gonna jot down some memories of my trip last week right ding dang here, just for my own fun and to archive them and to share the joys and perils of it with anyone who cares.

Back a few years ago, my much-loved sister-in-law Amy told my life's love, Lee Ann, her sister, that my blog was "his book." That sentence scans questionably but the implication is likely true. I certainly haven't blogged all that I have thought or done, but the fictional account of my life is hinted at in my "actual" book, Lives. 

I am also working on a "sham novel" memoir that records how I remember living my life. I will perhaps only share that with my son, Colin, so he can get to it if he wants to and share it in ways he deems appropriate. Colin, my lad, that includes hitting the Delete button. The past is past, after all, and though there may be a few life lessons for the imagined reader, it's painfully honest and factual, notwithstanding the fake names for nearly every character. 

So here we are. I'm back upstairs from making coffee and small talk with the aforementioned Amy, who's in town for a gigantic bash with the other side of the family. Lee Ann and I are spared all but a Sunday morning get-together with everyone at the group's "Nash Bash" at our town's essential breakfast spot, Loveless Cafe. Loveless is the kind of place most locals might arguably only go with friends or family from out of town. I haven't been in years so...good.

But back to the Montana journey, at once epic and chill.

A real benefit of using a blog for this remembrance, to my feeble old mind anyway, is its linkage to the World Wide Web (archaic term) for images and further depth of meaning. I am so glad that's all there. Saves a lot of words. Here's one of my favorite selfies:

Outside the performance room at Zootown Arts and Community Center

The backstory of the trip is pretty quickly told. Back in 2020 (remember the lost years?), Colin I had planned to take a 3 or so week journey to explore a little Alaska. For the uninitiated, I lived in Alaska around 6 years in the late '70s and those years were magical. 

We were set to meet in Seattle and fly together on June 2, 2020. We had auto rental reservations, hotel reservations, some activity deposits downpaid, and such. Anyone flying on or around that date? Probably not so much. I had already contracted Covid back in (I think the last or second to last weekend in) February, and it kicked my ass, though the doctors told me "you test negative for both flu and pneumonia but we're treating you for flu because you have all the symptoms." I took my Theraflu shot and a round of steroids and more and went home. I followed their advice and went to bed, along with gallons of Gatorade and water, and manned it out. Not fun. It had hit me on a Thursday so I missed only two days teaching technology to middle schoolers at McMurray Middle School and was, somewhat shakily, back at work on Monday, fever gone but probably a spreader. Spring Break hit and so did the news of a spreading malaise, and of course by June the world was locked down. No Alaska.

I pursued all the refunds I could for the trip and Lee Ann and I decided to spend some of the money the trip would have cost to buy a hot tub for the back yard. We're still using it occasionally, and I still maintain it (spa owners, you know what I mean), but it never really filled the void Damned Covid-19 had created in my heart by trashing our plans to travel together as father and son.

I retired from my 27 years of teaching on my birthday in 2022, grateful to be out of the increasingly active-shooter-dangerous classroom and tackling the Sisyphean task of engaging young students who had grown totallly disillusioned with being in a classroom, even one with fun activities like Minecraft and digital art. Right next door was the art room led by my colleague and friend Nicholas Forbes, and just two doors down the hall was the music room, led by temporary teachers because our beloved music teacher, Marianne Wheeler, a veteran of 30 years at the school, had not returned from Florida Spring Break. She had checked herself into a Florida hospital with Covid and had died from complications thereof. 

But I digress. But if you have ever been to scottmerrickdotnet before you are used to that, right?

So.

My dear soul mate knew I was  sad about missing that potentially legendary time with our son, and in the Spring of this year she decided it would be good to visit Montana for a week or so in September. The plan was on. Lee Ann and I had spent a fun (but sort of over-scheduled and exhausting) 3 weeks in the UK in June. Funny, I did not blog that epic visit at all. There is a Google album but I have never shared it publicly. Here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/qLxFKxuTDkZvEr4G8

We returned home to our lovely Lemon dawg and our lovely little home the 22nd of June, I spent a few nights camping at Cheatham Dam Lock A campground the 29th through July 2, and on July 20, it was Montana, HO! Here we go:

Wait, I need to do some things in the world and this is already too long for a blog post. I'll be back ASAP. For now, as I used to end my Vanderbilt University "Snacks4theBrain!" podcast, "See yaaaaaaaa..."