The Beginning

Hello everyone and welcome to the Smith family blog. I thought it would be fun to start this blog and update it as we make our way across the country from Idaho to North Carolina. Then, once we get to NC, I will continue to update the blog to keep you up-to-date on our lives in Jacksonville.

Recruiting duty is finally over (thank you Jesus!) and as I said above, we are on our way to Jacksonville, North Carolina. This should be our last duty station as after the three years there, Monte will have been in the Marine Corps for 20 years and will be eligible for retirement. I can't believe we are almost done. It just seems like yesterday that I was flying into Palm Springs and then driving with Monte out to 29 Palms. What a shock it was to see that place. While I don't much like the desert, we sure did have a good time those first three years and met some really great friends. We were stationed in Jacksonville about 10 years ago and are looking forward to going back. To see how much it has changed and especially to meet up with some good friends that we haven't seen in awhile.

So, the first part of our trip began on Thursday, July 17th. We rolled out of Idaho Falls at about 7pm. It was a long day at the house with TMO. All you can really do is stand around and watch the guys load your stuff onto their truck. Once that was done, I finished up the cleaning I wanted to do in the house. Say a prayer for us that our house will sell soon. We really wanted it to sell before we left, but what can you do. I'm hoping that with it empty, maybe that will do it for someone, knowing that they can move right in. Anyway, we left Idaho Falls and camped for the night at Georgetown Lake. What a beautiful place. We only spent the night and then went on into Philipsburg to the famous Sweet Palace. They have just about every kind of candy you can imagine and the boys were really excited to be able to get a mixed bag each with their own choices of candy.

After the candy store, we went up to Gem Mountain. You can buy a bucket of dirt up there and "mine" your own Montana Saphires. We ended up gettting 5 cuttable stones and a bunch of flawed stones or ones that were just too small to do anything with. We had a great time and plan to go back there someday. We pulled into Kalispell at about 8 pm that night and have been going nonstop ever since. We've rafted the North Fork, Camped at Bitterroot Lake, toured Glacier National Park, hiked up to Link Lake and so on.

We've been exhausted just about every night, but have been having a great time hanging out with our families. To Uncle Dale, Uncle Danny, Uncle Terry, Uncle Tony, Uncle Mark and all the others, we're sorry we didn't get a chance to visit with you, but are looking forward to retiring and moving back home so we can see you whenever we want. We love you!

We're planning on leaving tomorrow, August 4th and heading East along the highline of Montana (i.e. Highway 2). I'll be updating the blog whenever I get Internet access, so check back often. I would love to hear from any and everyone too. If you get a chance, leave me a comment or email me.