Home

We arrived back home from vacation today.  It was a good and bittersweet trip.  Halfway is Richland, so we stopped for the night at Jane & Bruce's place; it's always good to see two dear friends.

Then it was on to Montana.  As we drove across Hwy 41, the Tobacco Root Mountains came into view and that feeling of "almost home" came over us.  We met up with the McSki's for dinner and then tried to locate a few friends on the way to the place where we were staying.

The short version here is that we did make connections in town that night and the next day.  I managed to finish my sermon on Saturday.  Later on Saturday night we went to the Twin Bridges graduation dinner.

Sunday we showed up at church for the Bible study at 9 with a few of my former parishioners.  Service was at 10 and we had a houseful.  The only other time I've seen that place that full was when we had the joint service with the Methodists.

We saw most everyone who was a member there.  A few people were missing, but generally, we got to see everyone.  Even a few people who I didn't expect to see were there.

Service went well enough -- there were a couple of liturgical gaffes, but you'll have that with a supply priest, and I blubbered my way through the sermon, but managed to stay coherent enough that it made sense.

And then Monday we said goodbye to everyone who was back in town on Monday -- from Macel's Booze & Buns to Bethel UMC on the east side of the street to the accountant and the bank on the west side of the street.

Lots of smiles, lots of tears, and now I'm home.  Maybe more on the trip later, but now, I'm just happy to be getting back into my regular routine.