How Chris Finally Got Home

Holy Crap-I just figured something out on blogger. All of this time I have been uploading my pics and posting while on the Edit Html tab. While trying to load the only pic I have this morning, I fumbled around and clicked on the Compose tab. I always wondered how people got their posts to do cool things like different font color, center and stike-out-now I know. And you can see the pics while you are typing-on Edit Html all you see it the Html code. Wow-don't know if I feel really smart for figuring it out or really dumb for not figuring it out sooner-LOL.

Alrighty then-so where was I?
Oh yes, so Tuesday morning Chris and I woke up rather abruptly to some serious lightening and window rattling thunder boomers. It was 4:30 in the morning. All the noise was followed by a heavy rain. But it was a fast moving storm and it was over quickly. So we dozed off again until daylight. Chris wanted to get an early start because he has to ride his motorcycle 700 miles in one day. He gets his bags ready and gets ready to take off. Of course, there I am out there with the camera documenting his departure. As he is leaving, I am trying to snap a picture and the memory if full. Crap! As I am desperately trying to delete a picture(any picture) so I can get one of him leaving, I hear the motorcycle engine rev, a crash, then no engine but a lot of cussing. When I look up, I see Chris and his Ultra Glide laying in the mud. HOLY SHIT! I just about threw the camera in the mud but luckily the tailgate was down on the pickup and that is where it landed and I haul ass up the road to help him. Now mind you, I am in PJ's and am barefoot. Chris is cussing up a storm and pissed beyond belief. We get the motorcycle up and he gets on. I am thinking we need to make sure that everything is okay before he takes off again, but he is so angry that he takes off up the road, slipping and sliding in the mud. I am left standing there to watch him leave with mud squishing up between my toes, thinking this is not a good start to this trip.
Finally, I go inside and wash the mud off my feet. I don't have a good feeling about this trip. It started with a crash and Chris has no cell phone. Seven hundred miles in one day is a lot anyway-but on a motorcycle?
Within an hour the phone rings. I was relieved that it was Chris on the other end. He made it about 50 miles down the road and stopped to fill his bike up. But he can't move his knee and is wondering if I can call mom and see if I can drive one of her pickups for a couple of days. He wants to leave his bike and take the Duramax. I told him that is no problem and to come on back. I am relieved.
I called mom, told her what happened and asked if I could drive one of the ranch pickups. Somehow mom totally misinterpets everything. She thinks Chris and I got into a fight before he left and while she is saying its okay to drive one of her pickups she is rattling on about us fighting and our tempers and blah, blah, blah. I stopped trying to explain that he was only mad after he dumped his bike and just said "Thanks, I gotta go." Time enough to explain later-Megan and I have to get the Duramax cleaned out so Chris can get down the road in it.
Mom calls back after a little while and I finally get her to understand that Chris and I did not get in a fight, that he dumped his bike and his knee is wrenched. Once she understands, everything is okay and she does what my mom does best--she comes up with a much better plan. Why didn't we call the airlines and see if we could get him on a flight. Now why didn't I think of that?

So when Chris gets back to the house, we take a few minutes to discuss the options and I start looking online for flights out of Pierre. They were $1,500 bucks. Chris says no way. Finally, I decide to call the airlines direct to see if we can get a better deal. YES!! We got Chris on a flight, out of Pierre, the next day for $450. Hey-it would cost about that in fuel and still take 11 hours for him to get home. This way he left at 6:30am and was home, in Grand Junction by 9:30am. Couldn't beat that deal with a stick.

That night we loaded up and went to spend the night in Pierre. We almost didn't get a room. Now who would think that every hotel in Pierre, SD would be booked on a Tuesday night? Not me! But we did and got to enjoy an awesome steak dinner at a little hole-in-the wall restaurant. The next morning, I got Chris to the airport and because the Pierre airport is so small, I got to hang out with him until he boarded. We got to watch a gorgeous sunrise and the news. As we was watching both of us held our breath and gave each other a wide-eyed look. Apparently, a devastating hail storm had come up from Nebraska and cut a wide swath just 50 miles east of my home town. Softball sized hail covered the ground like snow and there was not a single leaf left on the trees. Chris would have been in the direct line of that storm if he had been on his bike headed back to Colorado. OMG!

Things happen for a reason, even if you don't know what the reason is at that moment. There was no reason that Chris should have dumped his bike. He is a seasoned rider and a little mud is normally nothing to him. He doesn't know how he wrenched his left knee, the one he uses to shift. His bike went down on its right side. And the odd thing is he could hardly move his knee all day Tuesday, but Wednesday morning he said it was fine. All I know is that if he had been on his bike or even in the pickup, he would have driven right into the middle of that hailstorm on Tuesday and the outcome would not have been good. Don't things like that just make you wonder about karma and the universe?

My karma was pretty good too. I picked up this awesome 101 piece drill bit set for $25.00....

Everything I will ever need in one handy little roll up bag. SWEET!!

EDITED!! To add pictures of the new purses my brother made and sent home...
That is inlaid hand beading on this black number with matching wallet.

And I just love this chocolate brown alligator bag...

All of the bags that my brother makes are 100% hand cut, hand sewn and one of a kind. His work is so impressive. He wants to me to start selling it but I don't have any idea of how to get it out there. Anyone have any ideas besides Ebay?