The next morning I got up early and decided to head to Billings, MT.  Now I hadn't cleared it with the woman I was going to visit but she was somewhat impulsive herself so what could go wrong.  I called her when I got there and she was already out with the girls doing thrift stores.  Later for dinner should be ok, she said.  But then later came and a guy she was interested in was coming to town for a dinner she had already agreed to but wasn't sure it was going to happen.  Oh well.  I did get to see her new house and I was going to be able to tell our friend Annie in St Augustine that Patse (picture) is alive and well enough to still look 30 years younger than the rest of us.

Anyway I decided to stay in Billings for the night so I found an Econolodge and woke up the next day --sick, so I stayed another day.  Ok the next day, I headed back to Spearfish.  When I got there I gave Schlek an audio book I'd been listening to, an historical novel about Sherman's march to the sea.  And then I was back on I90 and headed to Rapid City.

Rapid City found me with my longest senior moment of the trip.  Even though four years before I'd stayed at Tammy Jacobi’s house for 2 weeks it still took me over an hour to find it.  But, when I finally did, nobody was home.  40 years ago Tammy was my first serious girlfriend, and even though it didn’t work out, we’ve stayed great friends.  So I called Tammy Glover.  She and her husband Mel have been almost spooky touchstones in my life which is another story.  Tammy G was home, glad to see me and waiting for Mel.  When Mel got home we went to a deli to get dinner, my treat, and, since we were close, stopped at Jacobi’s house to say hi.  She had daughter Maran’s family staying with her so it was old home week.  Maran is Reed’s age and she had a new two year old who looked and acted just like Reed at that age.  As Tammy’s parents had moved to Iowa I told her I’d stop and see them on the way back to FL.  The next day was Friday and Catherine’s memorial was Saturday from 4-6 and Glovers had a trip planned so we were all gone by 9am. 

 Four hours of driving and I decided to stop in Miller SD at a “colorful” motel.  By colorful I mean my usual price range which in this case meant having to kill about 2 dozen flies while I watched the news, etc. I think there was one left who stayed well away from me.