Chris and I were up early to help my parents with some last minute things. Chris programmed their phone for them and added names and numbers to their address book. He worked with my dad on the antennae on the roof but wasn't able to get the channel they wanted. He recommended a different antennae that might give them more channels even. I helped figure out why my mom's answering machine was giving the wrong date with messages (it was set for 2013).
After breakfast and packing the van, we pulled out of the driveway around 10:30 am. Kristen was so sad. She always has tears at goodbyes, and this one was no different. She was also sad that she had only bought a pencil with the money Chris had given her. He offered to stop at the duty-free shop at the border if she wanted. She wanted and was able to find a key chain and a winter hat (touque if you speak Canadian). She wore that crazy hat all day long even though the temps were in the 90s.
Our luck, our bad luck, in picking the wrong lane at the border continued. We watched as the lane next to us would let eight or so cars through to the one car in our lane. We sat at the border for a half an hour. Booo. I can usually count on pleasant border agents who normally say, "Welcome Home." This lady agent must have been having a bad day. We were happy just to pass through without any question.
We drove to Great Falls, MT where we stopped for a quick lunch at Wendy's and then on to Billings where we would spend the evening. It was a 6-hour driving day. As we drove to Billings, I looked at my arm and suddenly realized that my fitbit was missing. Oh no. As I thought about my morning, I couldn't remember putting it back on after showering and was hopeful that it was somehow mixed up in my laundry. I grabbed my phone and tried to sync the fitbit app. Whereas my mom's app wouldn't sync when she lost her fitbit a couple of days ago, my phone said that it had connected. I was hopeful that my phone was somewhere in the car. I couldn't really do much searching until we stopped for the evening, and then I scoured the car.
Chris checked us in to the hotel and Misha opted to stay and veg. I helped her find a pizza in the small hotel shop which she then cooked in the room's microwave. Chris, Amy, Kristen, and I drove around looking for a place to eat and found Bruno's. It was Italian and tasty. Chris and I split a meal and the other two were able to order kids' meals. None of us were all that hungry.
We drove around to find a park to stretch a bit. As we were driving by a golf course, we suddenly heard a pop on the roof of the car. It was a drive-by golfing! Didn't cause any damage, but it was kind of funny to watch the people across the intersection from us as they watched the golf ball bounce toward their wind shield. Their eyes were kind of buggy. The golf ball missed their car.
I went through my suitcase full of dirty laundry three times that evening. My fitbit app showed that I was still connected. I pulled my suitcase out of the car and rolled it inside the hotel and closed the door. When I went back to the car, the app showed that it was searching, meaning my app was no longer in the car. As I rolled my suitcase upstairs, the step count on the app started to increase.
I found my fitbit as I opened the suitcase. It wasn't in with the dirty laundry but had somehow gotten caught up in the edging and fell out as I fully opened my suitcase. Whew. What a relief.