MARYLAND VISITORS

Interesting past few days. Last Saturday we met brother Lee and his wife, Irene, at the airport. They had flown in from the Baltimore-Washington International (BWI) airport to Billings. The two hour time delay has been with them all week. Since they plan to be here only for one week they don’t seem to be inclined to adjust to Mountain Time. Sunday evening our Mark and Rosanna (nephew) invited all to their place for a cookout. A number of my own children were in town to visit with their distant relative so there was a nice crowd out on Blue Creek. Jim and Cec with Natalie were in from Dickinson, ND; Annie and Bill were here from over in Powder River County (130 miles to the East); and Ken came down late from Helena MT. Pete, of course, lives here in Billings with me. In addition brother John and Jean were with us along with their daughter, Lisa and her husband, Dennis. It was a good family gathering.

Monday many of us were able to go visit the new Visitor’s Center at Pompey’s Pillar which is about 40 miles east of Billings. Most of them climbed the stair case past William Clark’s signature and some to the top of the sandstone rock pillar which Clark named. On Tuesday John and Jean took the Marylanders to the Big Horn Battlefield where Custer met his demise. That evening was able to take them out to the Feedlot Restaurant in Shepherd which is about 20 miles from my driveway. Betty and I had taken Sister Dorothy Ann and Edward there a few years ago.

I’m looking forward to being with the visitors tomorrow and showing them some of Billings which is now over 100,000 population. It was interesting seeing in the Huntington WV newspaper this morning that the hometown is losing population and is now around 49,000.