Ashley Family Bonding Trip: Day 1 – Travel Time

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Saturday, May 24th

Ready to kick off the recap of the Ashley Family Fun-Time Bonding Trip to the ranch?  Here we go!  First, a little background:

A few months back, Dad and Risa (Dad’s lady friend) sent out an email to the Ashley side of the family, asking who would be interested in getting together for a family bonding vacation.  Risa’s family (the Scott’s) own Padlock Ranch, a beef ranching enterprise near the Montana/Wyoming border, and one of the facilities on the Ranch is Wolf Mountain Lodge; the Scott’s would be generously allowing us access to the Lodge during our stay.  Chris and I jumped at the chance to visit, as did Uncle Gene and Aunt Linda (Dad's brother and sister-in-law), as well as Jim and Leigh (my brother and sister in law).

We started off our family adventures on Thursday, when Dad and Risa headed east in a rental truck to the Phoenix area.  In the process of restructuring their backyard, they had several items they didn’t need anymore, and we were happy to take their old shade canopy. 


It’s a bit on the DIY side…

After dropping the canopy with us, they headed to the Brown side of the family (also located here in 
Phoenix) to spend the night and help celebrate Graduation the next day.  After Graduation on Friday, we met Dad and Risa as they returned the rental truck, then took them back with us to our house to meal plan for the trip and eat sushi, which is essential to a successful trip.  Of course.

EARLY the next morning, the four of us stumbled out of the house and headed for the airport.  Here we are, riding the bus from the airport parking lot:


Dad and Risa, early morning style


Exceptionally early, but at least the sun is up.
And we have caffeine.

The trip from Phoenix to Denver was quick and easy, most likely aided in part by the Buddhist monk that was travelling on our flight.*  In Denver, we met up with Jim and Leigh, who did us a solid by purchasing us sandwiches so we would have food to eat once we finished our dash through the terminal toward our next gate.


All hail Jim and Leigh, procurers of noms.

Once we arrived in Billings, we met up with Uncle Gene and Aunt Linda and claimed our baggage** while Jim and Leigh secured their rental car.  Due to a recent hail storm in the area, several rental car companies had limited stock, so the compact car Jim and Leigh originally rented turned into this:


“They see me rollin’ / they be hatin’”

As it turned out, this was a fortuitous turn of events, as we needed the extra space for luggage and food (more on that later).  We all crammed into the mini-van for the trip to rent the big van, which was a bit of a 
feat:


True family bonding starts now
This might not be technically legal

At Rent-a-Wreck, we grabbed the big van, which I was thrilled to see was Ragnar-level quality:


So.much.white.space!
Brain.overloading!

We then split up for a bit; Jim and Risa took the mini-van to Risa’s brother Randy’s house to borrow coolers and a radio, while Dad, Uncle Gene, Aunt Linda, Leigh, Chris, and I started our trip to Costco.  We found a Qdoba for lunch*** and as we finished eating, Jim and Risa arrived.  We then waded into the fray of shopping for six days’ worth of meals for eight people at a Costco mid-afternoon on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend.  Our timing may not have been ideal, but once we got into our flow, we were able to finish up the shopping trip.  As you may imagine, this resulted in a lot of groceries:


Three carts worth - 
One cart may entirely be beer and wine.

After Costco, we headed to Albertson’s to grab just a few more things that we didn’t need to buy in extreme bulk, then we hopped on the road for the trip to the Lodge.  While we were on the road, Trink, Risa’s sister, texted us a picture of another hail storm that just blew through:


Holy crap!

Although we never had hail (thankfully), we did experience a bit of wet weather during our drive, which made napping in the back of the van an enticing idea.


Green, but overcast


Chris, taking his turn

After driving for a few hours, including bumping down unpaved ranch roads, we made it to the Lodge, which was absolutely stunning – more pictures to come on this later.  We unpacked the vans, checked into our respective rooms, then convened in the kitchen to put together dinner – hamburgers and zucchini on the grill.

 
The Lazy Susan on the main dining table –
All of the icons are the different brands associated with the Ranch.

After dinner, we broke out the Scotch and headed upstairs to the Lodge’s loft for a nightcap, supervised by the buffalo.


Scotchy Scotch Scotch


No guy on this buffalo.

Time for bed!

Later!

Amy

* Who knows, really, but I’m sure his presence didn’t hurt.

** So.much.baggage.

 *** Second lunch for some of us.  Whatever.  It’s vacation.

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