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Danielle Jablonski
New York, NY
Birthday:
September 13
Hometown:
Townsville, Australia
Bio:
Click here
Contact:
Danielle@alt9.net
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Diary
entries: |
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Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
Week 10
Week 11
Week 12 |
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Week 9
July 11 - 17 |
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DATE:
July 11 |
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ENTRY:
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DATE:
July 12 |
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ENTRY:
We left Lisa and Mark's place today -
thanks again for having us and looking
after us so well! Especially the
cheescake! :)
We got
internet at Arby's outside of Bozeman
and I got a hold of mum in Australia to
find out about my brother Andre and his
girlfriend Sam who are having a baby.
Sam is due any day and is in the
hospital now so I guess I'll be an aunt
soon!
I got
to meet Meg's dad Hilliard and his wife
Lynette at their place in Billings and
we ate pizza and played cards by
candlelight till late before watching a
movie on the computer. The power came on
right before we went to bed. Go figure
:)
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DATE:
July 13 |
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ENTRY:
We headed from Billings to the ranch
this morning. We passed the Judith Gap
windfarm and got to read all about it.
Those things are enormous and really
expensive. I believe some of the parts
even come all the way from Australia (or
were you fooling me Hilliard??). We also
got an ice-cream treat from Hilliard on
the way.
The ranch
is awesome. It's so big I can't even
fathom it. We got to meet Cody, Nancy,
Alli and Lane today and we played cards
into the night.
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DATE:
July 14 |
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ENTRY:
Today we did a 10 mile hike up a
mountain to see some ice caves. I am so
sore already I can't wait to see if I
can even walk tomorrow... 10 miles is
the longest I've ever hiked before and I
think I won't hike that far again for a
very long time. The ice caves were very
cool though when we finally did get to
them and the view from the top of the
mountain was amazing. The land just
sprawls out in front of you as far as
you can see in different colors of
greens and yellows depending on what is
being farmed and then off in the
distance in every direction you can see
the outlines of mountains. It was
definitely worth the walk to see that
view.
The trip
took us right on 6 hours round trip and
then we went to visit some more of Meg's
family at their ranch. We got to ride a
horse, I learned how to drive a
4-wheeler (thanks Nikkie) and we got to
get a close up view of some elk. We took
lots of photos so check them out
here. |
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DATE:
July 15 |
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ENTRY:
Hilliard woke us up at a
ridiculous time this morning (5:30) and
hauled us off to a diner for a big
breakfast before the two hour drive to
Great Falls, MT for the Shriner Parade.
It's the first street parade I've seen
since I was a kid and it was great to
see Hilliard and the Black Horse Patrol
(the best in the parade, I swear).
After
the parade we went to a BBQ on the river
and then for more food at a hotel (we
were spoiled). Then we went to the East
West Shriner game - my first live
(American) football game ever. It was a
great game too - high scoring and really
close. So close we (the East) scored the
winning points with 58 seconds to go.
Talk about nail-biting.
It was
a really fun day. Thanks for taking us
out there Hilliard. |
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DATE:
July 16 |
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ENTRY:
We had an amazing time today at the
lake. We drove out with Hilliard in his
truck and met up with everyone there. I
haven't spent too much time on boats or
at lakes before so it was a nice new
experience. The weather was perfect and
I think everyone had a great time.
We all
took turns at racing around the lake and
Hilliard took great pleasure in trying
to splash us all. The lake was pretty
cold but the swim was nice and Alli was
really cute. She wanted to be in the
water more than anybody. After lunch and
more rides in the boat we sat down and
played cards for hours. I have to say
that it has been my luckiest card day
ever - I played about 7 games with four
people and lost only one game. I was
impressed.
We
stayed at the lake until the sun was
setting and saw a beautiful sunset
heading back to the ranch. We also
stopped to check out some Texas longhorn
cattle and take some photos of the sky.
Montana
is definitely one of the prettiest
places I have seen on the trip and I
think it is my favorite place to visit
so far. The land is beautiful and the
sky really does seem bigger than normal.
And of course the people are awesome :) |
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DATE:
July 17 |
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ENTRY:
We drove to Lewistown, MT today to look
for internet at the public library. I've
decided I really like libraries - I
think I'm going to try to spend more
time at them when we get back to NYC. We
got online and updated some photos and
diaries and found out some info about
climbing in Wyoming, Colorado and
Missouri. If only we had a printer to
print out the maps...
After the
library we found a grocery store and
bought some veggie burgers and corn for
dinner and then headed to Judith Gap to
try to get the air conditioning fixed.
No luck there so we headed back to the
ranch to play some cards and get ready
for supper (dinner).
We had
a great dinner with the whole crew and
then we played horseshoes and shot some
guns. Horseshoes is much harder than it
looks although I did score on my first
go (and then not again until the end of
the game!). The guns were fun too. I've
never shot a gun before so it was quite
an experience. Meghan and Rory had a go
at an ak-47 but I didn't feel up for
that so Nancy got out a 22 rifle (thanks
Nancy). That was a little less
intimidating! I even hit the target with
every shot, admittedly, it was a big
target :)
After
dinner we played some more cards with
Cody and hung out with Alli and Lane
some more and then crashed. We've been
waking up earlier than usual so bedtime
is now pretty darn early too! |
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