While the trip to Montana was pretty uneventful, the trip back was not.  The first thing was that we woke up early enough that John's sedative for sleeping was still in effect but he told me he was fine.  About an hour in on our way to Plains we passed a forest fire which was amazing to see (it must have been a large one because there was a helibase set up nearby), but not long after I would try talking to John and he couldn't answer me very well and was wandering towards the shoulder.  So I told him I was going to drive.  It was a good thing because we had a McDonald's bag that leaked apple juice and he couldn't figure out what he was doing with it because he was so sleepy.  

So I started driving and about an hour after that Autumn threw up her McDonald's hash browns.  I felt kind of sick after my breakfast burrito, and we hadn't had that in a long time so we thought maybe it was the awful food combined with car sickness.  I cleaned that up and drove a total of five hours into Moses Lake and we went through a drive through for lunch - at McDonald's.  I got a parfait and we got chicken nuggets for the girls.  She ate one nugget and once we were well on our way again, she threw that up.  Then I gave her some natural banana/strawberry juice and she kept that down, and she ate the rest of my parfait and was fine.  

The rest of the drive was ok except for a general breakdown in parenting skills because everyone was tired and grouchy and 12 hours after leaving, we made it to Burnaby.  One neat thing that happened is that we were talking about the situation in Georgia and Annie asked, "Who is she?"  We explained (I suppose in a very biased way) about gas pipelines and how one country had an interest in controlling the other because they need gas, and they couldn't work it out without blowing each other up.  To a child it sounds ridiculous.  

I have more to post about our decisions about the farm.  We've been changing our minds a great deal about what we plan to do... we started out saying, 'We're going to live in a tipi!', then we said, 'We're going to buy land!' and then it was, 'We're going to Montana to start a farm!'  None of these are going to happen, partly because they aren't practical for us and partly because this vacation was more like a retreat were we got back to our center and were able to figure out what is the most important in our lives, and how we should live that would help our family and others the best.  

One of the things that I have always wanted to do was allow my lifestyle to educate and help others.  I don't want to be part of the problem, but I also want to help others who are searching for ways of changing the way they live to be simpler, happier, and closer to the earth.  I used to get emails every week from someone who sounded so desperate, wanting something more out of life and wanting to get out of the city.  I have finally now learned that getting out of the city isn't the answer at all.  Cities aren't these evil places that will destroy us.  They are communities of people and businesses trying to coexist in the same place.  We do this very poorly, but there are better ways and this is a change that is within reach of everyone.  

I have more to say but I need breakfast. :)