Ceramic Pig Update

(Please review my state ceramic pig collection post before continuing, or you won't get it. You still might not get it, but at least you'll know what's going on and what the rules are). Who knew it would be so hard? Who knew? Ok, so for the record, on this last tour I had a list of states I had already acquired a ceramic pig from (New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming)...and then quite the list of new states (South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Montana which I had missed on the last tour). I was ready. Poised. The first chance for pig buying was Montana, and since we had a leisurely day's drive with no gig at the end, we tried not one but TWO truck stops before leaving Billings where we had stayed. Nothing. But whatever, we had a lot of towns to go before Flathead Lake. Livingston. Belgrade. Bozeman. Nothing. I even tried the biggest gift shop ever in one of those "gateway to Yellowstone" towns (I forget which)...the nice owner lady tried to convince me to buy a Grizzly Bear Bank. THAT IS NOT A PIGGY BANK AND IT DOES NOT SAY "MONTANA." No no no. Susan was a huge sport for stopping so much. About Bozeman I griped on Facebook that the hunt wasn't going so well. That's when Brad in New Braunfels, TX replied that he called the WalMart in Butte and they said they had them. Now we had a SCOUT! We stopped, found a giant souvenir section, and searched...but apparently the lady that told Brad they existed in the WalMart in Butte, MT...lied. There were no pigs. So I Facebooked that we were leaving Butte empty piggy banked, and once again a message from Brad...that Ross at Muralt's Truck Stop in Missoula had a Montana pig waiting at the counter for us. HECK YES! We walked in and Ross was off of work already, but his co-worker said, "You must be looking for a pig, huh?" Yes, yes we are. I bought Brad one too since he worked so hard for it. There's video of this whole thing, I just need to edit it. In the meantime, look at the map-chart I made, it's very scientific. South Dakota scored with a Deadwood pig (of course) and then my brother-in-law found a plain old South Dakota pig too, and I told him it counted since I was in the state the day before he found it. Nebraska delivered as did Kansas. (We were in Iowa for a short time but did not gig there so I choose to not feel bad that I missed out on that one...next time). When we walked in the Nebraska truck stop and the souvenir shelf was front and center with two types of pigs on it, we got super giddy about it. I hope the security cameras got that and someone thought it was funny. Not in Kansas anymore. All in all a successful pig trip, thanks to Susan for stopping and Brad for the sleuthing!