Day 13 &14 - Rain Rain Go Away!

It is not about the destination

It is all about the journey 

We are truly having a journey. 

May not be perfect, 

but than we never expected perfect. 

We simply want to 

make memories

have fun

and leave a mark

Not much to report. Saturday and Sunday were sort of bummers with lots of rain snow mix, wind and cold. We reached a whopping 46 degrees Saturday!

Stopped in Hungry Horse to view the dam and take scenic tour on back roads. 

Saw these little deer trying to decide if they wanted to cross the dam or not.

This button buck was trying to encourage them to come on up the hill, which they eventually did.


Took the truck into Whitefish for oil change, get new-extra battery for camera, and new walking leash for Petro. Took another back road on the return trip and again saw some really great scenery, lots of old ranches and cloud covered mountains. Stopped at a western art/antique store for browsing but not a thing we couldn't live without. Sure was fun and we did see some really great unusual things.

Got a call from DJ who reports he is going to beat us to Alaska, as he is being deployed with his Hot Shot crew to help fight the Alaska wild fires. Hummmm, sort of makes us wonder, first tornadoes in ND, snow and closed roads in MT, now wild fires in AK.

Our plan was to tour the east Glacier park and all it's beauty on Sunday than head into Canada on Monday. Well, that was not to be. It rained all night and continues to rain (sometimes mixed with sleet) as I write at 3pm. So, we decided to extend our stay one more day and tour the park tomorrow.
Did laundry, got a movie from the park office, put a pork roast in oven and baked chocolate chips cookies. A good hunker down day. We also did more planning for our trip through Canada and researched additional mileage and possible places to stay along with assuring our banks know we will be traveling and not decline our cards. We will be sooooo ready to head out Tuesday morning. I can't wait to soak in the hot spring pool.

May 28 - Day 12 - Thank you Teddy Roosevelt

After an early morning start to be at Whalen Tires in Kalispell Mt by 8am (45 minutes down the road) we had the remainder of the day to explore. The weather was not real accommodating but didn't hold us back. We made a couple stops on our return trip and back at camp by 11am. We again hooked up the rig to power & water, turned on the electric heaters (was a balmy 45 degrees), took Petro for a long walk, chatted with one of the work campers about local things (he has been coming back here to work every summer for 6 years) than headed down the road 5 miles to cruise Glacier National Park and the "Going to the Sun Highway".

At the entrance to park we stopped at at the Alberta visitors center and chatted with the gals about our trip trough Canada. Walerton-Glacier became the world's first International Peace Park in 1932.

This made it possible for Canada to set up this visitors center. 

They were very helpful, informative and friendly, providing us with lots of literature, tips and suggestions. We are now even more excited to visit Jasper and Banff National parks

There is a $25 entrance fee for Glacier National Park which is good for one week. We knew, from the gals at the Canadian visitors center and the desk clerk at the campground, the entire Sun Highway was not open for the season. Apparently they continue to clear the snow ( 50 ft last year, 25 ft this year) from the road at the highest elevations, but were prepared to pay the fee anyway as this is one of the main reasons we came here. We are told they expect to have the entire route open by June 18th. As we were approaching the fee station I remembered Carl's senior access pass which allows for free entrance into National Parks. First time we have used it for park entry. Used it many times for half price camping at COE parks though. We both left with smiles on our faces. Love to save money.

Even though only part of the "Going-to-the-Sun" was open (15 miles on this west end and 12 miles on the east end of the entire 50 mile route), we felt it was well worth it and hope to return another time to see the entire route. As we drove along the route and made many stops for viewing and photo opportunity, we continued to thank Teddy Roosevelt . What a visionary to secure places such as this for all of us to enjoy and ponder.

Our national firefighter son, DJ, told us Montana was expected to be a hot spot this summer for wild fires because of the severe drought conditions and the park Ranger we talked with confirmed this. He states a 10 year drought in the area has all of them extremely concerned. We reviewed a place mark that commemorated the 2003 fire that destroyed 144,000 acres in the park. http://www.glacieradventure.com/FIRE/
The same Ranger we spoke with regarding the fire danger told us that, in his opinion, the east end of the "sun" highway has even more beautiful scenery than this side, so are anxious to do that route in a day or two.

A little road construction never hurt anybody 

As we were ending our day in the park we stopped at the Apgar visitors center and decided to have a cup of coffee at "Eddie's". 

 When seated we noticed this sign for Huckleberry cobbler and of course decided to try it. Wow, worth every penny (and it wasn't cheap, but after all, we did save on our park entry fee)

View from our booth at Eddie's 

Again, thank you TR. If you want a good read and one that will give you an appreciation for our public land "THE BIG BURN" by Timothy Egan is wonderful. 

Day 11 (May 27) BURRRRR! Coram Montana

This was the view as we got closer to West Glacier Montana. I think we were around Grand Forks Montana when I snapped this one. Right than and there we knew we were in for cooler temps. And we were right.

Yep, that's snow in them there hills. Drove 306 miles from Lewistown MT to Coram on MT highway 200 and 89. A simply wonderful drive. So scenic. We hit rain well before Browning but it stopped before we got to the RV park. We actually had wet snow for a while while on US 2 between east and west Glacier. The rain started again in the early evening. We are suppose to have cold rain off and on most of the time we are here with temps in the low 30s at night and possibly mid 50s during the day.
Arrived at the RV park http://www.northamericanrvpark.com/  and very happy with the park and to be here. Great views of the Rocky mountains from our site, wide open site for satellite service, great Verizon cell service and free, good, internet. We were told by a very cheery competent desk gal, to drive around the park and pick a spot that suits us. We were also greeted by two of the work camper men and offers to help set up it needed. One of their wives even came out to welcome us and say hi to Petro. I think they are just happy to have people in the park. There are two other rigs besides ours here. I imagine this park gets busy during peak season, but we are a bit early. We have broken out the heavy duty carhartt jackets, gloves and sock hats.
We took a drive into Columbia Falls to make sure we knew where the tire place was to get our new tires installed the next day. Glad we did, as the place happened to be 22 miles farther down the road than we expected. Stopped for a cup of home made tomato soup at local diner, was good and warmed the body. By the time we returned the rain was pouring down. Lots of RV parks/campgrounds to choose from in this area and they all look pretty good. Also lots of touristy businesses and interesting places.  We are going to enjoy our stay here and be very busy if we choose to be so.

Day 10 - Enter Montana! WooHoo

Fantastic, wonderful, beautiful, breath taking: 

BIG SKY COUNTRY

Almost like they were expecting us

traveled 442 miles (7 1/2 hrs) and enjoyed almost every minute. Norh Dakota I94 to Montana 200 (at Glendive, just inside the Montana line). Would recommend 200 to everyone. Great scenery. Might say "the road less taken?" could be true as we certainly didn't encounter many other vehicles. Again we listened to our book on tape which certainly made the trip move right along. As you can see by the photos, we had interesting roads. Miles and miles and miles of them.

Also saw many many abandoned farmsteads like this dotted all along the route

fuel up in little town of Circle, not much of a town but were we happy to see diesel and a reasonable price to boot. Towns are hundreds of miles apart out here.



Arrived at Mountain Acres mobile home and rv park around 4pm mountain time. http://www.hikercentral.com/campgrounds/107239.html

We are afraid we cannot really recommend it but it is the only park in town. Oh well, the water pressure was good, the elec hook up was fine and the place was pretty quiet so there ya have it. For 24 bucks and a good nights sleep it was okay. In a great town of Lewistown, MT
Huge open field across the way for Petro to run, needed key to use laundry and bathrooms, but no one to check us in or  to give us key. Internet, TV and phone service all good.
The owner/manager came around later in the evening saying we were on a 50 amp site and owed another $5. Carl said that is not the way he understood the note on door and we were only using 30 amps and staying one night. So the guy let it pass.

 Lewistown was a super town. Pretty much what one would expect for a western town except for the little casinos at almost every step.

We were hungry for a burger so headed into town to Ruby's. Had a great burger and chat with an elderly local who filled us in on the local history. He said it is basically now a retirement town as the mining and factory have moved out. He pointed to a large old brick building behind us reporting it used to be the hospital, the one he was born in, and is now being renovated into senior apartments. We were also told that if your not a rancher there isn't much for you in this area. That was no surprise to us as we saw nothing but miles and miles and miles of ranches, mostly cattle or sheep.

This metal work sculpture was quite a few miles east of Lewistown (actually, after research, I found out it is still in ND, I94 exit 72 ) http://www.enchantedhighway.net/ promoting a route, off the beaten path, with reported miles of various metalwork lining the route. Would have liked to have taken the detour, but we were on a mission and not in our plans for the day. Maybe another time. By viewing  the website for the enchanted highway, it will be worth the trip. For those of you planning a trip out west, I would put this one on my list of visits.

Day 7-9 North Dakota Sucks

Left Valley City Sunday morning, went 150 miles west to Fort Abraham Lincoln State park http://www.parkrec.nd.gov/parks/falsp/history.htm  

Very nice park, weather and Verizon service. Close enough to Bismarck for amenities. We planned a two day stay. We had hoped to get new tires installed on the rig while here. Figured Bismarck was the largest city to get what we needed. Boy were we wrong. Tires will have to be ordered and take up to 5 days to get here. Hummmm? So we ended up calling out to Columbia Falls Montana, having them order the tires and will get them installed while we are there on Friday or Saturday. Well, the weather turned nasty, again. Park ranger came around Monday, early evening, warned us of severe weather on its way (large hail, damaging winds of up to 60MPH, and possible tornado) and advise us to move to the cement block bathrooms/shelter in the park.

We had about 15 minutes to prepare than off we went to the shelter. Carl took his computer to monitor the storm. Guess we will add a NOAA weather radio to our list. Although there are about 5 or 6 campers in the park, only one other couple joined us in the shelter. They were from Minnesota and said they were in this same park last year when a storm went through and took down a few trees. We stayed in the shelter for about 40 minutes or so when park host came by telling us the storm was over. We really didn't get much of anything but were told about 15 miles from us a tornado touched down and did damage. He also warned us of strong winds starting in the early morning hours and lasting all day Tuesday. Shucks, we thought, we are planning to leave Tuesday. Well, here it is Tuesday afternoon and we are still here. Yes indeed, the winds got strong around 3am, 30-40 MPH with gusts in the 60MPH range. Not a day to be pulling the rig down the road. I guess if we have to be stuck someplace this is as good as any. We are down in a valley with good tv and internet service so keeping us busy. Carl went to town to get propane tank filled and said it is REALLY windy up on the roads.

A couple of deer on the tracks on our walk back to park from visitors center

Steps to the visitors center from a path in the park. We took the walk in the early evening after the winds finally died down. 

 
We will head out Wednesday morning as the weather is suppose to be much more favorable. We will be entering Mountain time zone. So far there is absolutely nothing about North Dakota that impresses us so I can't imagine we will ever plan another trip through here.    Sorry North Dakota!

DAY 5 &6 (May 21&22) IT IS WHAT IT IS

SUNRISE OUT OUR DOOR

And so the day begins, love a man and his tools  

He is demanding that blankedy blank jack come off 

and there it is in all it's glory

Took the worn tire to Goodyear in Valley City had them dispose of it and put our spare on the rim. Also borrowed a heavy duty pry bar to take the ruined stabilizer jack off the rear of the rig. Drove 70 miles to Jamestown ND RV dealer to purchase a new jack. Stopped at local veterinary clinic to confirm the bugs on Petro are indeed ticks. Purchased additional Front-line for him to get rid of them, also bought bug bombs for the RV and truck. We must have found close to 100 on Petro, in the tuck and camper. Whew, what a mess. Vet told us they are heavy in high grass areas and we have been letting him run free around the campground chasing rabbits and such in the high grass. So I guess it is our fault. No more freedom for him. Returned to camper and nice roast beef dinner I put in the crock pot before we left.
Had a great hike around the park, down to the lake and dam.

On the way back from our hike, Carl picked me some Lilacs (I swear this state is the Lilac capital of the world, they are all over the place).

 

On Friday night and all day Saturday the winds were so high Petro wouldn't even go outside (20-30 MPH). Scared the carp out of me too, lots of severe thunder storm and tornado warnings. Kept a close eye on the weather. Decided to leave the camper and head into town to do laundry and get an ice cream. If the camper blew away, we didn't want to be in it!!! Did 6 loads of laundry ($16). Stopped at another Verizon/radio shack to see if anything we could do to boost our signal at the campground. Was told that in North Dakota, Verizon and altel have not merged. Amazing, there is a new tower right across the lake from us, we can see it from out campsite, but we get a very weak to no signal. The guy at the radio shack was totally useless and actually a real jerk. We spent a long time on phone with Verizon representative who tried to help, but to no avail. Finally ordered a Wilson signal booster online, had it sent to the campground in Montana we plan to stay at over Memorial Weekend.

Had a restless evening and night worrying about the storms and anxious to leave tomorrow for a little more populated area, a little lower elevation, and good cell signal. This is the first Corps of Engineer campground that we have not been happy with. Can't recommend this place to anyone. Oh well, nothing ventured - nothing gained!

Day 4

All part of the adventure

Headed toward Valley City, ND this morning. 6 hour trip (all on I94) so we started a book on tape (Legal Limit by Martin Clark, a legal type suspense thriller). Stopped for fuel one time ($2.99) and subway sandwich. When we were almost to Fargo a trucker passed us pointing to our rig. We pulled off and sure enough, a flat. We edged on up to exit and a Menards parking lot where Carl worked his magic and got us back on our way shortly.  He used his new homemade ramp (made at the DeJongh farm from left over log house supplies (thanks Clay) (Robert will appreciate the photos as he was impressed with the invention and wondered how it would work) and new generator and air compressor as the new spare was not fully filled with air.   


                                                                   view from our site

We arrived, without fan fare at Mel Rieman Rec Area (Corps of Engineers campground) around 5:30. We are the only campers in the small park so it is very quiet. We did manage to bend and wreck the driver's side rear stableizer jack while driving around the grounds looking the best site for phone and internet access (to no avail, no sites in these hills are good for service). Anyway, after set up and a well deserved toddy, Carl decided the old jack can come off and a new one purchased tomorrow. Enough repairs for one day. 

And we are allowing Petro to roam freely as long as he stays close by since we are the only folks in the park. More tomorrow on damages and repairs.