Real Life Intrudes

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This morning we were again visited by the local “wildlife reception committee” aka Rocky and Rockette the local squirrels… One was so brazen that Carl though it was actually going to come into our cabin!.. Unfortunately, this was after we had again awoken to the plop, plop, plop of rain on our roof… Only this time, we were safe and dry in a cabin that even had heat!

Statistics

Starting Destination: Missoula, Montana
Ending Destination: West Glacier, Montana
Ending Destination GPS: N: 48° 27.822’ W: 113° 58.878’ Elev: 3464’
Miles Driven: 160
Best Billboard Quote: “Neuter your pets, weird friends and family!”

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Getting a Really Late Start & Sometimes there are Silver Linings

Our plan for today was to start early, drive up to and through Glacier National Park, and then continue on as far as we could. Unfortunately, this was not to be… The early rain kind of took the wind from our sails—we were envisioning a repeat of the fog day!! So we were late getting started when we received some information that we needed to take care of—involving an abortive trip to Kinko’s, multiple phone calls and logging on to the Computer. The upside to this delay was that the rain stopped and the weather started clearing—it looked like even some of the smoke was gone… But the real silver lining was that Carl received word from the Australian Embassy that his visa application had been approved!!

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A nice Surprise…

Finally, about 4pm we got started on the road to Glacier. For the first time we actually booked somewhere to stay for the evening, just is case!! Our destination was North on Highway 93, through the Mission Valley around Flathead Lake past Kalispell to West Glacier. Along the way we stopped at the “Mission” in Mission Valley and received a very pleasant surprise—the Church built in 1891 is still in use and has some absolutely fabulous murals on the walls. The photo left doesn’t really do them justice!!

We continued along a very bumpy main road and were very surprised both by the amount of commerce and the number of cars on the road, although most of the cars were going in the opposite direction. Eventually the road improved and we stopped briefly to look at the lake (left); Carl asked whether it was a natural lake and Maria said that she couldn’t find the dam—incorrect, as it turns out—she was looking at the wrong end of the lake!!


The changing weather also made for some interesting photo’s of the surrounding mountains (look in the clouds in the photo far left). Driving through Kalispell the clouds got really dark, but there, just across the field was a rainbow! (near left) We were beginning to think that it would be another wet and rainy night when we noticed a break in the clouds through the pass… and we emerged into sunlight and no rain!! Just enough sunlight to unpack the truck, check for Wi Fi (very weak signal) and cook dinner before it was truly dark—and started raining again!!

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Carl’s Travel Trivia

Yesterday’s Answer: The Montana State Line (Congratulations Cecil)
Today’s Question: What is fourth out of 50 in size and 44th in population?

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