Missoula and Glacier National Park, MT - July 18-30, 2006

Missoula is the “big city” of western Montana, so we used this opportunity to make visits to all the big box stores. Our DVD player is acting up, so we’ve been on a mission to find another that has the appropriate connections and will actually fit in the available cabinet space. As we would soon learn, this is an effort that will consume lots of time and effort without success. .

We also used our brief stay in Missoula to make a nice day trip. I’ve been reading Stephen Ambrose’s history of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, so I was excited to visit Travelers’ Rest, one of the actual campsites on their journey. The location was confirmed from mercury deposits in the soil at the location of the old latrine. Apparently, Dr. Rush’s pills, made primarily of mercury and commonly known as “Thunderclappers”, were a favorite medication of the time used to treat just about everything. Pity the poor soldiers who had to endure the treatments that left behind those telltale signs. . .

At the same site we surprised a couple of fawns hiding in the underbrush. See if you can pick out the two pairs of ears sticking up. . .

And later that day we indulged one of our favorite pastimes – wandering through a fabulous house from days past, thinking about what it must have been like to live there. This house in Hamilton, MT is in a beautiful park-like setting and was owned by the widow of one of the Montana copper kings.

The trip to Columbia Falls north of Kalispell was short in miles but long on grief. There was road construction most of the way, so we bumped along on miles washboard road and threaded our way through hundreds of yellow traffic cones. No easy task in a 42 foot motorhome pulling an SUV. The rig arrived in good shape, our pleasant dispositions – not so much. Luckily, it didn’t take long to get over it. .

Glacier National Park is awe-inspiring – as beautiful as the Tetons, but instead of just looking at the mountains, you can also drive over them! We drove across the park on the Going to the Sun Highway, a twisty road with beautiful vistas and wildlife around every turn. We stopped at one point and saw four female mountain goats on the cliffs above, each accompanied by her kid. It’s amazing to watch the babies gingerly tip toe along the narrow ledges following Mom.
Another amazing sight – the folks in the SUV ahead of us who stuck their heads out the moon roof to watch the scenery and the biker gang going by in the other direction!

We got in a couple of rounds of golf during our stay – beautiful courses with lots of character and some challenging holes. But my favorite part was the doe with two fawns on the third hole. The fawns were gamboling and playing together like puppies while the doe quietly grazed on the nearby trees. Deer are a common sight here – it’s not unusual to see them standing or resting in the yards like animated lawn ornaments.

We spent a couple of days exploring Flathead Lake – once by car and then again when we rented a pontoon boat for half a day. The boat trip was one of our favorite days – we got to relax, swim, drink beer and check out all of the great lakefront homes. We decided it was unfair that our parents didn’t have money so we could inherit a little log cabin with a boat and dock on Flathead Lake – damn!!

Oh, well – we’re off to Coeur d’Alene where I’m sure we’ll see more objects of envy. Sigh. .