The Montana Connection

15 June 2010
Tuesday

We have arrived in Whitefish, MT, and are at the home of friends of Trina and Liza: the Lacey family: John, Dana, Ian and Maya. The locals are calling this weather HOT but we are so very comfortable: 60 some degrees, bright warm sunshine, dry and WI-FI access so we can finally do this BLOG thing.

Today we left East Glacier [Two Medicine Campground] and headed west. Our original plan was to traverse the park via the Going to the Sun Highway but the ranger report says that it is still blocked by 20+ ft. drifts from May snows. MAYBE, it will open on Friday, maybe. So we decided to do the southern route. We soon found ourselves at West Glacier and the Apgar Visitor's Center. There are 16 miles of open road and that does not even get us to the campground so we behaved like the other tourists and did some shopping, got some coffee, took some pictures and then made a new plan. We would keep on going.

After a check-in phone call with Liza and Trina, we got the phone number of their friends in Whitefish, made a call and are spending the night here. Dana is a Spanish teacher at the beginning of her career and I just completed mine. Still we have a lot to talk about. Right now Jim is outside with the Lacey kids playing soccer and getting beat pretty badly.

Previous to this we did the following:

*Thursday we drove from Winona to Selfridge, ND, to visit with Jim's cousin Betty and her family. Made the mistake of eating chocolate. Hopefully, I learned my lesson for the trip. As always it was so good to be with extended family and listen to the awesome quiet that is our fondest memory of the ranch.

*Saturday we traveled north and west visiting Theodore Roosevelt National Park [the south unit now called Painted Canyon] where we hiked down into the canyon hoping to catch sight of some buffalo. No luck but we needed the exercise. From there we traveled to Beach and the Leland Ranch, Jim's cousin, Luella. Did some catching up with the Roedeske and Hilbe family history. Hopefully we can convince Luella to take the train to Winona so we can do some sleuthing in the museums and historical societies around there.

*Sunday we visited with another cousin, Fred, before getting on US #2 and continuing west. Originally we planned to drive as far as possible but before nightfall, we found ourselves just outside of East Glacier so we got a campsite for two nights.

*Monday: did some major hiking [OK, major for us] to Upper Two Medicine Lake where Jim had camped some 39 years ago. He said it looks the same except that the trees are taller. It was also pretty much iced in yet. Along the trail we leaped over some streams and waded through others. By the end of the trail we were hiking on huge snow drifts. The trip back to the campground was a little slower because our knees were sending the "I-am-tired" message. Changing from hiking boots to flip-flops and crocs made it all better. So did a good meal and an after-dinner drink.

*Tuesday: Here we are: Hopefully there will be more additions at shorter intervals.