BYGTWSO!-Day 18

After visiting some of our family, we headed to Glacier National Park on the east side. We did a lot of smaller hikes. Some of the the main or more popular trails still had tons of snow and required ice axes and things like that. On our first morning in the park we hiked from Sun Point to Virginia Falls, meeting Baring Falls and St. Mary Falls on the way (6.8 miles round trip). The wild flowers were exquisite! The water is turquoise due to glacial flour. The weather was gorgeous and we just enjoyed being in Glacier, with our individual cans of bear spray.

We came upon a deer who was just all relaxed, meandering down the trail, munching on whatever she liked.

We did not come upon any bears, but that's because I wore a whistle around my neck and we clapped our hands and talked loudly at times. In Alaska, I learned to say, "Here, Bear!" On this trip, I changed it to, "Hear, Bear! Hear me NOW!" I also rewrote the words to Row, Row, Row, Your Boat:
Go, go, go away,
Go away, you bear!
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Straight back to your lair!

Yeah, I sang that song quite a lot. There was a bear in our camp at 10:30 one morning, Ranger Michael Lambert said (he so reminded me of Royce), but that bear was very obedient, walking along the outside border of camp, not daring to cut through. We saw a lot of signs such as this:

BYGTWSO!-Day 17

These are my Hutterite pals, Dan (or could it be Dave/David? I'm sure he said Dan...) Wipf and Jacob Wurtz. I first met Jacob about ten years ago. He and my mom know each other much better from when my mom had The Store--she gave Jacob free coffee and his face still lights up about it when we visit. Hutterites don't normally like to have their pictures taken (no graven images), but Jacob let me take some of him and his grandchildren ten years ago and had no problem letting me snap this one this time. I took K to the colony to buy vegetables and to have a new cultural experience. Dan came out to chit-chat with us and when I mentioned my mom, he said, "I know Gwen's daughter, Sandy, in Boulder." I said, "Yes, that's my sister!" For ten dollars, we bought: potatoes, lettuce, sugar snap peas, strawberries, and bread. They have the most beautiful garden. Last time I visited, Jacob gave me a tour around the colony and even sang in German in the chapel. This time, as we got into our vehicle to leave, he came to the driver's side smiling and said, "If I had time, I'd jump into your backseat and sing to you all the way to Glacier Park!" And then he sang a little song in English, about eight lines, with a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye. As we drove off the colony, K said, "It's amazing what a free cup of coffee and get you years later."

The Big Sky. We went to Bynum Reservoir and checked out the museum in Choteau. Ken was amazed that Brenda honked at us in town and rolled down her window to chat at the stop sign ("I thought that was you guys!"). We also stopped at the Forest Service in Choteau (he bought another map) and chatted with Nancy Denning who recognized me before I recognized her. K couldn't get over how we kept running in to all these people I know at various locations in various situations. That's small town Montana for ya!

Lewis and Clark Days was going on in Great Falls, but we just didn't have the time. We did check out Rainbow Falls on the Missouri, though. Also, I captured a photo of Leo, mom's significant other (Saint Leo) since 1983, installing the air conditioning.

BYGTWSO!-Day 16

This is my mom, Gwen. She is one incredible chick! She detests having her picture taken, but she allowed me one shot, so I took it, after asking nicely. We ordered pizza from DJ's and sat around the kitchen table visiting. She got us caught up on some of the news around town and saved the latest editions of the local papers for us to peruse. Leo was out fishing, so we didn't see him on this day.

BYGTWSO!-Day 15

This is Oliver, my dad's dog. My dad is Oliver's human. They would happily die for each other. Oliver is a very suspicious fellow. Even after spending two nights in his home, he still looked at me with absolutely zero trust. If Dad goes upstairs, Oliver must follow. "My job is to guard Gary at all times," Oliver says, retreating from the room. I tried to warm up to Oliver by giving him dog treats. He stretched waaaaaay out to cautiously accept, but nothing further than that happened in our relationship.

This is Hauser Lake near Helena. K and I had to kill some time while vacating the premises. A realtor showed Dad's house (his wife is already working in another state with a new job) and Dad had to see the insurance person, so we drove around, saw some antelope, and stopped here. While here, a complete stranger stopped to chat with us saying, no kidding, "I just wanted to harass some people who aren't from around here." We met Dad for lunch in town. By the time we got back, the house had sold!

Only in Montana do you see a bighorn sheep and a mountain goat on the carousel. We spent time at the Capitol and we took a historic trolley train tour around the city.

So...my dad used to be The Great White Hunter. He grew up hunting and then expanded to several states and Canadian provinces and also went on three African safaris. I grew up with lots of stuffed animal trophies hanging in the house. I also grew up eating wild game. At one point, my dad built a museum and people paid money to come look at his hunting trophies. I remember the Amish taxidermist he used a lot in Ohio--their kids were fun to play with. Sometimes we would go down to their home in Ohio and they would come up to our home in Michigan. My dad has been selling some of his trophies, but he still has a ton left. Since he's moving, I thought I would snap a few pics--there's a great story behind every one of these things.

When we left Dad's, we drove over Stemple Pass, a dirt road going into Lincoln where we used to live. K is in love with the Hi-Country Beef Jerky place, so we dropped some money there and then we stopped at the Forest Service so he could buy "their new map." I took a picture of the Forest Service building, not because it's pretty, but because it's where I took Hunter's Safety when we first moved to Montana. Dad wanted us to all get deer tags to help fill the freezer.

BYGTWSO!-Day 14

We went to Boulder to visit my oldest sister, Sandy, and her husband, LeRoy. LeRoy chaperoned us on our excursion to Elkhorn, another ghost town. He had a lot of stories about running cattle up there, playing as a child, crawling through all the old buildings, riding horses, and stuff like that. He took us to the cemetery which was really interesting. It was an enjoyable afternoon! Afterward, we drove the McCarty Creek Road and looked down over Boulder from the trailhead.

Sandy has always loved animals. Mom wouldn't let her have any/many while growing up always saying, "When you grow up and have your own house, you can have as many animals as you want." Well, that's exactly what Sandy did. She lives on a ranch with lots of outside animals and inside animals. And those animals are so lucky, I tell you, that out of all the places they could have lived out their earthly existence, they got to live with Sandy!

This is Dot.

Meet Fancy.

Bess is a grand old dame.

Gabby hasn't missed too many meals. Loves to have her belly rubbed. LOVES it!

Shiny, the cat. Holds her own amidst the canines.

Sandy can cook. She whipped up pork ribs and twice bake potatoes with German chocolate cake. We had fresh melon, corn, and shrimp cocktail. She is a master in the kitchen.

BYGTWSO!-Day 13

Loaded for Bear, we left home for our trip to Montana to see family and finally get The Ranger to Glacier National Park. We stopped in Rexburg to have lunch with Suz.

We veered off toward Virginia City and Nevada City to investigate these old ghost towns. Spent $16 on the cheeziest little three mile train ride you'd ever like to endure. The "guide" happened to mention approximately twenty-four times that he drove a tour bus for twenty-four years! We really started to learn about the history of the area when we walked Main Street and K read aloud all the intrepretive signs to me. There was a big fire going on, The Pony Fire, as we drove through Alder, Sheridan, Twin Bridges, Silver Star, and then over Pipestone Pass to Butte. We went to Pork Chop John's for dinner and enjoyed the pool at our hotel. It was a big driving day.

BYGTWSO!-Day 12

This is where I go every morning. It completely floors me each and every morning that nobody else is there. I will probably be so disappointed if I go sometime and someone is there. So spoiled! If other people are there, I have to play nice. But when I have the pool to myself, I can do all the exercises I remember from all those water aerobics classes: froggy jumps, cowboy kicks, cross country, etc. I can splash and jump and churn the water with my arms and legs all I want! I've been taking my timer down there to see how long I exercise (I keep moving all the time in the water, sometimes faster, sometimes slower with a varying heart rate depending on the cardio involved) and it always comes out to forty-four minutes something! 44:58, 44:27, 44:40...I can't get over it. I guess my body and my brain have some sort of inner programming going on that forty-five minutes is a great time to stop exercising. So even after forty-five minutes, I still have the whole place to myself! I guess other people go when it's hot in the afternoon to cool off and socialize. The pool capacity is 34 persons, so my exercise routine probably wouldn't go over very well later in the day. I'm just SO GLAD I have the use of this pool and...drum roll please...the TIME to use it!!!

The rest of the day was spent this way: church service, laundry, cooking, cleaning, errands (credit union, library, stuff like that), food shopping, finances and other normal, every day, household things that are part of life. After all, we can't be hiking, camping, and watching DVD's every day, now can we? However, in the afternoon, I completely splurged and got a full body massage!

It had been eight years and seven months since my last massage! I used to get them "all the time!" I held onto Donna's number as well as the punch card she had given me and what do you know...she's still practicing! And she's still honoring the punch card! It was nice, but also a little painful. Donna really worked me over. She didn't like hearing that I've had six surgeries since the last time I saw her. Since the massage, however, my body has felt more loose and "free." As I paid her and prepared to leave, I said, "I don't know when I can come back, Donna, but I want to!"