On Tuesday, we took the uneventful 191-mile trip to Dillon, Montana, the first stop on the way to Kalispell, Montana, the gateway to Glacier National Park. In Dillon, we stayed at the Countryside RV Park, an OK place in a boring town.
According to Forbes Magazine, Dillon is one of the prettiest cities in the country. I don't know why Forbes thinks so. We had rented "Town" at the Red Box in Driggs, Idaho (near Victor) but didn't watch it until we got to Dillon. It was pretty good for a Ben Affleck movie. (He makes that stiff, George Clooney, seem like Laurence Olivier by comparison.) Our debate about what to have for dinner was settled at the local Pizza Hut, which was adjacent to the Red Box where we returned the DVD. Nice crust; lousy toppings. We initially thought we might stay two days in Dillon. We opted to stay just one day.
On Wednesday, we returned to Missoula and the Jim & Mary RV Park where we had stayed a month ago.
It was a 186-mile trip on Interstates all the way, so there were no problems and some nice scenery going across Montana. We got the same site at the RV park, so it was like deja vu all over again. The highlight of the afternoon was getting an oil change and lube job at the Jiffy Lube.
Thursday was our day to hit the Walmart and Costco to reload, to fill up with diesel, and perform other heavy tasks---preparing to leave on Friday for Kalispell, Montana, for four days. Friday, we made that trip---a huge 115 miles. On the way, we passed the huge Flathead Lake and a zillion cherry orchards.
We stopped and bought some at one of the roadside stands. Delicious.
We are staying at the Spruce Park On The River RV park. It's very nice and somewhat rural, even though it's just three miles from the center of town. The only drawback, and it's significant, is that---as the name implies---there are spruce trees all over the place blocking our satellite TV reception.
Arrrrrgh! We've never gone this long without TV before, so we'll see if we can survive with our collection of DVDs, tapes, and shows recorded on our DVRs. We have a backup dish I could probably hook up, but I don't feel like working that hard for such a short visit. We get satellite radio, so we can keep up with the fun things our government and stock markets are doing.
Friday night we rented two movies at the Red Box:
The Music Never Stopped, a feel-good movie about a guy with a brain tumor (even if that doesn't sound like a feel-good movie) and How Do You Know, supposedly a "romantic comedy" which was neither romantic nor funny, starring Reese Witherspoon in her worst movie ever (and I usually like her a lot), Jack Nicholson mailing in a terrible parody of his usual role, Paul Rudd trying (and failing) to be appealing, and Owen Wilson being zany and lovable, as usual, but in a part that didn't otherwise fit (a pitcher making 14 million dollars a year with the Washington Nationals). It was directed by James L. Brooks, who is usually reliable, but seems to be losing his touch.
On Saturday, Becky went for a bike ride while I cleaned a few months of bugs off the front of our truck. Yuck!
Sunday was our day to visit Glacier National Park.
We entered from the west side and drove the entire 50-mile Going To The Sun Road. Our first stop was the beautiful Lake McDonald Lodge
where we met Donna Adams, the Assistant Location Manager, who had worked with us in 2006 at the North Rim. It was really fun seeing her again.
The park has 33 of the same type of 1930's tour buses Yellowstone has a few of, refurbished and repowered in 2002 (to burn propane). They are everywhere. And cute.
There is only the one road inside the park. The road was harrowing.
There is a lot of repair work going on (thanks to President Obama's stimulus plan) and, while they weren't working on Sunday, there were large pieces of equipment parked in many of the turnouts. That, coupled with the large number of visitors, and the fact that the road is narrow and winding at best, made it a difficult drive. In an exercise of self-preservation, we decided to exit through the east entrance instead of backtracking---stopping first for a nice lunch at the Rising Sun restaurant at the end of St. Mary Lake. In total, we turned it into a 196-mile day.
On a positive note, the park (nicknamed "The Crown Of The Continent" by George Bird Grinnell, the creator of the Audobon Society) is spectacular. Incidentally, it is named for the huge glaciers that carved it a few million years ago, not the glaciers that remain. There are deep canyons, beautiful valleys, large lakes, and jagged cliffs, along with a few glaciers. Magnificent.
Monday, we decided that after three days in the "dark" we couldn't live without live TV, so we begged the desk person to find us a site that would be tree-free. After reviewing all of the reservations, she came up with the one available alternative. We moved to that site, and, Voila(!) we had live TV. Thank you, Cadie. After settling in, we visited nearby Whitefish, a pretty, well-preserved (or rejuvenated) upscale western tourist town, with skiing in the winter and all other sports in the summer.
Whitefish is locally referred to as "Stumpville" because of its logging past. We had a Moose Drool beer (the same one I had enjoyed in the Yellowstone hotel lobby bar) at the Bulldog Saloon,
then returned to our RV park to have Pad Thai for dinner and prepare to move on to our next stop. And watch TV.
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