Aero Inn Kalispell

This is a really weird feeling, leaving home for a five month adventure. We do a lot of traveling, but never one of this length. It's required an humongous amount of planning and while we've tried to think of all contingencies, we know that's not even possible. <br>And that's OK--part of the seat-of-your-pants traveling we're best at.<br>We ...

Left Waterton heading for the border which happens to open at 09:00 - we were fifth in line. No duty free in the middle of nowhere but I did manage to get our remaining firewood across the border by stating with authority that it had no bark and after a quick private consultation we breezed across the border with a Banff jerry-rigged piece of wood with bark on the roof holding up Erik the kayak.<br><br>Our first introduction to US ...

Kalispell is actually starting to feel like home away from home! The mechanic ran into delays, truck won't be ready till Wednesday, so we are catching up with laundry, grocery shopping, haircuts, and resting. Wondering what we'll find when we open up the trailer after this long week. Need to get re-organized before we head west again. <br>

... us a loaner, we will leave the camper at the dealership for the week and we will head towards Canada in this red Corolla. Drive through Banff and Jasper? Try to find V's distant cousin that we've been wanting to meet for over 25 years? Looking on the map, they live waaayy up north in British Columbia. What the heck! Maybe we'll just go for it!<br>

Glacier National Park is fantastic. The highway, named "Into The Sun<br>Highway" (exactly what we were doing!), hugs the mountainside, dips<br>into valleys and brings you up through glorious passes. It's like a 50<br>km scenic roller coaster ride. Wheeeee!

... br><br>Something that has caught my eye in these parts are the small, free-standing espresso shops, little cabins that offer great coffee at a drive-through window. They're everywhere and very uniquely decorated. Haven't seen them elsewhere, yet.<br><br>Hidden in the trees after miles of gravel roads, we come upon this beautiful ...

Short stop at Belgrade, on the road, then up to this beautiful lake. The Flathead River's various forks crossed our paths several times while in Montana. Boating/resort towns all along the lake front, quiet beaches, tall forests of pine and birch. Very relaxing!<br>

... to soak in the thermally heated Kerosene Creek and spent the night in Thames of the Coromandel Peninsula. The next day we explored Coromandel Forest Park by doing short hikes and driving up the West Coast to Colville. The peninsula is absolutely gorgeous! We had sapphire blue ocean and a dark igneous rock beach on our left, and verdant green hills with sheep on our right. The sunset that evening was incredible and called for ...

... is so beautiful. It was a great gift to have more adults than children for awhile! On the other hand, that was another fossil-fuely 3,569 BTUs per passenger mile for her to come out. Oh, I know. I can't control what other people do and I shouldn't try. The best thing is to live by example, and perhaps reflect on it as I'm doing here. Still - any of you out there trying to readjust your priorities the way we are know how frustrating it is to realize how small your own efforts ...

We left Canada on Thursday, arriving at Rocky Mountain Hi RV Park in the afternoon, and looking forward to touring Glacier National Park on Friday before Keri has to fly back to Boston on Saturday morning. The drive to the campground provided a few hints of the magnificence and beauty that we'll see.