Westcoast Outlaw Hotel 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 ...

... on Lake MacDonald at a closed picnic area, we continued on to the Apgar campground where we settled in for two nights (typical cookie cutter lots) since it was the only open west side spot. Although in retrospect, while touring a ten-plus year forest fire area in the park and looping back through the Flathead National Forest, we found a beautiful campground with sites on the banks of the Flathead River. In the US, National Forests ...

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>

Victor, ever the worrier (and usually with good reason!), wanted to check out the truck's funny business, so here we are in Kalispell. The Toyota service guy confirmed something about the cylinders and a cracked gasket and parts have to be ordered. It will take a week to get repaired but it's under warranty yet, so we're still smiling. They are ...

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!

Lake Koocanusa - Kootenai National Forest - Driving through forests<br>older than time, glimpsing sparkling rivers through the trees and<br>suddenly coming upon the lake, which is very long and narrow. Clear<br>water, clear air, lots of space, friendly towns. Then on through Eureka and towards Whitefish, where we hope to find a nice ...

... Rivers flow, and created by Ice Age glaciers, is almost thirty miles long and fifteen miles across at its widest point, and is the largest natural lake in western U.S. A 160 mile shoreline and water covers nearly two-hundred square miles of Montana - and at 300 feet deep, you'd better restring your fishing reel with some extra line. Wendell &amp; I both picked out several little mountain sites overlooking the lake that would make wonderful ...

... actually put her feet into the Lake. The water here is very cold, and as clear as a swimming pool. We were lucky to have Ed Bearrs as our table-mate, so the conversation was lively. Glacire National Park has long been a sacred place to the Blackfoot Indians, who live nearby. On the way to Glacier, we visited the Plains Indian Museum in Browning, which was small but wonderfully done. I learned ...

... he's only interested in cooling off, getting a cold drink, and keeping the bugs at bay. We get a kick out of it when, every few minutes, he dips his big long moose snout into the water, looks like he's blowing bubbles, then shakes his head around to keep the bugs away. Suddenly he starts moving in our direction. I jump out of the water, grab my clothes, and get ready to make a dash for it when Mr. Moose goes running off down a trail through the woods. We can hardly believe our luck at ...

... I've done. "We're on Highway 135 now," he says. "Do you see St Regis?" I ask. "We pass through there, and Perma next." I breathe and look around. No trucks! Like Robert Frost, I love the road less traveled by, slow down and see. Slow down. That's what happened next. The road to Perma's getting paved. Road construction, yes. Cars collect, we sit and wait and sit some more. Some really pretty houses there, off on the right. A river to the left. Enjoy the peace, I tell myself ...