Monthly Archives: July 2017

July 1st. Do we care what day it is? Do we ever care? Do we have healthcare? Canadians do. Why not us? Stow that awhile.

On July 1, we drive the famous Going-To-The-Sun Road. Looking at the photos from a week ago, I really don’t know which ones belong to which date. So, in keeping with the new America, where bullshit and truth are interchangeable, go with the flow and pretend reality and perception are one and the same. (We watched a 60 Minutes segment earlier about Alzheimer’s, so, when it seemed like they were talking about me the whole show, I just blamed it on

flashbacks. Hah! Another bullshit story they threw at us. Flashbacks, that is. Or did they put it in the water supply at Fort Polk? Or, did I?)

But, I digress.

A nice view (you can believe this one):

And then, waterfalls everywhere:

On July 2nd, we went back to Many Glacier to take a boat ride to the other side of the lake that we had hiked around two days before (where the moose almost goosed me). It was combined with a guided hike and another lake. After lake number one, they made us bust our asses going up a hill to get on a boat in the next lake so we could get closer to a glacier – at 90°. No fucking global warming, my ass. The best part about our “tour” was our charming guide, Elle. Jeanine and Andrea had already warmed up to her, and, hoping to slow her death march down upon the return trek, I gave her a well-received, chocolate tootsie-pop. You know, you can buy single flavors on Amazon. I know. After that, Elle was, basically, “our” guide, moving at our pace. Hey Jeanine – can you forward this to Elle and send me her email so I can add her to the list?

Anywayyyy, I digress. I think this is July 3rd:

On the way to, yes, another waterfall. Check out Andrea’s biker headpiece and and a flash of purple hair:

What else? On the 4th, we escaped the heat of the lower 48 to the heat of Alberta, Canada. And the nights kept getting longer. In Banff, the sun set after 10 and real night just didn’t show up in our waking hours.

Until you go west to the mountains, Alberta is a huge farm:

Glacier was beautiful. Banff was like Glacier on steroids. Glacier doesn’t really have a single “town”. Banff does and it’s like Vail, Breckenridge, Park City and every other US ski town thrown into one, times 5. Prices, too.

But I’m tired after another long driving day. Got lots of Banff photos. See Andrea’s posts.

Damn hot again. It was 104 in Great Falls when we passed through yesterday. It was 98 here earlier. We’re in Sheridan, Wy, again, tonight (Sun., 7-9).

Good night. Banff photos tomorrow.

Friday, June 30th

First stop, the Many Glacier section of the park. That was about 10 miles north of our campground and the St. Mary section. Not far after turning into the park the scenery was everything:

One turn in the road after another:

Nice stuff.

Crazy beautiful

We hiked around a lake and Andrea was in wildflower heaven:

And then we thought the Clown in Chief had hit the button. You know, lots of old Nike and Minutemen missles in these parts:

Just a plane.

Halfway around that lake, we hear a rustling in the bushes and suddenly everybody’s yelling at me, “Behind you!”

And there she was:

On the way back to St. Mary, we stopped at a restaurant, Two Sisters, a funky place with license plates and stickers from everywhere decorating the whole place. For you New Yorkers who have ever travelled upstate via Route 17, remember the Roscoe Diner? A sticker here?

And for you truly adventurous travellers who, like Doc Brown, say, “Where we’re going, we don’t need roads”, they got a sticker for you, too:

And it has nothing to do with Delaware.

And then I tried to stay up to watch the stars in one of the blackest skies in the country. What we didn’t realize was that as you go north, the sun stays up with you in the summer. It was after 11 before it really got dark. Sucked.

I’ll try to get more out tomorrow. Check Andrea’s Facebook posts if you haven’t already. She’s way more up to date.

But, how about one from tonight’s sunset:

Going back in time here. This was one of those vacations where you need a vacation to relax again. Once we got started, it was one knock-out day after another. Imagine me nodding out after dinner? Every fucking day! Oh, Andrea, don’t worry about all your sensitive friends. I ain’t no fucking Robert DeNiro. Anyway, I fell asleep every night as I was trying to finish this first installment. We are on the way back now, in White Sulfur Springs, MT. Just witnessed a mind boggling sunset, but that will come later. So many pictures that I’ll do this in groupings. Forgive me if I don’t get them all out tonight. It was a stressful ride today.

Tuesday, 6-27:

After Glendo it was another 270 miles, entirely on interstate 25, to Peter D’s RV Park in Sheridan, WY. Peter is kind of a character. He suggested a stop at Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. Not possible given our aggressive driving agenda tomorrow. But, Peter added, “You know, Custer was a bit of a fashion trendsetter. He was the first to wear Arrow shirts.” Pah-dum. Oy!

The drive was not as boring as, say, Nebraska or any state between the Appalachians and the Rockies but it was fairly devoid of decent scenery until we got about 30 miles from Sheridan. Then the Big Horn Mountains appear with their white caps. Sorry, no pics and nothing like landing in Denver and looking west.

Peter was nice enough to put us into the easiest pull-thru site. I think he liked me for trash talking to the guy ahead of us – the guy from New Joysey with the Yankee joysey on. (After noticing it was a Lou Gehrig shirt, I did mention that I liked his specific choice. Who doesn’t like #4?)

Luna loved the lush grass next to us, jumping around like a bunny. As the sun set, the little cow farm next to us gave me a kind of “Little House on the Prairie/Unforgiven” look, but with a contemporary touch, a cell tower:

Wednesday, June 28:

Long drive today from Sheridan, Wyoming to Great Falls, Montana, 360 miles to be exact (enough). I loaded up on caffeine today and got an ouchy stomach. That’s what grandson Leo calls something that hurts – an ouchy. And Andrea is constantly asking about odd sounds in the RV, mimicking the two-year-old’s signature question, “What’s that noise?” Give him a few years and he’ll be using my question when I hear something that just isn’t right in the RV, “What the fuck is that?”

Today, while trying to wash off massive bug splatters from the windshield – I mean, Wyoming bugs make hummingbirds look like mosquitoes – the right windshield wiper started flapping around. During one wild section of road, in a windmill farm with direct crosswords, every time a truck flew by at 70 going the other way, the combined blast of 140mph plus the compressed 35mph crosswind lifted the loose wiper up and over the good wiper. Thought I was gonna lose it. That, on top of spending $220 on a tank of diesel.

Oh, the Maelstrom Air Force base security forces were everywhere as we got closer to town, armored vehicles with 50 caliber machine guns:

WTF? Is ET here?

While trying to fix the wiper tonight, good neighbor Sven helped out and broke the offending loose piece. Thanks. I never throw out parts from furniture or any item that might have value down the road. I save screws, nuts, bolts, spacers, anything that looks like it might come in handy. My replacement hardware looks exactly the same as the original though it may only have one tenth the lifetime. It fucking works, for now.

Then, at 9:45PM, we picked up Jeanine and Jeff at the airport. We’ll be on our way tomorrow to Glacier. If I can get up. It’s two-thirty. This restless leg thing is as crazy as job anxiety. Used to be thinking about my job kept me up at night. Now the skin crawling off my body does it. Someone please fucking shoot me?!? Looking forward to Glacier.

Thursday, June 29:

This is our second time driving in Montana. The first was over 10 years ago leaving Yellowstone via the north entrance as the east entrance was closed due to fire.That was a pretty drive through some rugged mountains. The first 350 miles, yesterday and today, were as boring as most of Wyoming – rolling hills, ranches and loads of commercial farms. I mean, it’s not Kansas or Missouri but having lived in Colorado so long and driven all over the southwest, we are definitely jaded. However, the last 20 miles were beautiful. After leaving the little gas-stop town of Browning, the mountains of East Glacier grow as the road heads right to them. (Forgive the schmutz on the windshield)

Then that 70mph speed limit dropped to 25 in many places for the Odyssey as we wound our way up, down, and around the foothills approaching St. Mary. And then St. Mary Lake appeared:

That deserves a big, “far, fucking out!”

The KOA is quite nice, and expensive. But, the scenery is worth it. I have one shot from the Nikon that gives you an idea. Gotta transfer those to the computer, then my phone. Here we go:

There. Took me a week to find that shot.

Ok. Enough. Hit send. Now try to find seven or eight shots from Glacier! Hah! Out of a few hundred? Stay tuned for part 2.