Trip Cross Country Day 9

Day 9-

We awoke in our tent at I think around 8:30-9am. Sometimes I am amazed how late we can sleep in there! We packed up and headed out of the campground. We ate cold pizza for breakfast in the car. Not one of our finer eating days.

We headed north toward Missoula again and then onto 93 North toward Flathead Lake. We drove through that area and stopped at Three Dog Down - a down (like feathers) outlet. The first comforter we saw cost $925 so we were a little wary about what kind of OUTLET this place really was. They were super friendly though. It started to drizzle and we kept plodding north. We finally hit Kalispell and were going to head to Whitefish, but realized that was sort of out of our way. We went to Columbia City and stopped at a supermarket. I got some food (oatmeal, avocado, cheese etc) for our camping and Tom walked the dog. As we put the food in our car a very friendly woman said, "HELLO!!! Welcome to Montana!" Turns out she was from, or had just been in CT. What a warm welcome.

We drove on and entered Glacier National Park on the West side. We showed our new National Parks pass (very proud to have one...hope we use it enough) and headed on through. It was raining and downright cold now and I was not a happy camper. Tom went into the Apgar Visitor Center and I refused. I don't think he was happy about that move. I read the Glacier newspapers and pouted about the rain. We then headed onto the "Going to the Sun Road". Unfortunately there was absolutely NO sun to be seen, but it was still cool.

We stopped at a little walk through the Cedars and did that in the drizzle and cold. Then we continued on our way up and east. We hit some traffic from road construction, but got lucky that it didn't last too long. Right after the construction we saw a black bear eating berries (more like devouring them) alongside the road. We stopped to snap some pictures.

Finally we arrived at the next to last campground along the road - Rising Sun. There were only a few spots left and we grabbed one quickly. We set up the tent in the drizzle and then took Harper for a walk. We saw some hoary marmots (funny name, I know) and Harper really wanted to chase them. We saw some deer. We did not see another bear, although there were sooooo many berries I was almost surprised.

Back at the campground we were down a teeny hill from a family with three daughters. One of them came running over to ask if she could pet Harper. Soon the other one joined. They were from Canada somewhere (man I need to brush up on my Canadian geography b/c I have no clue) and were very cute. They started to teach us a penguin song they had learned, but turns out Tom already knew it and he started singing and dancing with them. Then we taught them the Wishy Washer Washer Woman song and they seemed very happy with that one. I think their parents were happy to have a break from them for a bit. They were very talkative and amusing and they just LOVED Harper.

As we were beginning to get our dinner ready (mac and cheese from the box with some extra cheddar and tomato thrown in there) we heard someone yelling, "BLACK BEAR." Turns out there was one...or maybe two back bears right on the hill around the road on the campground. Tom went over to take some pictures, but by the time I went they were climbing the hill. The host at the campground said they had seen 9 bears in 5 days. So make that 10-11 with that sighting.

We ate dinner and sat by the fire (we bought some logs at the little rip-off store near the campground). We continued reading our book aloud and once again Harper had trouble settling down. I think maybe there are just too many smells and sights for him to calm down completely out there. We took it into the tent (it was a COLD night) and I was glad for my 0 degree bag (although it was probably only 40 out or so). Harper snuggled and put his head INTO my sleeping bag. It was amusing. Apparently Tom read the book, but I think I fell fast asleep. He said all he could see was some of my hair sticking out, that I had buried my head in the sleeping bag with Harper. Time for a cozy sleep.

Trip Cross Country Day 8

Day 8-

We sad our sad goodbyes to Ketchum. We made yet another amazing Dutch Baby pancake with berries and then let the dogs fetch a little on the Dollar Mountain Bunny Hill thingie.
We stupidly followed the GPS out of town and I ended up driving up some pass on a dirt road going very slowly. Tom kept getting confused because he couldn't find us on the map and we had been very excited to stop off at Redfish or Red something lake that Naomi had told us about. However we never saw it.

When we got to some random town in Idaho we realized the GPS had taken us an insane way, and that we had missed the entire drive through the Sawtooths, and the stop off at the lake.

We got out and had burgers at some place. It was 97 degrees outside!!! We were in shock because Jackson and Ketchum had been relatively cool. We jumped back into our ACed car and kept trucking. We stopped at a random river and let Harper run in a little bit. It was COLD cold cold water.

At some point we passed the 45th parallel - the spot mid way between the equator and the north pole. Ok something like that. I can't remember the exact info. I failed to get a picture, just like every time we passed the continental divide I could NOT for the life of me get a picture.

We entered into Montana at some point. We stopped at a Forest Ranger station and Tom asked them some questions. We could see the dead trees that had been burned 9 years ago in some insane forest fire. There were a LOT of dead trees.

We stopped about 14 miles south of Missoula to go to a campground. It was a really nice place along a river and we set up our tent and hung out in the river briefly. It felt very refreshing and Harper was having fun. Then we decided to go to Missoula - the infamous town that I was convinced I would be in love with.

I drove in and I was not impressed. Sort of junky strip malls on your way in and little "casinos" everywhere. I don't think they actually have true gambling....just Keno and other electronic things. We got into more of the residential area and it looked cute. We parked and strolled around Main Street and Front Street. We bought some camp suds at an outdoor gear place and tried to stay out of the sun which was insanely hot. We ended up ordering a pizza from the Mackenzie River Pizza Company (I might have made up this name) and went for a walk on the river as it was baking. We watched some people doing crazy kayaking on the river and then ate our pizza on the grass. On our way out of town we drove toward the campus and parked near some sports fields. Harper ran into the river and then we went for a walk. There was an offleash dog area which was a grassy area with river on either side and then a small trail for a little bit. It was fun and we walked to the end and back.

We headed back to our campsite. Tom and Harper went into the river. I swear it was 40 degrees. I do not know how Tom was able to dunk his head and body in there! We tried to dry Harper off, but he insisted in rolling. Now if he had rolled in the grass that would have been fine, but no, he only would roll in the sandy/ash from the fire pit. So needless to say he was disgusting. We played some music and hung out on our campsite. Then Tom made a fire and we sat around it reading a book aloud. Liane had given us, "Peace Like a River" and we had taken to reading it aloud to each other in the car. Harper would NOT settle down, so we moved into the tent and continued reading until we were sleepy. It was a pretty warm night, and luckily Harper snuggled our feet and not another more heat producing part of our bodies.