Last week we were checking out glaciers and this week we were watching boiling water bubble (or shoot!) out of the earth. Isn’t it amazing what a couple hundred miles can do?
We almost didn’t go to Yellowstone. Since the opportunity came at the end of our 5 week trip from Alaska, we were really just content to sit and be cozy at our quiet (well, except for the train nearby) resting spot outside of Sarah and Brandon’s house. In all honesty, we were a little National Parked-out. Sort of Spectacular Scenery Overload. But S&B really encouraged us to go, assuring us that Yellowstone was really “different”, and that it wouldn’t be just more beautiful landscape. They were so very right! We were given a perfect day for our excursion – blue skies, puffy white clouds – and while the park was busy, the roads weren’t too very crowded. The only really big crowd we saw was at Old Faithful, but then again, who doesn’t stop for Old Faithful?! We drove part of the Grand Loop – and were impressed with not only all of the thermal areas, but also with the great diversity in the park. We saw elk both resting and drinking along the Madison River and then later in the day a herd of them was busy sunning themselves in front of the visitor center at Mommoth Springs. Massive bison walked right by us on the road, an interesting cause for a traffic jam, and herds of them could be found in the lush valleys along Yellowstone River. On the thermal side, we saw steaming hillsides, bubbling mudpots, boiling ponds, and (of course) shooting geysers. All of it was fascinating – all of it beautiful – all of it a reminder of our Creator’s kindness it giving us such marvels to view!

So, Yellowstone? SO glad we went. (Guess what, there are more Yellowstone photos HERE!)

And today? We’re SO glad we’re nice and comfy here at Camp Utmost, about 30 miles NE of Missoula, MT. The rest of our Sower team will be arriving today and we’ll start work on Monday. Not only are the slides out and the utilities hooked up, but we even have the outside rug down and the awnings out. I’m sure I’ll have more reflections (and maybe even a couple more pictures (gasp)) about our Alaskan Adventure, but for now it’s back to “regular” life. And what a wonderful life it is! Thank-you, Lord!

Thursday, August 20
Now usually when you think of a “mountaintop” experience you think of some type of (often especially good) spiritual experience. Our Mountaintop experience couldn’t really be considered of the spiritual nature, unless you factor in all the praying that we did!
We were about 200 miles into our day, and climbing up King Hill (elevation 7393). As we were chugging our way up the long hill Gary noticed that the transmission seemed to be running hot. We pulled over at the summit to investigate. Once we stopped the “low air” beeper started beeping. Believe me, you do not ignore this beeping. It didn’t really make any sense, but Gary figured he’d better check that out too! After he added a little coolant to the radiator to fix that problem he went to work on the low air. Now for those of you non-mechanical folks (like me) the “low air” is pretty critical. That’s because we have air BRAKES. Always nice, especially when you have to go DOWN from that 7393ft elevation. (Actually even if we weren’t headed down a hill, brakes are still pretty critical. Duh, Steph!) Turns out that one of the brake lines had a leak. Good news – we found the problem when we were in a safe place. Bad news – the closest store that MIGHT have a part Gary could use to fix it was back in Great Falls – 75 miles away (and it was already after 4:00). Good news – we carry a spare vehicle! More good news – the store had parts that would work (and it was open!). And final good news – the fix worked!!!! We’ll test it again in the morning, but things are looking pretty good for an early morning departure off This mountaintop!
Friday, August 21 -
We have arrived safely in Manhatten, Montana and are parked outside of Sarah and Brandan’s house. Our house ran just fine coming down off that mountain, with lots of air pressure for the brakes and no alarming engine temperatures. And no BEEPING!!!!!

Montana has really surprised me with its variety of terraine. Here are some random shots of what I saw out of my window as we traveled down the road.
Leaving the campground -

Driving through an area hard hit by fire in the past

The mountains followed along to the west most of the way

Wildlife crossing?

The road ahead




Can you see the three crosses on the top of this butte?



OK – we actually stopped to get the picture above and the one below – I just loved these yellow daisies!

Driving through the Lewis & Clark National Forest

We passed this ranch/farm(?) three times with our extra trip into Great Falls. I love the way it was sitting all alone in the field.

We’ll be here in Manhatten for several days, just kinda hangin’ out and catching our breath. We’ll probably start on the massive cleaning that we need to accomplish following our long dirt road journeys. Everything I pull out of a closet or cupboard seems to have a thin (or thick, depending on where it was) layer of dirt on it. The “basement” bay areas are expecially bad. It’ll be a big job, but it will also give us a chance to get rid of some non-essential stuff! Let the cleaning begin!
In the morning.

Have a great weekend!

Phew – what a beautiful day this was! We’d become quite accustomed to doing our sightseeing in cloudy rainy weather lately, so we were delighted when today dawned bright and clear. It was a PERFECT day to marvel at the handiwork of our Mighty Creator! As we drove across the “Going to the Sun Road” in Glacier National Park, we saw crystal clear lakes, breathtaking mountains, all kinds of critters, roads hanging on the side of those mountains and abundant wildflowers. We took a short hike (3 miles – good for us old wheezing folks!) and so enjoyed that. Besides the wildflowers that carpeted the hillsides, there were big horn sheep and mountain goats (like right on the path), marmots, and of course the ever present ground squirrel. When I downloaded my pictures from the day, there were 465! Yikes! I think that’s a record even for me! I deleted the obivious duplicates and the ones that were just too fuzzy to count, and then tried to pick 20 or so to upload to Flickr. Well, I got it down to 63. Sorry, it’s the best I could do!
Here are some random picks from those 63 – feel free to check them all out HERE if you’d like to see more!

St. Mary Lake in the early morning light.

Mountains (I’m sure they have names, but I was too busy snapping pictures to figure out who was who!)

One of two tunnels on the road

Blankets of wildflowers on our hike.

Honest, it got more “hike-like” as we headed up to the Hidden Lake overlook.


Some of the goats we got up close and personal with!

That’s the road snaking across the middle of the mountain. And that was the non-stressful part of the drive!

This is one of the historic hotels in the park -

And then from the “front” -

Wow!

We really only scratched the surface of this beautiful park. I hope we can come back sometime and spend a little more time exploring the beauty of this place. We’d love to come back and soak in some more of this beauty!

Tomorrow we head out – south to Manhatten (yes, there is a Manhatten, Montana), then on to our September project outside of Missoula. It’s back on the road for us! I think we’re running out of Tourist Dollars!
I think I’m gonna like it here in Big Sky Country!

I confess, it feels pretty darn good to be back in the good ol’ US of A. Where I understand what the temperatutre is outside and I can figure out just how expensive gasoline is. AND where my Verizon internet card works!!!! Yeaaaaaaaa!
Tonight we are in a nice little campground just outside of Glacier National Park – water, electric, sewer. Boy, did that long hot shower feel good! The slides are out and we’re just chillin’ out tonight. Had some good Alaskan salmon for dinner – yes, life is good!
But wanted to give a little bit of explanation for the Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump stop from yesterday.

Did you know that the Plains Indians didn’t have horses until around 1690 when the horse introduced by the Spaniards? Before the horse became part of their lifestyle, the only domesticated animal they had were dogs. And since the bison was their primary source of food, fuel, hides, just about everything, hunting them was critical, but quite a challenge. One of the methods they used was to stampede the buffalo toward a cliff where they would plummet to their death (or the waiting braves would bonk the ones that survived the fall.) Hence, the Buffalo Jump. This site was one that they believe (from archeological finds) was used off and on for thousands of years. The cliff doesn’t seem too impressive today, but then again, hundreds of years have gone by since it was used for a “jump”!

It was an interesting interpretive center – and a very pretty day -

and the view was great!

And then there was Fort Macleod -

Fort Macleod was the first western territory post for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. It was quite an historic trek that they made to establish order (and keep the Americans from selling whiskey to the natives) in the newly (and sparsely) settled Canadian West.

They were supposed to have a “Musical Ride” but the previous day’s rain had made the arena too muddy. But what is a “Musical Ride” you ask? We wondered too, so I found this on Youtube – I think it’s a bit more elaborate than we would have seen (they only had 8 horses), but I bet it would have been fun!

This morning we enjoyed the Remington Carriage Museum - one of the largest collections of carriages in the world. It was very well done, and very interesting.

These are the some of the ones in the “warehouse”-

Oh – the restoration guy said they get most of their supplies from New Holland, PA. Gotta love those Amish!
But of course, our main event today was getting to Montana.

We just had to pass through Customs one more time. Since we hadn’t had any trouble all of the other crossings we’d made over the summer, we figured it would go smoothly. After all, we’re Americans returning to America, right? We had our passports ready, sunglasses and hats off, and short answers practiced. But what do you think the problem was?

Yep, my poor jade plant that has bounced around every bad road in the Great North, who finally got bungied to the dashboard fan to keep it from falling over (again and again) and managed to get through customs every other time without so much as a mention was in danger of being confiscated by the US Customs guy at the little crossing into Montana. I took a quick picture and even pulled off a little branch (in case it was confiscated) while the customs agent was checking with his superior. Turns out it was OK to enter the country, but he did come in and check the rig out. And no, we weren’t hiding anyone in the lavatory!
Phew!

Tomorrow we head into Glacier National Park for our drive along the “Going to the Sun Road”. I bet I’ll have some pictures to share!

Sweet Dreams, Montana. It’s good to be back, America!

So where was I, before I was so rudely interrupted by no internet? I can’t begin to remember what day (of travel) this is. I can just barely remember what day of the week this is. And the actual date – now that’s really a stretch! Thank goodness for auto-fill on the computer!
But we have been quite busy since I last had an opportunity to post. I’ll have to do a summary, with just a couple of pictures since I’m so far behind, but I’ll let you know where you can find more pictures if you’d like a larger sampling of the areas!
Jasper –Columbia Icefields – Banff

These three areas all stretch together down the Canadian Rocky Mountains. While we hit a bad stretch of weather while we were in these Canadian National Parks, we still could see the beauty of the area. If you are a hiker or biker or climber or kayaker or shopper – these are ideal towns for you to visit. If you’re “Slightly Over Weight Early Retirees” (a humerous (?) explanation of SOWERs) there is still a lot of beauty to see. And all with just the right amount of hiking involved!
There was Mt. Helen Cavell – a lovely hike to the base of the mountain and the edge of Angel Glacier. The drive there was beautiful and the mountain and glacier were impressive.

Then there was Maligne Canyon and Medicine Lake – more incredible displays of God’s handiwork.


Before we set off for Banff the next morning, we visited Athabasca Falls. It was raining pretty hard, but you could still see (and hear) the power of those waterfalls. Quite a way to start the day!

The road between Jasper and Banff – the Icefields Parkway – is considered to be one of the most beautiful drives in the world. We started out in the rain, and ended in the rain, but along the way the clouds cleared and we could appreciate some of that acclaim.

When we hit the Columbia Icefields, the sky was beginning to clear and the sun was working its magic on the mountains around us. We did a Tourist Splurge, and took the Ice Machine ride up onto the Athabasca Glacier. It was incredible!

By the time we were pulling into Banff, it was pouring again. Bummer. Banff is a very lovely tourist town – shop after shop after shop. One of the reasons we were in Banff was to connect with a cousin that I hadn’t seen in almost 25 years. He was in town for a convention (that he was actually running) and he was able to break free long enough to treat us to an exquisite dinner at the Eden Restaurant. It was a six course meal (all the courses were “French Cuisine” size – small but mighty) and they were all amazing. I don’t think I have ever had a meal where the silverware was replaced for each course and our own maître de explained each dish as it was served. I’m soooo glad we didn’t come in our sneakers!

Oh, and we had a good visit with my cousin, too! Thanks, Kim! It really was unforgettable!
OK, so that was Banff. I know we didn’t really do it justice, but the weather was just too miserable to do a lot of sightseeing, and there just isn’t any more room in our house on wheels for more “stuff”, so we tend to stay away from those cute little shops.
It was still raining the next morning as we set out for Calgary, but still we could envision the beauty that must have been just beyond the clouds. Before we knew it, we were out of the mountains and headed into Cowboy Country. And lots and lots of houses. And lots and lots of cars. Ooooo – city driving! We did stop at a couple of the small towns on the way into Calgary and ended up spending most of our day at the Millarsville Farmers Market and annual County Fair.

This was a great day! Lots of local color, as they say – from the farmers market to the rooster crowing contest to the vegetables, flowers, jams and jellies, cookies and pies (etc., etc.) judging to the livestock competition, talent show, pie eating contest, horseshow and tractor pull! Oh, and it also had a Fiber Arts (i.e. quilts) display and judging along with photography and art. It was jam packed with local talent and fun, fun, fun! We’re glad we made a day of it! (Even though one of the reasons we “made a day of it” was because once we got parked we pretty much had to wait until the parking lot cleared before we could leave! Ah, the joys of life in a big rig!)

The next day we checked out a historic ranch – The Bar U. Just so happened there was an “Old Time Ranch Rodeo” that day, and while it wasn’t quite the Calgary Stampede, it sure was fun! There were 14 ranches represented with great names like Quarter Circle L and Mesabi & Anchor P, and they competed in five different events. Our favorite was Wild Cow Milking. Here’s how it works –
There’s one cowboy on the horse and two more on the ground. In the arena are about a dozen wild cows. The guy on the horse has to lasso one of the cows and then the other two have to subdue the cow anyway they can and one of them has to milk it. It looks like this -




I think he’s signing up to be the guy on the horse next time!
Aside from the fact that twice in the middle of the show it started to pour (hence all of that nice mud!), it was great fun!

So that actually brings us to today – which I THINK is Monday, August 17. We spent the day doing some other historical sites -
Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump and Fort Macleod and tonight we’re parked near the Remington Carriage Museum which will be our final stop in Canada tomorrow morning. (And as a bonus I have been able to get on the wi-fi from the nearby visitors center and finally get these pictures uploaded and this blog updated!).
OK – here are the links to more pictures
Jasper
Columbia Icefields
Banff to Calgary
Millarsville Fair Day
Bar U Rodeo
I did take some pictures today, but they are still living in my camera. I know I’m feeling a little pictured out – I can only imagine how you must feel! Maybe next time!

Next stop (well, after the Carriage Museum) – MONTANA!!!!!
Whooohoooo!