I was exploring some of the interesting things you can do with a Google account (like sharing a spread sheet or sharing a calendar)when I saw that I could upload my very own picture for my Google Home page. Hey, that might be fun, I thought. For some reason I had Yellowstone on my mind, so I browsed to the folder with my Yellowstone pictures. But due to some setting that I’ve changed somewhere along the way (I think to make my computer start-up faster), I can’t actually see the pictures in the folder (just icons), so I just picked one. Yellowstone-24. How delighted I was to see this as the background on my screen -

What a lovely reminder of one of the wonderful National Parks we visited last year.
Yellowstone-24
Thanks for the memory!

Where the deer and the antelope roam…..

We’re back on the road! Today we interrupted our westward drive with a little side trip to the National Bison Range. It’s about 30 miles north of Missoula, so we left the house in a friendly parking lot in Missoula and set out with just the truck. The day was bright and sunny, and even though we were a little disappointed that we didn’t see many bison up close and personal, it was still an outstanding day!
While we saw a couple that were close enough for this (with a little help from the zoom!)-

most of them were more like specks of course pepper on the hillside.

But when you’re treated to views like this

and this

and this

it really is OK if the resident mamma bear and her cubs were off taking naps, and the elk in the valley perfectly blended into the brown fall grass, and the mule deer were off playing with the white tail deer deep in the trees. It was still beautiful.

Tonight we are parked at rest area – oh, about 40 miles west of Missoula. And since my trusty Verizon aircard is hanging on by one little bar, I’m going to let you check out the additional pictures of our day HERE! Our final destination on this leg is Spokane, Washington where we’ll be catching a flight to Dallas, TX. Seems I’ve been elected to the Board of Trustees of the Sower Ministry and next week is their annual board meeting outside of Dallas. We’re combining this with a visit to Lara, so that’s a real treat.

But to get to Spokane, we have to drive through Idaho. And guess what? I’ve never been there!
Can’t wait!

Since Gary set out to go fishing on Friday morning, I was able to enjoy some guilt-free sewing time while I worked on the laundry. It was such a beautiful day that I even hung out my sheets (quite a rarity for me in my “on-the-road life”). And any day that I feel like hangin’ out sheets is a day that is much too lovely to spend inside on my sewing machine. After Gary returned and we grabbed a quick bite to eat, we set out for Morrell Falls – a (almost) 5 mile (RT) hike nearby. I’m so glad we did!






As you can see, it was a perfect day for a hike!

And I think tomorrow will be a perfect day for painting!
Gotta love Mondays!

It’s hard to believe (as it almost always is) that we’ll be leaving Camp Utmost in just a week. Our time here in the hills outside of Missoula has been lovely! The weather has been exceptional – cool nights and mostly sunny bright days. Perfect painting weather!

And that’s mostly what we’ve doing!
See this lodge –

Ok – so we didn’t paint ALL of it, but we did the right side and around the back. Then we moved to the woodshed and the pump house –

The thing is, virtually every building on the campus has this beautiful cedar siding and all of them are due for a paint (stain) job.

There certainly is some job security here! The guys have been working on winterizing the bathhouses and doing repairs from last winter when they weren’t winterized. Ouch. We’ve all been kept good and busy – those long weekends feel mighty fine! (Actually having an hour for lunch is pretty nice too! It’s much easier to fit a quick nap in!)
But as always, it’s not all work and no play around here. We’ve gotten together a couple of times for games, and one night we even had a little goofy golf (or whatever you’d like to call it) tournament. Not surprisingly, the couple that play in a senior softball league cleaned up!

We girls took a little jaunt into Seeley Lake (about 20 minutes north) to check out a local quilt shop and do the post office/milk and eggs run. This is a shot of Salmon Lake that we pass on our way to town –

There are a lot of lakes in this area – all of them seem to be full of Montana beauty!
So, I’m sure my week was a lot like yours. Some work, some play, some chores, some ups and some downs. We are so blessed to have been able to spend these weeks at Camp Utmost! Hope your week was blessed too!

Once again, we have thoroughly enjoyed our long weekend. Montana is as new to us as Alaska was so it was fun to do a little exploring. One sign that intrigued us was for Garnet Ghost Town. Tucked away (far at the end of 15 mile uphill dirt road) in the Garnet Mountains is a deserted town that was a thriving mining community at the turn of the century. Garnet was home to over 1000 residents during those boom times, but by the end of the depression it was deserted.

It was very interesting seeing the town in its un-restored state. I’m not sure things were left just as we found them, but it was fun to imagine that they were. I also had fun playing with the “sepia” setting on my camera!

From Garnet we checked out a neighboring ghost town, Coloma, that wasn’t quite so well preserved!

Even though the house was falling down, I bet the view must have been dynamite when it was standing!

It was fun exploring along the dirt roads up in the mountains and we were treated to some awesome vistas while we were at it!

So that was Friday.
On Saturday Gary and I struck out extra early to do some fishing. (OK, so I wasn’t going to fish, but he had invited me to come so I tagged along.)
Like I said – it was an extra early morning!

The sun had made it up by the time we made it to the river –

and after getting all his gear together

he started off down the river.

Me, I had a nice quiet time in the truck (staying warm), and then had fun watching the tent campers (and the hammock camper) slowly emerge.

Plus there was always my camera to play with!

Reaching for the sunshine -

Ah, sunshine!

Once it warmed up I moved out to the water’s edge and enjoyed the sunshine too! And just as all the other fishermen were loading up their little float/boats

Gary returned – a little discouraged (no fish), but determined to keep at it. Maybe on Monday. He’s a new fly fisherman, and is still learning the ropes. He is the proud owner of a full season Montana fishing license (the best value for our time here), so he’s been going out most afternoons after work checking out different fishing accessses.
Maybe one of those fun little boats would help……..

Today (Sunday) we joined two of the Sower couples for church at a local campground. One of the couples is a new Sower (this is their second project), but they have served on the mission field in Africa for thirty years. He is a surgeon and in his late 70’s, and they still go back (to Africa) for several months each year. They were giving a mission report to a supporting church who happened to be camping at a nearby campground. It was interesting to hear some of their story, and we were blessed to be part of this small congregation praising the Lord in the beautiful (though a little damp) outdoors!

Oh, I almost forgot! One of the nicest parts of the weekend was how it started. Thursday night we went out to dinner to celebrate our 38th wedding anniversary! I don’t think I ever would have believed you if you had told me 10 years ago that I would be celebrating this anniversary in Montana! (Or living in an RV for that matter!) How kind God has been to us!

This week I’ll try to put together some pictures and stories about our work/play here at Camp Utmost. It’s been great so far!
Have a good one!