015 Limos & Bikes

October 8 2008 – Wednesday

Redmond, OR

I woke up far too early today, around 730 am but it felt like it was at least 10!  It was, however, nice to wake up to the mountains right outside the window, in the distance, even if they were snow-covered.  My brother and I had some time to visit for a bit before I decided it was time to get showered & clean.  My Aunt Patty made a wonderful breakfast of sausage & cheese biscuits and an egg, so I had a fabulous start to the day.

My mom and I went shopping in Redmond to pick up a few things.  We stopped at a liquor store for some rum and then, bless the states where they have wine & beer in the grocery store, picked up some groceries, wine & 3 different six packs of local beer.  While out, I got a call from the guys (Uncle Lyle, Heath & Dad) who were anxious for us to return to the ranch so that we could go for a ride.  Since my brother flew out for a few days, Uncle Lyle let him borrow his Harley Sportster while Lyle rented a Harley for a few days.  My Mom & I hurried back to get geared up for the fairly cold-weather ride to the Dee Wright Observatory in Willamette National Forest.  
That was really pretty cool, with broken up lava beds everywhere, and the mountains, again…  And really, it was pretty cool; by the time we got there, I thought my fingers were going to fall off!  It’s time for new winter bike gloves, I guess.  To make it back home, I had to borrow a pair of thin leather gloves from my Uncle to put over my own regular bike gloves; at least they were a wind breaker!  The ride was beautiful, through the forest and around the area.  I fully admit that I love being around mountains.

When we got back from our super cool and very cold ride, we hopped into my Uncle’s limo to pick up my Grandpa & Mary for dinner.  Yup, they have a limo which they rent out for parties now and then.  So, my Mom, brother & I grabbed some beer and hung out together in the back of the limo while my Dad & Uncle rode up front.  After picking up Grandpa & Mary from Bend, we decided to stop at a Safeway to find my mom some popcorn that she wanted.  
And we thought it would be entertaining to stop at a Safeway for popcorn while we were in a limo…  Heath & I ended up getting two different kinds of popcorn, flowers for Aunt Patty, one large local beer and a six pack of hard cider for mom, since she kept insisting that she didn’t want more beer but yet seemed very protective over the one that was left from the first six pack.  It was humorous and we enjoyed ourselves.

When we got back to the ranch, everyone sat around and told stories for a while.  I learned quite a bit about some of my relatives!  Uncle Lyle used to be in the military, just as my Dad was.  He told of a time when he was actually mixing bombs with his bare hands, which is crazy.  I have a couple of other Uncles on my Dads side, one of them is named Lowell.  Apparently, he once egged Patty’s car without her knowing.  The next day when she found out, she brought it to the gas station where Lowell was working and told him that someone egged her car, would he please help her clean it…  Nice.  That’s what I call karma.

Then, on my Mom & Dad’s wedding day, a bunch of people were swimming right up until the ceremony.  Ok, that’s not too big of a deal; however, after the ceremony people were dropped off in random places, left to their own devices.  It was because of this that my Uncle Lyle, in his tuxedo, met some people with a boat and went water skiing with them, in his tux.  I wonder less and less about myself, the more I learn about the rest of my family and relatives.  I think we’re all just a little bit of crazy.

Anyway, dinner was great.  I helped clean up a bit while Lyle & Papa brought Grandpa & Mary back home.  Patty & Heath and I visited for a while and my Mom went to bed slightly snockered.  Overall, it was quite a day; exhausting but fabulous.

014 Oregon!

October 8 2008 – Wednesday

Spokane, WA to Redmond, OR

This morning, everyone got up early and met at Don & Barb’s for photo-taking.  Unfortunately, Chad got there just a couple of minutes too late and Don had to leave for work.  We managed, however, to take some fun photos of the whole bunch of us without Don but including my cousin Joe who flew in the previous night at about 11pm.  Joe has been training in the army and will soon be going over seas.  It was great to have the opportunity to see him even though it was for a very short time.  After taking some photos (which I still need to get from someone!), the kids left for breakfast together.  I like local places when I’m in new towns, so they took me to a place called Hogans.  The décor of Hogans was absolutely fabulous; I thoroughly enjoyed the food, atmosphere and the company of my cousins one last time before I took off.

Finally, I was on my way again driving to Oregon.  My brother was flying in the same evening so I wanted to get there as well.  It was a decent drive, but it seemed to take forever somehow!  I’ve come to decide that I believe I really care more for the coastal, lush side of Oregon than I do the other part of the state.  It’s gorgeous everywhere of course, but a lot of the east & central parts are actually high desert; very dry and not very much color.  On the drive to Redmond, a large part of the trip (it seemed, at least) was going through the Columbia River Gorge which was really quite interesting.  If you’re into wind surfing or kite surfing, I guess that’s the place to be; there were tons of people out on the water.  The wind in the gorge never lets up, supposedly, and it’s intense.  Even though I only watched from a distance, it was incredible seeing the people fly through the air, a number of feet above the water, zipping from side to side they had to be going at least 30 mph.  I bet in cases it’s even faster, maybe I should look it up.  I’m not very good at judging things like that myself.

Other interesting places along the drive down were somewhat unremarkable but quite entertaining to me.  At one point, I saw one of most frightening looking runaway truck ramps I’ve ever seen.  Driving up to it, it really looked like a truck driver who had to use it would run straight into the mountain, not go up the hill.  Crazy, I wouldn’t want to have to use that.  Another place seemed to be in the middle of nowhere alongside the road.  Of course I had to stop to find out what it was all about.  It turned out, it was a mountain identifier and it pointed to all the mountains in the area, explaining which each one was.  I quite enjoyed that!  Just before arriving in Redmond, I stopped at the Crooked River area where there were a couple of great bridges and a gorgeous 300 ft. gorge with a river at the bottom.  Those walls went straight down; anyone afraid of heights should beware.  Apparently, dogs should as well; according to the signs in the area, many die there.  I spent a bit of time there, stretching my legs and taking photos before calling my Uncle Lyle to let him know I was close to the ranch.  

After about 8 hours in the car, I was ready to enter Redmond; my Uncle Lyle and Papa drove to meet me; when I passed them on the road, they pulled out and had me follow them back to the ranch; there’s no way I would have found it without them, even with my GPS.  Many roads in the area are under construction right now, being moved, changed and created.  I was road weary when I pulled in and didn’t fully absorb what I was driving into, but gradually the weariness wore off and I noticed more and more what an incredible place they have.  Their ranch house is beautiful with a waterfall/pond area right outside one of the floor to ceiling windowed walls, mountain tops and ranch area outside another.  We weren’t sleeping in the ranch house, however; we were staying in the guest house in the barn.  The guest house is a two story lofted 3 bedroom, kitchen & bath apartment/house that’s gorgeous.  The view of the mountain tops from here is even better, in my opinion, than from the house.  My Uncle Lyle & Aunt Patty love having people here to use it, too.  I grabbed the second bedroom upstairs down the hallway from my parents who decided they’re staying for a little while longer, and my brother will have the downstairs bedroom off the kitchen.

When I walk outside, I am greeted by Llamas, Alpacas, a horse, something like 10 mini horses, doves, chickens, dogs, cats, chickens & new baby kittens…  There's a bird in the house named Kiwi.  I’ll have to find out if there’s another name for the mini horses.  It’s quite enjoyable exploring the ranch and seeing what they have here.  The view alone is incredible and I don’t get tired of seeing the mountains in the distance.

Anyway, it was an exhausting day and I couldn’t stay awake to pick up Heath from the airport, I was just too tired so I called it a night.  My time here will be pleasurable, of that I’m sure!

013 Mushroom Hiking

October 7 2008 – Tuesday (2 Weeks)

Spokane, WA

Yesterday was a spectacular day, getting a taste of the outskirt mountain areas around Spokane.  The word got out that I have wanted to go hiking recently, and everyone knows by now, that I love biking around.  Chad apparently goes hiking quite often and knows a few routes with different levels of difficulty.  I’m not a regular hiker by any means (which most of you know) but I’m not in horrible shape since I dance.  Out of the three options of Difficult, Medium & Easy that Chad provided, we ended up hiking the medium trail.  I was a bit anxious when we got there and found out that the trail was 7.2 miles long and would take us about 4 hours, but I took it in stride and decided that it would be just fine.  It was definitely challenging and completely beautiful.  Besides Chad & I, Chris, Ivan (I’m not sure how to spell that), and Micah came with us!  The trail, around the Liberty Creek Watershed area, was quite difficult in parts, quite humorous in others, and relaxing in a few.  To understand fully, you’ll just have to see the photos that I have posted.  The trail twisted, turned and mostly disappeared, climbed around roots and fallen trees, started at about 2200 elevation and at the top (I have provided a photo for proof) we had climbed to about 3800 elevation.  Impressive!  You may wonder why I said that some of the trail was humorous, so I should probably explain.  Along the way, there were helpful signs showing us where we were, warning us about washouts & telling us about cedar groves, but there were also some signs that read, “More Hiking,” “Waterfall,” and “Scenic Trail.”  I had a good laugh at those but also appreciated their simplicity.  Nobody had to name the waterfall a complicated name claiming it as their own or attempting to describe it, all they needed was to tell people that it was, in fact, a waterfall.  Fabulous.  

As many of my friends and family know, I like mushrooms.  In school, I had many projects based on mushrooms and it became a bit of a theme during my time there.  It just so happens that it’s fall mushroom season right now and they were everywhere along that trail!  One of the first that we spotted was, in fact, the mushroom that I based many of my projects around.  It was nice to see it live in the forest.  Once my fellow hikers found out about my passion for mushrooms, everyone was helping to find more for photos.  When we made it to the end of the trail, I had sure built up an appetite.  A bit amazed that I had made it the whole way and kept a fairly good pace, I felt great about the hike.  Originally, we had wanted to go hiking and then biking in the evening; Chad has a scooter and Chris has a motorcycle.  The weather, however, was very cloudy, partially rainy & somewhat unpleasant during the day so we nixed the biking that evening.

Instead, we made plans to have everyone back for dinner again at Don & Barb’s but first I was able to see where both Chris & Chad lived.  They both have great homes and I’m happy to see that they seem to be quite happy in their lives.  Dinner was nice, especially since I was energized from the day instead of dead tired from driving like the day before.  After making plans for breakfast & group photos the next day before I took off, everyone left and I had a chance to visit with just my Aunt & Uncle again.  Rarely do I have the chance to verify any stories that my mom has told me through the years, so I jumped at it and listened, entertained, as Don told me his versions of many stories from growing up.

One of my favorite stories is the one about how my Grandpa bought their house in Pelican Rapids.  My mom has told me this story numerous times and I asked for Don’s version as well.  Long story short, my Grandpa walked up to the guy who then owned the house and asked him if he would sell it.  The guy said yes.  We now have the greatest location in the town and I never want to let it go.  In that house, the downstairs bedroom has stars covering most of its ceiling.  Usually, the reason for this would simply be that kids like putting stars on the ceiling of their rooms…  This time, it’s because my Uncle Don shot his bee bee gun at the ceiling and created holes everywhere.  My Grandma Esther used gold stars to cover the holes.  I like the effect!

Overall, it was a wonderful day; even though I’ll probably be in pain from the hike in a couple of days, it was definitely worth it, for the beauty and the chance to spend time with my cousins.

012 The Triplets

October 5 2008 – Sunday

Traveling from Glacier to Spokane, WA

I had a nice morning today while I cleaned up my Yurt, took a shower and then started driving again.  There were still clouds in the sky and a bit of rain falling here and there but it was actually kinda pretty.  I drove through Kalispell again and decided to stop for lunch before continuing on, and to plan my route.  There was a place called Montana Wheat that looked like it had character and a sign that said Wi-Fi which is always nice.  While having a fabulous bowl of potato & bacon soup and a mango smoothie, I caught up on some more emails and stuff, and figured out what route I was going to take to Spokane.

Once I was finished with lunch, I headed out and took hwy 2 through Bonner’s Ferry and then went down to Coeur d’Alene which is on the border of Idaho/Washington.  I have heard that the Coeur d’Alene area is gorgeous and I was looking forward to seeing it, but I guess I drove into the wrong side since I drove into the west.  It’s the east that’s really pretty; I guess I’ll have to go back sometime.

I’m not sure exactly where I was when I transitioned into in Pacific time, but I finally entered into it, earning another hour in my day.  When I finally drove into Spokane, I was greeted by a houseful; I guess I should say yardful, of relatives.  Every Sunday, my Aunt & Uncle in Spokane get together with their three sons & their families (two of them are married, one has a son and one has a girlfriend).  I made it just in time to join them all for dinner and it was really nice to see everyone.  A couple of friends of the family came over as well, but my youngest cousin Joe wasn’t in town due to army training somewhere else.  

Now for a story.  Almost 30 years ago, my grandma made headlines for becoming a grandmother 3 times in one day.  My aunt & uncle were in Spain at the time and they had twins who were named Chris & Chad.  My mom gave birth to me a few hours later, she called me Sherrise (obviously…).  Chris & Chad & I call ourselves the triplets.  

The last time we saw each other was about 10 years ago and we didn’t take any pictures of us together at that time.  Before that it had been about another 10-15 years since we had been together, when we were about 5.  We did have photos of us, then.  Anyway, this time we made sure that we had a couple of photos of us taken, since we are the triplets and all.

Well, that night we had dinner with everyone and then gradually everyone called it a night.  I was almost useless since I was so exhausted; the drive was beautiful but tiring!  Well, everyone else left since Chris & Chad worked nights at the nearby prison and it was late.  I stayed up and visited with my Uncle Don & Aunt Barb and talked mainly about guns…  Yes, I said guns.  Uncle Don likes guns and knows quite a bit about them.  I’m not a huge supporter of guns at this point, but I do also understand how sometimes they’re not such a bad thing.  So, he showed me around some of his guns, explaining what the differences were, etc.

A nice bedtime story…  Then, finally, I went to bed and spent a few minutes updating my blog a bit for the benefit of all of you!

011 A day on my own

October 3&4, 2008 – Friday/Saturday

Glacier National Park – Apgar Campground/Yurt Village

What a day!  (That was especially for Abby & Kat…)  But really, it was great.  I woke up today and took my time getting going, making a couple of pots of my French press coffee and restarting my still smoldering fire to warm up a bit.  I burned up the rest of the logs, read through the local paper (see my humorous photo from the police blotter section to the right!), had some beef jerky, a banana & granola bars for breakfast and packed up my camp after I dried things up a bit.  It did actually rain last night but I stayed quite warm, dry & comfortable during the night.  The rainfly on my hammock was dotted with water drops, so I wiped it down before packing it up.  I love my hammock.  Today, the sky was full of more rain clouds and I hoped that they would hold in the rain long enough for me to see what else I wanted to see in the park.

One of the park rangers came by while I was still at camp and I asked him if I could leave my car & trailer there while I ran around the park a bit more; he said that would be ok, as long as I leave a note for the other ranger who might come by later.  While reading the local paper by the fire, I noticed that in the events section, there was actually a jazz festival in nearby Kalispell over the weekend (a few of you may have gotten a text from me around this time, asking if anyone knew anyone in the area)…  I decided that it might be fun to check it out and see if there was any dancing to do, which meant that I should probably clean myself up a bit as well.  So, I did what I could with the cold water in the restrooms and brushed my hair with some water, managed to poorly shave my pits (better than not at all!) and cleaned myself up as much as I could before I left for the activities of the day.  I even put on my nice new clean pair of jeans.  

When I was finally ready to go, I biked up to Avalanche Lake & the Trail of the Cedars which I had been dying to hike around yesterday.  It wasn’t a big hike, only .8 miles which was easy enough to do in my motorcycle boots & chaps; anything more than that is ridiculous and I need to bring some other shoes.  I’m SO glad that I stayed another day to hike this trail, it was gorgeous.  

Peaceful & wonderful; as one of the signs by the waterfall says, “As you return to the parking lot, walk slowly and reflect on what you have seen.”  Especially, I enjoyed the numerous mushrooms growing all over the place.  Tis the season!  After that stop, I started biking back to the campground and stopped at just a couple of other places along the way as well.  It was gorgeous.

I packed up my bike just before the rain started in the campground and headed out of the park, stopping for a bowl of soup and a bit of journal writing at the same place we ate the other night.  The people working there also helped me figure out what the date was…

Anyway, I started driving to Kalispell, making a couple of phone calls along the way to catch up.  Just as I was getting into town, I called the number listed for the jazz festival and was directed right to the Red Lion Hotel where there was a swing lesson just starting up.  Unfortunately, it was an east coast lesson and I didn’t feel like taking part, so I enjoyed and observed.  After the lesson, I talked to the instructor who said that he didn’t do Lindy Hop; mostly ballroom stuff.  Then, I talked a bit to some of the younger kids who were there for the lesson and asked them if they or anyone they know does any Lindy Hop.  The reply: nope.  So, I started thinking about where I was going to stay for the night while having fewer and fewer hopes that I would be doing any dancing while in town.  

My mom called at one point and said that she saw a Yurt village somewhere on their way out of Glacier, so I started looking into that.  The front desk people at the Red Lion Hotel were extremely helpful and I found a number for the Yurt place.  It was located just outside of Glacier Park, where I just came from…  The choice at that point was to either stay in town and hope that I could find some place to sleep that night, or drive back to the Yurt village (nobody answered when I called) to see if I could still rent a Yurt.  I decided to drive back to Coram.  Overall, it was about a 30 minute drive back there; I could always head back to town for the festival after checking in & changing clothes.  

When I arrived at the North American RV Park & Yurt Village, I rang the doorbell and Lisa answered.  She said I could still get a Yurt for the evening, and that there were laundry, shower & lounge room facilities for my use.  I was quite excited!  After showing me around the place and helping me close my window flaps for some privacy, Lisa left me to my own devices.  I unpacked the things I would need for the evening and started realizing that I really just wanted to stay in and catch up on things.  Oh, I forgot to mention that there was wi-fi that reached out to the Yurt as well.  It was a really great night.  I made some dinner with my electric burner stove, Lemongrass soup & cous cous, had a couple of beers & caught up on uploading blogs, emails & phone calls.  It was really nice and relaxing, however I think I slept better in my hammock, outdoors, than I did on the futon, in the Yurt.  I didn’t feel badly about missing out on the jazz festival at all; I like my own company.

The next morning I ended up deciding that because I was thoroughly enjoying myself, I could use another day to relax and take some time on my own when I wasn’t just running around like crazy and going from place to place.  So, I checked in for another night and settled in even more.  The day was a simple one.  Since all the new premieres had started on TV for fall, I caught up on some of those while drinking a bottle of wine and breaking out some of my paints to attempt to record some of the images in my head.  My dirty, campfire filled clothes became clean with the laundry facilities and I became clean as well with the wonderful hot shower.  Finally having time to upload some of my blogs was nice, so I took the opportunity to post a few new ones that I had written already.  Dinner that evening was beef jerky & flavored rice, quite yummy actually!  Eventually, I realized that I needed to get some sleep since I had to continue on the next day, so I called it a night.

I loved my Yurt.

010 Indescribable beauty

October 2, 2008 – Thursday

Glacier National Park – Apgar Campground

Glacier National Park is incredible.  I’m sure it’s beautiful all times of year, but right now it’s absolutely indescribably beautiful with the changing colors of fall.  It’s a good thing that I have my chaps with me since it’s pretty darn cold here; and they’re all full of mud now, too, so otherwise that would all just be on my jeans!  After waking up, my parents packed up all of their camp gear and I moved my hammock to a new location since they were finally out of my way (love you guys!)…  We started biking and found that it was 39 miles to the top of Logan Pass, where the Going to the Sun road was closed from then on for construction.  It was a cold ride at the bottom of the mountain so I wore many layers, including a scarf, & and gradually as the day warmed up as we got up higher on the mountain and it was hot!!  I surprised me, however, that the heights in Glacier weren’t in general as high as they were in Yellowstone.   

I really wish that I could have done a lot of hiking in the area, but my parents wanted to head out pretty early.  As it was, they didn’t leave until a few hours later than they had anticipated originally; it takes a lot of time to see a park like this – even just a portion of it!

On the top of the mountain at Logan Pass, we looked for animals and saw beautiful mountains with snow and trees with changing colors.  We did manage to see one mountain sheep which was pretty cool, but really far away; without the binoculars I wouldn’t have been able to see it.  Also at the top of the mountain we met a 92-year old man who goes hiking every week.  He was sitting, waiting for the rest of his party to finish since he ended a bit earlier, and visiting with whoever came by.  What an interesting man!  I didn’t actually talk to him much but listened to a few of his conversations with other people and really listened while he recited some poetry.  Pretty inspiring, that guy; I hope I’m that interesting when I get older.  Especially, I wish that I could have hiked up in that area a bit, but we had some time constraints and really hadn’t eaten lunch yet.  So, we drove back down and really didn’t stop much for photos and such so that we could get my parents on their way.  Before they left, we had dinner at a place in West Glacier.  My buffalo burger was awesome.

I really felt like I didn’t get enough time here and I don’t know when I’ll be back, so I’m staying another night without my parents.  I’m looking forward to tonight and tomorrow, having more time in the park.

009 It’s a different kind of cold

October 1, 2008 – Wednesday

Glacier National Park – Apgar Campground

Well, I’m camping again in Glacier National Park.  The Apgar Campground is still open for the season, without showers but has running water and flush toilets.  That’s what I call luxury right now.  Again, I was able to easily find trees in which to hang my hammock for the night.  It doesn’t seem as cold, here, as it was at Yellowstone, but I believe we’re higher up in elevation and much more north as well.  So, I’m not sure, but it does feel pretty cold as the night goes on, it’s just a different kind of cold somehow.  I have cushioned myself in my hammock tonight like no night before so far.  To figure out what works best, I have been trying things slightly differently each time I sleep in it.  As we were leaving Yellowstone the other day and stopped for coffee at Old Faithful, my mom started talking to the guy at the counter who said he knew what Jungle Hammocks were and if my feet get cold at night, it’s because girls are shorter than men, generally, and that I should stuff all sorts of extra clothing and stuff up by my feet.  So, tonight I have stuffed my robe (which was superfluous yet I’m terribly glad that I have it) into the area by my feet and I have put my quilt which is folded in half the long way underneath my sleeping bag.  I am wearing my long underwear on top & bottom as well as jogging pants (though I desperately want to get a better pair), a pullover hoodie sweatshirt (I could improve that as well), two pairs of socks (need wool) and a winter cap.  I also stuffed the 6 gear pockets full of gear & stuff for insulation.  We’ll see what a difference that makes and ask someone tomorrow how cold it did get here tonight.  

For firewood, we bought almost a trunkful of big logs.  At this point, I have to say that Erik was right – I was going to want an axe.  The other day, I actually picked one up and tonight I chopped up a few logs to have some smaller pieces.  It was great!  I can’t wait to chop some more wood tomorrow since it’s really hard to burn up in just huge logs.  About tomorrow, we were originally expected in Spokane already, but we’re obviously not there yet.  I have to take advantage of the time that I have in Glacier and spend at least a day or two here, so I’m staying tomorrow night as well while my parents leave to go to Spokane.  We’ll have breakfast at a place in West Glacier in the morning and then bike around the park tomorrow as much as we can.

Today was a nice day, I was able to wake up in a nice comfy bed and take a hot shower to wash everything yet again.  Outside our front door were horses and mountains.  We left fairly early in the morning and stopped in Choteau for some breakfast at John Henry’s.  Gosh, what a fantastic breakfast.  I ordered specifically what I wanted, making my own item – half an order of biscuits & gravy, one egg over easy and three pieces of bacon.  Orange juice to start but I didn’t order coffee; I waited until we left the restaurant and before we left town and ran across to the espresso joint for an Americano for the road.

The land, while driving through Montana, was extremely interesting.  The music for this trip so far has been a lot of Nickel Creek.  Nothing else I have right now is really fitting at all, I have to fix that.  I think I know what I’d like to get, but I don’t know how I’m going to do so at this point.  It seems difficult for me to describe the land; mostly what I can offer is photographs right now.  Rolling mountains and valleys, creeks, blue sky & tons of yellow & beige wheat fields with black cows, beautiful horses and a few missile silos…  Only a couple of oil fields that I saw.  

Having the time and space to think while driving through all of this land has started making me just simply to want to travel and learn about different places even more and how I fit with them; experience each land for the beauty it offers but figure out what is at the top of my list.  Then, buy a plot of it far away from main highways and traffic; find someone who can help me build the small buildings that I want to build and just come stay with me and help me build everything.  After that, I can have my own greenhouse where I can grow herbs and vegetables, flowers & more.  Use solar power, wind power, water power, wherever possible and self-sustain as much as I can.  Simply have time to get away from everything and everyone and finally figure out exactly and admit whole-heartedly who I am.  Then just be me, where I have time and land and space away from everything enough to concentrate on creating somethings beautiful.  I don’t even know what that will be right now; I’m so often consumed by distractions of city life.  Not everyone, I think, has to struggle with these questions as much as I do.  Some people know that they just want to get away and live in the mountains or go to school, etc. etc. and some people know that they want to trade stocks, wear suits, go to an office, etc. etc. etc.  And they do that.  

That’s not me.  I seem to want to do it all and I’m always coming up with more.  So, I struggle and seem to not do anything.  I flounder in my own head and don’t get anything accomplished.  This may not seem true, but I feel as though it is.  I feel as though I’m meant for something else, I just have to go through many more experiences before I know what that is.  

My fire is falling apart right now, so I’m going to fix that, even though it’s burning quite beautifully (it is a beautiful fire).  I’m going to stare at the stars for a while so that I can report back to Shawn about them, and try as I always still do to let my shoulders relax.

Hopefully one day I’ll be able to figure out and fix why my shoulders don’t relax.

Stay warm…

008 More driving across country

September 30, 2008 – Tuesday – (1 Week)

Augusta, MT

After biking around Yellowstone for a couple of days, we had to move on.  I could have spent another week there, I’m sure, and not have seen everything.  But, between this trip and the last one when I was there, I am gradually combing the park and its features.  We broke down camp and headed out around 9am, going out the West Yellowstone entrance.  A couple of buffalo had to get in the lane of traffic as we drove, so we got slightly delayed here and there, but it was a gorgeous day and a very enjoyable drive.

The next stop on my list was Missoula, MT but considering how much time I’m off already, I had to skip over it and go straight to Glacier.  Tonight, we found a room in a motel in Augusta, MT.  Taking the road less traveled is usually more of an adventure and this time is no exception.  Instead of just taking I-15 to Great Falls, we took the smaller 287.  It was gorgeous and mountainous.  We got a little nervous about finding a hotel at one point because the towns were so small.  In Augusta, however, we saw the wonderful sign, “Motel” and stopped by.  It did say open, but there was nobody there; if I hadn’t looked closely enough, I wouldn’t have noticed the sign that said, “If nobody is here, call [insert phone number]”.  So, we used the pay phone (no phone signal here) and called the number where a woman said, “Be right down!”  We got a room and jumped at the chance to shower.  

I washed everything twice.  As we were getting moved into our room, a couple of people showed up and got a room two down from ours (Bridgette & Jake).  Bridgette & Jake said that they had been living in a camper without any water, heat or electricity for a while; and that at night it got into the low 20’s in the area.  They were quite happy to have a shower & soft bed for the night as we were.  We chatted with them for a bit, they had been working construction in the area so they needed the showers worse than we did.  I had thought about going down to have a drink with them when they went to the bar, but I also just wanted to chill and write and go through photos after showering.  So, I flipped a coin; heads I go out, tails I stay in.  Tails came up, so I’m comfortable, clean and in.

It was great waking up to the sound of horses in the fields right outside, and the mountains so close by.  Today was mostly just driving through beautiful countryside, so enjoy the photos that I have from that.  Tomorrow, we head into Glacier but I don’t think that we’re going to do any camping since they’re already closing lots of roads due to snow.  I’m so excited, though, to see a new part of the country!

Now I have to eat up some more dinner and copy some more photos from cameras while I settle down and we put a movie in before falling asleep…  Until tomorrow!