Day 7 (full version)

Day 7 – Monday – July 1, 2013

0630 Time to get up.  Take Rocco out and get the coffee started.  Turn on the tv to see what’s new in the world.  The Weather Channel says it will be 90 degrees in the mountains today (yuck) and also has a story about the 19 firefighters (smokejumpers) killed in the Arizona wildfire. Yikes.

0730 Ron is up.  Time to pack up and load up.  Make sure every available water bottle has been filled.  Rocco is once again waiting in the car, refusing to get out.  He wants to be sure he doesn’t get left behind!

0935 Leave the condo.  It is 71 degrees.  We are clean, dry, and somewhat rested.  Ready for Part 2 of the big trip!

0941 Waiting in the lodge parking lot while Ron turns the keys in.  There sure are a lot of minivans with roof boxes here.

0946 – Best parts of the weekend at the condo?

Ryan – the chair lift and having a bed
Bella – same as Ryan
Felisa – same as Ryan plus the view
Ron – the scenery and relaxing family time
Rocco – the soft carpet and having his toys out to play with
Sheila – the scenery, the accommodations, and the chance to reset everything before we go again

1005 Sandpoint.  Stop for gas but the station cannot accept credit cards so we head on out.

1008 McD’s drive thru for breakfast and coffee

1025 Someone painted fish graffiti on the hillside

1026 Gas, $3.59/gallon.  There is a café inside. The sign says that bathing suits must be covered.  There is also a boat inspection station.  We have driven 1,817 miles so far.

1039 Elmira Store Café has the “best food in town”.  I think it also has the only food in town!

1049 Pass a big-rig RV pulling a giant trailer with a satellite dish on the roof

1050 Truck of pigs headed south

1052 More yellow fields.  I wonder what crop that is.

1053 Bonners Ferry.  Population - 2,515.  This seems to be the main town for this area.  There are two grocery stores, Subway, gas stations, carwash, etc.  They even have a barber ship (that’s not a typo!) and South Hill Lockers, a meat and game processing place.

1058 Kootenai River.  More yellow fields.  Maybe it is potatoes?

1102 143 long miles until our next turn.

1107 Moyie River

1108 Evergreen Elementary.  All the windows are boarded up.  Must no longer be operational.

1116 Sign for cheapest cigarettes for 500 miles. Montana must have high cigarette taxes.

1117 now 12:17 p.m. Mountain Time Zone and Montana state line but no sign!  We have now added 4 new states (Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana) to the kids’ lists and two states for Ron (Idaho and Montana) and I (Oregon and Montana).

12:24 p.m. Yaak River

12:28 p.m. Kootenai River

12:31 p.m. Troy, MT

12:39 p.m. Kootenai Falls and Swinging Bridge Historic point.  Oops – looked interesting.  Should’ve stopped.  Too busy though.  Oh well – next time!

12:50 p.m. Libby, MT.  Couple of cool eagle statues in town.  Elevation, 2066 feet.  Current temperature, 86 degrees

12:56 p.m. Granite Creek, MT

1:06 p.m. Construction ahead on a gravel road.

1:11 p.m. Flagman said there will be a 10 minute wait for the pilot car to get here.

1:14 p.m. It’s our turn to go already!  Not even close to a 10 minute wait.  Yay!

1:59 p.m. McGregor Lake, 89 degrees

2:24 p.m. Bike path.  Sign says rails to trails of NW Montana.

2:35 p.m. Stop at Jimmy Johns in Kalispell for lunch.  It is hot and sunny and Rocco is refusing to go potty but the food is good.  Well, except for Bella of course.  She doesn’t like Jimmy Johns.

3:05 p.m. Gas, $3.61/gallon.  Smiths for food.

3:35 p.m. St Richard’s Catholic Church.  Don’t see many of those.

3:37 p.m. Flathead River

3:43 p.m. Hungry Horse, MT.  Those are some really hungry looking horses on the signs around town.  Should we be worried?

3:55 p.m. Going to the Sun Road

3:57 p.m. We use the tall vehicles entrance to Glacier National Park.   Doesn’t look like our roof box would fit the other side.

3:58 p.m. Bear Country signs.  Also, all wildlife is dangerous.  You have been warned!

4:02 p.m. Apgar Visitor Center. This place is way too busy.  Decide to keep going.  It is 92 degrees here at Lake McDonald.  The Prius driving ahead of us has a San Luis Obispo license plate frame.

4:13 p.m. Rocco wants to get out and swim in the lake.  Are we there yet?

4:34 p.m. Arrive at our campsite.  It is 88 degrees – hot and crowded here at Glacier.  Not what I was expecting for sure.  I guess that’s what happens in the summer near a holiday weekend.

5:25 p.m. Tent is set up.  We walk across the street to check out the creek.  We saw a few elk in the woods.  The water is quite chilly.  Rocco wants to go in but keeps jumping back out again because it is so cold.  After our walk we play a couple rounds of Crazy 8’s.

7:00 p.m. Cooking dinner.  Tonight we are having rice-a-roni, chicken, broccoli, Caesar salad, and bread.

9:41 p.m. Sunset

10:00 p.m. Bedtime even though it’s still pretty light outside.  It sure is hard to see the stars when it won’t get dark before midnight!  I can’t stay up that late!