Bill was a happy boy, as the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey team won last night in game four, and if they win tonight they win the Stanley Cup. Meanwhile…
DAY ELEVEN: ROADTRIPPING USA
DAY ELEVEN: ROADTRIPPING USA
DAY THIRTEEN: ROADTRIPPING USA
OK, today I will admit that my brake foot was working overtime and I could not look over the edge of the mountain because there were no guard rails and Bill warned me not to look, so we did not stop at any overlooks and I took many photos from the car. Who can live up here on this mountain outside Park City, Utah in the winter? You would have to stockpile food for the winter if it snowed! It was beautiful, but treacherous, as we came in from the south side of Salt Lake City. He wanted to see his old skiing slopes in a different season and I humored him, but I was glad to get out of there. The town of Park City was cute and I can see the appeal up there, but NO!
We left Idaho Falls, Idaho, through sagebrush and cedar trees, through the Blackfoot Mountains, passing the Potato Museum with no regrets. (Worried we would become double Baked:) There was frost on the ground through Idaho, and some crops were under spraying to save them, but we never figured out what crops they were. It was south of Pocatello, and there were acres of frozen crops, but deliberately under the ice.
The villages along the way from the highway appeared as toy villages, with so much land in between each ranch. Prairie, then a ranch with trees and dwellings, then more land. It was like we watched miniature towns fly by. But, the landscape changed as we climbed the mountains into Park City. I am resting my brake foot tonight:)
We spent the afternoon walking the impressive city of Salt Lake, wandering around Temple Square. The complex is owned by the Church of Latter Day Saints. All of the buildings were closed due to Covid, which was so disappointing, but we met two volunteer Mormon girls who educated us on the interiors and allowed us to see with their photo clipboards. It was not the same, but it was delightul talking to them. (One was from Michigan!)
The building I most wanted to visit, with my interest in genealogy and history, was the Family History Library. (It was also a wish of my Mom, who never got to visit.) My good friend Joan Brown has been an influential source in the teachings of her Mormon religion and their love of family values. We have many things in common, despite our different faiths. We share the love of family and friends, our devotion to our faith, our dedication to helping other and even our “hobbies” of art, writing, etc. It was a thrill to see the buildings of importance here in Salt Lake City.
We are settled into the Grand American Hotel, with appointments of grandeur unlike our cabins of the past weeks. We received a special deal from Priceline.com and feel like we are in Europe with the gold faucets, marble bathroom floors, and views of the mountains. We are so worth it.
DAY TWELVE: ROADTRIPPING USA
With over 3,000 miles logged on our trip, we have been on the road for almost two weeks. We have had great weather and today was no different. We even encountered snow on the mountains and wished (again) we had gloves and hats, especially when we stood for an hour and a half, waiting for Old Faithful to be faithful and perform. She did! We walked the boardwalk around the geothermal sites and loved coming into the park past the steaming basins.
We had to see the west side of Yellowstone Park, so we left Great Falls, Montana this morning on a sunny and cool day, travelling through beautiful ranches and quaint towns that had backyard views of majestic mountain ranges, covered in snow. Most of the homes are dark wood or log, roofed in metal, and their ranch entrances have huge log structures with their ranch names.
Leaving Yellowstone and entering the Grand Teton National Park was another stunning spectacle. Around every corner, views of glacier topped mountains, pines, and neon yellow and orange aspens. Many tourists were stopped on the byways to photograph the foliage, as much as the scenery! Despite warnings of bears, we never spotted any.
Driving through Jackson Hole, Wyoming was wall to wall people and traffic, and the hotel room prices were astronomical, so it was a long 12-hour day of driving to Idaho Falls, Idaho, where we are for the night. Tomorrow, Salt Lake City, Utah.
DAY ELEVEN: ROADTRIPPING USA
Bill was a happy boy, as the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey team won last night in game four, and if they win tonight they win the Stanley Cup. Meanwhile, I continue to binge-watch my Spanish series on Netflix “Velvet”. We are happy for rest at the end of our long days of sight-seeing and driving to indulge our eating, drinking, and television addictions:) We were on the road this morning at 8:00, driving from the west side to the east side of Glacier National Park on Hwy. 2. Both of us decided it was even more spectacular than yesterday if that is even possible!
The wind blew like crazy, and it was so cold in the higher elevations, but I continued to hop out for scenic shots. There was snow blowing on the top of the mountains, adding more white to the glaciers, but the only precipitation we received was rain. At one spot I stopped by a stream and had it been warmer, I would have gone in to collect the colorful stones in blues, reds, oranges, and grays, but no toes were dipping into that frozen stream today!
All the aspen are in full color, blazing yellows in between the green pines. Trains and tracks are everywhere to be seen, and they are longer than any trains I have ever seen, but today the most amazing sights included a snow rainbow, and my photo does not do it justice. It was the largest and most colorful, compared to the ordinary rainbows of my other life. The gusting winds also blew across the hay prairies of gold near the town coming out of the park near Browning and resembled the look of fabrics like velvet, when you brush it one way and then another. Undulating, rippling, colorful carpet nap.
We stopped in Great Falls, Montana for a lunch date with ex-Maqua camper, Sue Purdue Tanner, whose reputation as a camper and counselor is a legend with the nickname “Super-doo”. She had been at the 2012 reunion at Camp Maqua when many of her friends from the ’60s and ’70s congregated for a reunion. We are hoping to have another in 2024 to celebrate the camp’s 100th anniversary on the Loon Lake property, hopefully for more girls to connect with their old camping buddies!
We had booked a Wyndham downtown, but when we walked into their construction site at the entrance to a parking garage, we asked to see the room. Nope. It was like a dorm room or a cheap hotel for a one night stand. We walked around the corner and found a wonderful historic Arvon Hotel, with amazing artwork on all the walls of the hotel.
This afternoon we drove along the Missouri River to see all the dams and took a winding half-hour drive in the middle of nowhere to find Sulphur Springs. We did hike out for a bit, but the steep incline kept us from finishing the trail, so we returned to the Celtic Cowboy for a drink and appetizer.
DAY TEN: ROADTRIPPING USA
We were so happy we had an early start to enter Glacier National Park from the west entrance at Apgar Village. By the time we left the park in the early afternoon, the traffic into the park was almost bumper to bumper with sightseers, hikers, and bikers. We took the Going-to-the-Sun Road. (What a great name for the most scenic road I have ever been on in this country!) The two-lane road hugs the cliffside with very little guard rails, but oh, the views! We stopped at almost every scenic pull-off.
The stunning and dramatic McDonald Falls was our first stop, and who doesn’t love a beautiful waterfall that empties into blue, rocky water? The next stop was the Sacred Dancing Cascade, which gurgled over the flat rocks, and led into the very lengthy ten-mile McDonald Lake. (Surrounded by mountains, it resembled a Norwegian fjord.)
We headed slowly on the winding road to Logan’s Pass Visitor Center and the minute we stepped out of the car, we knew we had to don our puffy down jackets. (Where were our mittens and ski hats when we needed them?) It was in the ’30s and the winds were so strong that if your paperwork was not secured in the car, it was whipped out into the air. We hiked up to the steep and windy paths and loved the amazing views of the glaciers, which are reputed to disappear by 2030.
Our roadside tailgate picnic today was cold and windy, but definitely had the best views of any stop. The weather was not conducive to hiking today with wind and drizzly rain, plus we did not have any bear spray with us! (We did not see any, but there are plenty of warnings.) The road ended at Rising Sun, and we turned around and agreed that the view on the descent was even better than our ascent. As the car hugged the rocky side of the road, the color of the rocks in blues and grays were interspersed with mini waterfalls that we had not noticed before.
We drove back to Kalispell through White Fish, disappointed that our friends are out of town, but we admired the lovely town center. Tonight we enjoyed our last night here with a great meal at Desoto Bar-B-Q! 
DAY NINE: ROADTRIPPING USA
Last night we had a wonderful meal dining outside of Gil’s Goods at a sidewalk cafe. The best thing about our meal was the trains that passed by as we sat for a wonderful outdoor experience. Livingston is the county seat of Montana and is known as a railroad hub. Bill and I both love the sound of trains, which seem to follow us wherever we land. The haunting sounds and the whistles do not bother us, but maybe some of the occupants of the Murray Hotel are bothered, as there are earplugs beside the bed:)
We had decided not to head to Glacier National Park, but a friendly police officer happened by and stopped at our table the night before, . “If you do not go to Glacier National Park, you will regret it”, said the former Royal Oak, Michigan cop, Between that exchange and the alien spaceship sighting, we decided it was lock and load. Do we need any other random pointers besides these?
We enjoyed our stay at the Murray Hotel, which I would recommend for its ambiance, history, and central location. We packed up and headed to Kalispell, Montana on another beautiful day. There was weather along the way, with rain and high winds, but it did not diminish the views. At one point we stopped for our usual tailgate picnic since our breakfast at the Buffalo Cafe in Bozeman had worn off.
We arrived at the Kalispell Grand Hotel mid-afternoon, just in time to take a walk around this beautiful town. The hotel is also over 100 years old and the room has beautiful appointments that cannot compare to the usual chain hotels. We walked Main Street, enjoyed a brew at the Kalispell Brewing Company on their upstairs outdoor deck, before a great eating experience at Hops. We at Elk, Yak, and Bison burgers and loved every one of their tiny samples.