Paling around in Polson Montana...

For years our friends Emily, Pat and Ian lived in Missoula Montana and every time we traveled nearby, we would be sure and carve out some time to pull into that area and visit.  A few years ago Ian married, and then eventually moved to Polson and had a couple of children...so, of course "grandma and grandpa" quickly followed!  Now, we make a day visit to Missoula because there still are a couple of shops we like, and then travel on to Polson for our visit!  Polson is the home of the beautiful Flathead Lake, and it's a little more pricey, so we ended up camping out a smidge further, but still close enough for easy access.  

We actually have another friend who also lives in Polson, one of our Happy Trails folks who used to just be here during the summer months and winter in Happy Trails (and was in Theater with me and along with Jack in the Sawmill) but last year decided to move back to Polson year 'round.  We were super lucky to catch up with Charlie as he had just gotten back from a two week fishing trip in Alaska just before we left, and got my phone message that we were in town and wanted to see him.  He called me back and we got together at his lovely home for lunch and a great afternoon of "catch-up".  After spending his first winter back in Polson, he's not so sure he wants to do it again and is looking at places to take off for at least a few weeks this year to someplace "without snow"!  I think Arizona spoiled him!

 We spent several days with our friends Emily and Pat, including our anniversary.  They were kind enough to take us to a lovely dinner to celebrate our 29th wedded year (forgot to take a picture!) as well as a great home cooked one the next day, yum!  We all drove together to tour Bigfork and see their beautiful Swan River community area.   

When we weren't with them, we were checking out Polson! Well, let me tell you, they have the most unique museum we have come across so far.  The Miracle of America Museum has just about everything ever made or even thought of, from the late 1800's to the 2000's!  ...and in all the details!  Over four acres outside, and I would guess over an acre inside as well.  It took us just about all day to look through it and I'm sure we didn't see everything.  I asked the hostess how long the owner had been collecting all this and she said since he was a very young child, and of course has gotten donations as well. The number of vehicles (of every kind) and weapons alone was mind boggling.  Jack said some of his WW2 collections were things he had never seen (and he's been to numerous museums) and worth quite a bit.  I took a ton of pictures, but here's just a few to give you a little idea...

Once again we lucked out in finding a great "food place"!  I had read some blog somewhere about "what to do and where to go" etc in Polson and it mentioned Betty's Diner, and being a diner, I knew we had to try it.  Just reading the menu, I knew it would be a "winner", and boy, oh boy was it ever!  One of the best burgers we've had in a very long time! YUM!!

Well, all to soon our visit needed to end, as there are only so many days until we need to get to Washington, so hugs were given all around and thanks to Polson for the nice sunshiny days!  We were off on a scenic route following the Bitterroot River along Hwy 200 through the rest of Montana to the eastern side of Washington...

...on the road, Marie

If you would like to see the rest of my pictures, they are on my flickr: Marie Beschen, Album: Montana

A Few Days With Friends...

 Well...looking over my posts, I discovered I never posted this one! Sheesh!  Don't know how that happened...now, here we are back in Missoula...so guess it's as good a time to post it as any!

Missoula is always a favorite stop for us because it means we get to spend time with dear friends.  As many times as we have made the stop we haven't really strayed much.  This time, being summer time, and a few more things going on, we did...

An afternoon trip took us to the Daly Mansion in the Bitterroot area.  Marcus Daly was the local copper magnate, who, as an Irish immigrant, started out as a silver miner.  Later, married one of the owner's daughters and worked his way into part ownership of a silver mine.  He sold that interest and bought another silver mine that later hit a vein of copper.  Copper was just coming into use for telegraph wire and electricity.  Daly was friends with Hearst, and more than once he had helped him with financial backing.  He did again with building a smelter.  By 1890, the copper mines of Butte were producing over seventeen million dollars worth of copper a year, and Marcus Daly, although a junior partner in the Anaconda venture, had become a very rich man.

The mansion, as you can imagine is beautiful.  They didn't allow any pictures, so I was only able to sneak a couple, but the tour was fun and a great treat with our friends!  Over the weekend the Celtic Festival was in town sharing their wonderful music, dance and food with the locals (and us tourists).  We were able to catch the Missoula Irish Dancers who did  a great job, especially those wee little ones!  We spent most that day tho enjoying the local Farmer's Market.  One of the real joys of traveling the way we do is to take advantage of local grown food.  That's the up side, the down side is that often times it's sold in such large quantities (for canning or big families & refrigerators) or at small roadside carts that don't have the space for rigs like ours to pull over.  Such was the case as we drove around Flathead Lake en route to Missoula (beautiful lake, by the way).  Their local cherries were being sold all along the road - but there was absolutely no place where we could pull over!  So, I was on the 'look out' for those cherries!  Well, wouldn't you just know it, they were all sold out by the time we got there!  As it turned out, not all was lost, I was still able to find some, near where we were camped and they were well worth the search, "local Flathead cherries" are sweet and delicious, like none I've tasted before, yum!

Our friends are nose-deep in wedding arrangements with their only child, so we had a couple of days on our own - but with plenty of suggestions to keep us busy while they tasted cakes & made plans!  One such place was the St Ignatius Mission.  From the outside, it looks like just another quaint brick Catholic Church, nothing to catch your eye and stop for.  Not so.  The church itself was built in the late 1800s, and built well with local hand made brick.  That's nice.  But it's what's inside that blows your mind.  Seems that among the Brother's that ran it, one was the cook, but in his "spare time", he liked to paint.  He never had any formal lessons, but, non the less, "with God's guidance", he did...and did he ever!  He filled that church with some of the most beautiful frescoes this side of Italy!  Brother Joseph Carignano painted 61 scenes on the church walls with religious similes: a pictorial study of scripture stories and symbols of the liturgy. His intent was to inspire people to imitate the lives of the saints and reflect on the teachings of Jesus.  Breathtakingly beautiful.

Always time for a stop at our favorite haunt, Rockin Rudy's and some new finds at a couple of great books stores that we lost many hours in and came away with an armload of more good reading material, and swoosh the weekend was gone! 

A nice dinner and a warm goodbye for now, as we will be back again for the big wedding in  October!

 The Daly Mansion

 One of 7 fireplaces at the Daly Mansion

 Marcus Daly's Office

 Missoula Irish Dancers

Missoula Celtic Festival

 Flathead Lake

 Flathead Lake Cherries

St Ignatius Mission

Frescoes in  St Ignatius Mission

 "Triptych, The Visions of St Ignatius"

...on the road in Montana,  Marie 

If you wish to view the rest of the photos from this trip, you can at my Flickr account at:http://www.flickr.com/photos/74905158@N04/ 

Sometimes it's nice to just sit back and go ahhh...

After we left the Badlands in South Dakota, we decided to slow down a bit and just "mosey" towards our friends in Montana and then on to Calgary where we are headed to catch the big Calgary Stampede before it ends July 15th.

The night before we left our campground at the Badlands we were saying goodbye to a couple we had met and doing the usual "where are you heading next? routine and when we said "Spearfish" (because it was about a 4 hour drive, which is our preference.  Immediately the response was "Spearfish!, are you doing the canyon?"  As typical of us, as well, "what canyon?"  Our new friends promptly got out a map and showed us where it was and then shared what a beautiful scenic drive it was as well.  We thanked them and added it to our "list" and decided that we should then probably stay in Spearfish two days!

That evening, while talking about Spearfish, Jack remembered that someone else had told us about a City Park there that you can camp at that was really special.  We looked it up and found it, so I called and was able to get us two nights (this is now the two days before Independence Day!)

As we pulled into the City of Spearfish Campground we were in awe.  What a beauty!  It is right in town, attached to the Fish Hatchery, filled with trees, a creek, lots of lush green grass and lovely sites.  You can walk to town, if you don't mind walking about 10+ blocks.  Another place we would have loved to stay longer, "if only".

The next day, off we drove to check out the Spearfish Canyon!  What a treat it was too!  Glad we did it in the truck.  We could have done it in the RV, but parking would have been a challenge, especially at this time of year, as there were plenty of others enjoying the drive with us.  Several nice waterfalls to see, even though their flow is a lot less than in spring (or when they have had more rain than this year).  The canyon walls are beautiful to look at and really, really steep.  Lots of variety in trees and terrain.  We were glad for the suggestion.

We also decided to take a quick trip to Deadwood for the fun of it.  It was ok for an afternoon.  Pretty much what we expected...a lot of "saloons" and tourist stores.  Some nice old buildings, which I like.  We had a nice lunch, walked around a bit, took a few photos, then left.  They charged to go into the cemetery where Wild Bill Hickcock is buried, so we nixed that, we've seen plots before.

On to Montana.  We spent the 4th in a little town called Hardin.  Flat land, filled with barley on one side and sugar beets on the other, as far as the eyes could see.  Not much happening in Hardin.  The local Rainbow Girls came out to the campground each night and sold ice cream sundaes, so we "contributed" to their cause and enjoyed talking to the other campers.  Met some really interesting folks.  Learned about how the sugar factory closed down in Hardin and moved to Billings, now they not only have that smell, but the oil refinery smell too!  Met a gentleman who represents the cattleman's association and learned a lot about how many acres per cow it takes, how big those hay bundles are, how expensive the balers are, and all kinds of fun stuff!  We were able to see 5 different fireworks from our little perch across that barley field.  It might be a small town, but it had a lot of patriotism.

Before meeting up with our friends in Missoula, we pulled into another small town, Big Timber.  I found another gem of a campground, that once again, would have stayed here another week, "if only"!  Spring Creek Campground & Trout Ranch is a real treat.  Hidden behind a strand of trees, that you wouldn't even know it was here if you weren't given directions (you need them because GPS only gets you lost!).  Two nice ponds for the kids to fish in, a big fast moving, beautiful river that our site was right in front of, nice trees, etc.  Super friendly people.  They had a pot luck the first night we arrived and everyone was so friendly, mixed and mingled, brought all kinds of extra food (just to make sure).  We added a day just because we didn't want to leave!  There was a bench just on the edge of the river that I would sit my rocker at and prop my feet on and just read and gaze out at the river and listen to the birds, wave at the fishermen as their boats went by and relax...

Now that's the things that just make you go ahhh...

City of Spearfish Campground

 City of Spearfish Campground

Bridalvail Falls, Spearfish Canyon

 Roughlock Falls, Spearfish Canyon

 Spearfish Canyon

 Deadwood

 Historic Golden Door Hotel, Deadwood

 Boulder River, Spring Creek Campground

 Spring Creek Campground & Trout Ranch

 

 Our site facing the river,  Spring Creek Campground & Trout Ranch

...on the road in Montana,  Marie 

If you wish to view the rest of the photos from this trip, you can at my Flickr account at:http://www.flickr.com/photos/74905158@N04/