Two Weeks in One Post; or, You Can't Be Tourists Everyday

Back at the RV park in Dillon, Jan disappeared after dinner. As I've mentioned, he's a chatty sort, and he'd gotten acquainted with our neighbors, a couple in a motorhome from California. He'd shared with them one of his proudest accomplishments, learning to play the guitar. Now, this was no small accomplishment, as he'd only ardently admired musicians his whole life and didn't join the ranks until years after his first Social Security check arrived. He's been at it for 2 1/2 years now and his diligent practice really shows. So here he was playing some of his gospel pieces for them, so I went and got my autoharp and joined him. Our new friends snapped this with their cell phone and emailed it to us. Thanks!

The next morning we hitched up and headed for Belgrade, Montana, the home of Jan's college room mate from 1961-62. He's much better than I have been about staying in touch with people. 50 years these two men have exchanged Christmas cards and occasionally visited each other! Anyway, he and his wife invited us to park in their large yard. They were so gracious and made us feel so welcome. We had dinner, we went shopping, we watched home movies--just spent some very good time together.  I especially loved listening to them reminisce.

 The next morning, we hitched up and headed for Great Falls, Montana. Specifically, we were headed for the Gateway Fam Camp just outside the perimeter of Malmstrom Air Force Base. Because of Jan's years in active and weekend warrior Army, he enjoys retired status and the privileges that go with it, one of which is the use of military recreation facilities. This particular campground was rather bleak and windswept (well, we were in Great Falls--those of you who have been there would remember that "windswept" describes that area in general). But we had business at the personnel office. Having already paid for 2 nights, we discovered the personnel office had closed Friday. We knew Monday was Labor Day, but we hadn't anticipated this. Oh, well, we'll take care of our business in Spokane. We moused around the house (the trailer), went shopping (Jan finally replaced his disreputable looking straw cowboy hat), and Saturday evening went to a movie (very unusual for us; we generally only go once every 3-4 years, if that). 

Sunday morning the wind was blowing hard, and our planned route took us through Browning and past Glacier Park to Flathead Valley. Having previously lived in the area, we knew that if the wind was this bad here, it was probably howling in Browning, and while rare, RVs have been known to blow over in the high wind (and houses have actually blown off their foundations). We made a last minute decision to reroute through Lincoln, Montana, and up the scenic Swan River corridor, which would bring us into the south end of the Flathead and keep us out of the worst of the wind. So instead of parking at my son's place (north end of the valley) we stayed at my aunt's place, which worked out very well. She was busy reorganizing her quilting room, but still made time for us.

We did a little visiting with family in the area (Jan and I both grew up in the Flathead) and headed back toward Washington. In northern Idaho, we spent our first night in a Walmart parking lot. I knew from reading people's blogs that you "park" at Walmart; you do not "camp" there. And you ask permission first. It suited us perfectly, because we just wanted a place to sleep and really didn't want all the work of unhitching, setting up, and then reversing the process in the morning. Under similar circumstances, I would gladly do it again. Now, I understand that the other part of Walmart overnight etiquette is to patronize the store, which we did to the tune of $200+.

Whoa! No, we are NOT spendthrifts. But we have been realizing as we travel that we really NEED a smartphone. Being able to check things out online, check our email even when we don't have WiFi, or pay a bill in a timely manner, plus more uses...I know there's much more, and that's a whole other post. Anyway, we decided to get a prepaid plan, as my research indicated that was a good choice for us, so we finally took the plunge and bought the phone and the first month's plan.  More later on the Smartphone, but I love having it.

Then we spent a week in Colville, Washington. We really needed to sort through our stuff stored there, and get the trailer sorted out, as we expect to be gone 7 months this time. I brought onboard a couple things I had missed and offloaded more than that that I hadn't needed. While I spent several days doing that, Jan helped a friend put siding on his new house. We enjoyed attending church and seeing our friends there, whom we miss very much. One day we went to Fairchild AFB near Spokane and took care of that business we had.  I got my teeth cleaned, we got the poodle groomed. And we were good to go.