Travel LONG

I didn't want to do a travel log, but Matt said everyone would want to know about our trip, so if you want to skip this one, just don't let us know. It might be LONG as was our drive! I did give Matt the option of being a "guest blogger" and handling it for me, but I think he thought I was kidding.

First of all, we invited Cathy to go with us on this trip, but she later had to cancel. It was a good thing, too, because she would have had to ride on top of the car. There was absolutely nowhere to put her or her stuff.

Monday morning we headed out for Glacier National Park. The plan was to stay in a motel in Helena, MT, camp two nights at Glacier, and stay in a motel again in Idaho Falls on the way home.

On the way to Helena, we made lots of potty stops, drink stops, gas stops, false potty stops, and more real potty stops. For lunch, we had a picnic in the grass behind a church. Kayleigh, of course, then really had to go potty, so got to do it in the grass and all over the leg of her jeans.

Passing through Butte, MT, we looked up to see a huge statue of Jesus on top of the mountain. It looked like the Christus in the SL Visitor's Center. We later read that it was actually Mary and that a bunch of people contributed money to have it made and erected there. She looked out over the city. It was kind of interesting and definitely unexpected.

We arrived in Helena around dinner time. Having thought ahead, I had made Sloppy Joes (enough for two meals) in case we had camping cooking issues and we could quickly heat it up. We borrowed the microwave in the breakfast area of the Days Inn and sat right there and had our dinner. Kayleigh was excited to stay in the motel. We actually had a king-sized bed, but I couldn't tell as I still ended up on the edge with Kayleigh against my back. Matt was on his edge with her feet in his back, so we could have probably saved a few bucks there by downsizing. We had a good hot breakfast the next morning then headed up to Glacier. When I used to think of Montana, I thought of green hills and forest. It's more like Nevada. There wasn't anything to see (except some cows). After about 8,007 miles, we finally made it to Glacier! Woo hoo!

The campground we were staying in was called the Rising Sun. It was just a short distance from St. Mary's Lake. It was really pretty and, after making a few runs through the camp, we decided on a spot that we felt would be worthy of the 1976 Richard Hales Coleman Elite tent. (Luckily, Matt and I had done a run-through prior to the trip and got it up in a snap!) Kayleigh was so excited!

The trees close by had low branches and she could climb up on them. She was climbing and running all over the place. She quickly found a stick - later determined to be the best part of the trip. We still had some time to kill before dinner time and not much else to do, so we got back in the car to make the trek on the Road to the Sun. This was basically a 52-mile scenic drive from St. Mary's Lake down to another lake. I know, we'd just gotten off a two-day drive and we were actually willing to get back in the car. It was a pretty drive, but they were doing construction all along the road. After going about 2/3 the way, we bagged it and went back. We saw the lake from afar and some waterfalls.

We stopped by the lake to check out the prices for boat tours (too much for us) and it was really, really windy, as it was in our camp when we got back. It was so windy that we threw down enough coals to just heat up some chili and ate in the car. Our tent was leaning precariously and we kept our fingers crossed that it would hold up during the night.

After our delicious dinner a-la-Subaru, we went to "town" to get some ice cream. Just outside the park is Teepee Village. We walked around and then peeked in one only to find out that they're really for people to stay in like a hotel room. It was pretty cool!

The camp manager/host/dude let us know a few times that there had been nine bear sightings in the past five days IN OUR CAMP, so we were a little nervous about that. Well, Matt was. I was like, "Wouldn't that be so cool if we looked out and saw a bear?" He didn't think so. I didn't mean I wanted to see one RIGHT THERE, but from afar would have been okay. At least that was what I thought until I had to go to the bathroom during the night and until I had a dream about a bear trying to get me. After that, I was a lot more nervous and didn't sleep well. This was the only bear we saw though.

By the time morning rolled around, camping at Glacier had lost pretty much all of its allure. We were packed and out of there by 8:00am. We decided to forget cooking breakfast (we would have had to go buy wood at this point), forfeited our money for the showers (actually there was only one for the men and one for the women - therefore, probably a line - and I would have had to deal with Kayleigh and the fight to get her to wear her new, oh so cute, flip flops), and ate yogurt and granola bars in the car. We headed to Great Falls in hopes of seeing the great falls, but they were way far from town. I drove as we left there and Matt and Kayleigh fell asleep. That was where I saw the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen in my life. It was like the Garden of Eden. Okay, so not like that, but it was spectacular. Glacier was kind of disappointing to me, because I had really high beauty expectations. It was nice and all, but kind of like being in Ogden Canyon. This place outside of Great Falls, was so cool! Unfortunately, I was driving and my camera was on the side by sleeping Matt and I wasn't about to wake him up. He still teases me about waking him up while driving by an accident on the way home from Bear Lake years ago. What? I thought he'd want to see it!! So, instead, I'll just dream about how I'll retire there if I ever have a job again. I got to enjoy the drive for about an hour as the road wound along the Missouri River...sigh...We stopped at the Days Inn in Helena again, initially to pick up my library book that I had left there the day before, and borrowed their microwave and bathroom again. We had the rest of the Sloppy Joes out on their smoker's picnic table on the side of the lobby.

We pushed on to Idaho Falls that afternoon (a day early, mind you) and stayed at the South Fork Inn. "No problem! No, you don't need to hold the room with a credit card. We have plenty of room!" Actually, it was a fairly new motel right off the freeway. It just happened to be right next door to the General Mills factory and practically under the freeway. We had a queen-sized bed this time, though it felt smaller than ours at home, and there was only about a foot of space around the bed. There was, however, a closet/cupboard thing that Kayleigh immediately claimed as where she was going to sleep. Of course that never happened. She played in there quite a bit with the flashlights. We did manage to get and squeeze a playpen between the bed and wall and stuck her there after she fell asleep. Matt went for a jog down by the river and spent some time talking to one of his old mission companions who lives there. The next morning, we had breakfast and were home by 10:30am.

Kayleigh was a good little traveler, probably because she's used to running around with me all day. She really spent a lot of time doing nothing, just sitting there in her car seat babbling to us or herself or her "friends." At one point, she had two rocks (Heavenly Father and Jesus) having a conversation with each other. It was a little bizarre, yet entertaining.

It was a good little vacation, but it's always good to come home.