Enjoying the beauty of the Northern Rockies and Northwest Montana

Sunday, June 27th                                             The north end of Flathead Lake

Marilyn and I had a wonderful breakfast at Somers Café' down by the lake Sunday morning.  The Somers Café' is a unique and rustic sort of structure.  It was originally built in the late 1800's as a local bank.  In it's later life it was a general mercantile store, and more recent it was revived as the café' that it is now.   Somers is a small little town located at the very north end of Flathead Lake, and with the café', a hardware store, Del's Bar, one fine-dining restaurant, three or four art galleries and about four or five churches, along with about 300 residents and their post office, that is the town of Somers for the most part.

We spent Sunday afternoon with our nephew and his wife and their two little cuties down at the lake home.  It was great to just sit out on the deck and look out over the beautiful Flathead Lake, ringed by the mountains of the Mission Range to the east.  Of course we had plenty of conservation to catch up on and stories to tell until it was time for dinner (make that 'supper' up here in Montana), which was a delicious bar-b-Que of chicken with Marilyn's rice pilaf and macaroni salad.  Along with some "Two-buck Chuck" (for those outside of California, "Two-buck Chuck" is the descriptive tag for Charles Shaw wines, sold only at Trader's Joe.  And since it is only $1.99 a bottle, thus you have "Two-buck Chuck"; and actually it is a very good wine and enjoyable to drink - more enjoyable at only 'two-bucks' a pop.  Therefore, we carry several cases of the Chardonnay and the Merlot).  After dinner, as we watched the sun grow dimmer at sunset (up here that is about 10:30p.m. - dark at about 11:30p.m.), we (our nephew, John and myself) knocked down a couple or three 'Kokanee's' (one of the local (albeit, is imported from just over the Canadian border to the north of us, in Creston, British Columbia, Canada) beers that is considered to be one of the 'locals' for the local folks). 

With the weather virtually perfect, if you will, we had a very enjoyable day with family and the amusement of Meagan (8) and the rambunctious one, Nate (6), we all had a great day.

Monday, June 28th

Today I have been running around trying to find a certain A/V cable for our A/V systems.  It is evidently a special type of cable that Monaco Coach knows where and how to buy, but few else do.  It is an 8-pin A/V with IR, at first glance looks similar to an S-Video cable, but this one is slightly larger and contains the 8-pins rather than just the 4 or 5 pins in an S-Video.  I have searched Radio Shack (and online too!); Best Buy (online too!); Wally-World (online too!), and even went to Allied Electronics online (and those guys have everything electronic...well, almost everything...apparently not this 8-pin cable though).  I have a call in to Monaco Coach Parts to see what they can do to help.  Hopefully, they will have the answer for me.

We are waiting for the Harris family (Chris, Deb, Christal, Jamie and Julianne) to arrive.  They are driving in from Visalia and called us a couple of hours ago and said that they were just outside Missoula, and so should be here within a couple of hours.  They are playing "mailman" for us, as they are bringing our Visalia mail to drop off with us before they continue on up the North Fork to their cabin.  On Friday, they are coming back down to spend a week or about 10 days at the lake home.  I am looking forward to that, so we can all get out on the lake, do some fishing, visiting, and more fishing.

Christal's birthday is on July 4th, and so I am sure that Chris will have ample fireworks for the evening celebration (and with all the various fireworks going off over the lake, it has always proven to be a very awe-inspiring view.  We are looking forward to it.

We went over to the lodge and met with some local friends whom Marilyn had gone to school with, and that we have kept in touch with over the years.  It was relaxing to sit and have a few libations over some good conversation.  Elaine and Walt were a joy to see and spend some time with.  We plan to get together in a few weeks (when they return from a vacation), along with some other friends here, over dinner at the lodge.

Tuesday, June 29th
Just taking care of a few errands and miscellaneous "honey-do's" today.
We did take a drive down to Angel Point on the lake, where we tried to find the lakefront property that Chris and Deb are looking at.  That is a great area and them having a home on the lake would be ideal for them and the girls, since they all like to fish, swim, water-ski and the like.  So we'll see...
Marilyn on the deck of the lake-house

Wednesday, June 30th
Hallelujah!  I found it!  No not gold, but at this point almost as good...I found the A/V-I/R cable that I have looked high and low for.  Found it on a tip at a local electronics/computer store.  So it is now on order and should be in-hand in about 5 days or so.  Once I have that, I will be able to finish up one of my projects around the coach.

A few more pictures thrown in here for whats it worth....

Jim, Marilyn, Elaine and Walt

After a complete tour of the Westby, Montana area we continued west through the county seat of Sheridan County, Plentywood, and then on to Scobey where we turned south to Wolf Point, down by the Missouri River, picking up US-2 to Glasgow, and after a few other towns strung out along the route, we arrived in Shelby, Montana, where Marilyn has a cousin that was expecting us for a visit. 

Her cousin Dorthy and her husband, Walt (who is 92 years old, and gets around excellent!) invited us into their lovely home in Shelby, where Marilyn reminisced and along with Dorthy they 're-visited' times in the past and the growing up years around Westby.  We enjoyed dinner out with them, and finished the evening off with some cards.  We joined Dorthy and Walt the next morning for breakfast at their home, and then we were once again on our way west.

We are currently in Kalispell, Montana at the Elks Lodge RV Park. We have made a visit to some of our local friends and family in the area and as always it was good to see them and catch up on what has been happening.

We did make a visit to the Jeff Fleming “Bearpaws” shop where ‘bears’ is the word. There are a kinds, types and styles of bear carvings found there. His work is well known among those who know this type of wood-work. We stopped to check on a specific style that Jeff had a shop model of back a couple of years ago when we were here with our friends, Dave and Helen Altstadt touring the area. I think we have found the one that they were wanting, so I have sent pictures of it over to them in California, and if it is in fact the right one, then we will pick it up for them and see that they get it.

The shop is really a neat place to visit though in its own right. There are large carvings, very large carvings, medium sized carvings, small carvings, and very small carvings. It is sort of like going through a museum there and Jeff’s expertise with his tools is superb to say the least.

The weather has been very nice, in fact ideal. With lots of sun, a few lazy clouds, and temps in the upper 70F’s and the lows at night down around 48F to 55F at night. We haven’t seen any rain since the soaking that we experienced in the Black Hills about 2 or 3 weeks ago. So all in all, it has been very enjoyable weather for us.

We expect to remain here in this section of “God’s Country” for probably about another month or so. As the National Director, I do have an FMCA International Convention to attend in Redmond, Oregon in mid-August, so that is our only ‘sure thing’ so to speak. But after four years of holding this office, I will be relinquishing it to another able bodied individual in January (2011). This will be my final FMCA governing board meeting at the Redmond conclave, and since they are usually about 10 -12 hours long, it will be good to have it out of the way.

I’ll throw a few pictures in here to acquaint you with the territory and our travels through these areas.

The photos above show us coming into Shelby, MT; Marilyn, her cousin, Dorthy and her husband, Walt.; As we get closer to the front-range of the Rockies and Glacier, gets closer and closer; coming into Kalispell, along with an art-deco building from the 1930's (originally was a gas/service station) which houses one of the local television station studios; a tree lined residential street in the older, historic district; the old courthouse

Head'em Up, Move'em Out ....North ....and West...

Friday, June 18th

        Time to "head'em up, and move'em out" for us.  As usual we have thoroughly enjoyed the beauty and serenity of the Black Hills, truly a beautiful part of 'God's Country'.  We always enjoy the slower pace, the lack of heavy traffic, lack of traffic congestion, and the warm smiling faces of the South Dakotan's where ever we have been.  We could easily stay here for another two or three months, but it is time for us to head on over to Montana.  That we will be doing tomorrow morning.

        We had dinner, just down the road at the Elk Creek Steakhouse, and we were not disappointed.  This is the same steakhouse that we stopped in at, back in August 2008 during Bike Week.  At the time we first ordered a couple of cocktails, and lo and behold, they were served in a Pepsi paper cup.  Not exactly what we were looking for in ambiance for a nice dinner.  So we decided on the spot that dinner was not an option there that evening.

But tonight, we had an excellent steak and prime rib dinner served with the more standard glass/crystal for our pre-dinner cocktails.  It seems that many of these finer places will switch over on their glass/crystal to paper during Bike Week since there are so many and the breakage increases significantly during this time.  So to help with this type of dilemma, it becomes paper over glass temporally for a number of like places.

        Tomorrow we will head north to Williston, North Dakota and then on to Westby, Montana, where we will drop anchor for the evening.

Saturday, June 19th

        The drive north from Spearfish, South Dakota was very pleasant and the landscape just a very pretty emerald green everywhere.

        We had lunch in Belfield, North Dakota, which we went through in the summer of 2007 after leaving a two-day visit to Medora and of course the great presentation, The Medora Musical which is held in an outdoors amphitheater.  We elected to not return this time since we were just there only about three years ago.  But, it will merit a return visit at some point in the future I am sure.

 

Continuing north from Belfield, we made a stop in Williston, North Dakota, one of the largest towns/cities in western North Dakota.  Williston sits along the north bank of the Missouri River and is a major ag and finance center for northwestern North Dakota.  Williston was one of the "big city's" that Marilyn visited on special occasions back during her childhood days growing up in Westby, Montana.  The other "big city" to visit was Minot, North Dakota, which lies a little further east from Williston.

Here we are this evening in Westby, Montana.  Westby is located just over the state border from North Dakota.  This is the small town in which Marilyn was raised and lived for the first couple decades of her life.  We were busy going through the town and the adjacent neighborhoods to 'spot out' the homes of old prior classmates, friends and where family had lived many years ago. 

It is a neat town with that slow, down-home folks with smiling faces and almost all give a hearty wave of the hand to you as you go by.  Some things just seem to not change in so many of these small 'all-American' towns that are off of the beaten path.

        We had a relaxing cocktail at "Charlie's Place" and talked story with the bartender which was almost like a pseudo reunion of friends and family in the area. 

And another interesting bit, is that the Town of Westby has it's own small RV camping area located out of the way and offers six sites with full hookups and the price is right...free!  Well actually it is free for the first two days, and then it is only $5.00 per day. Of course, as Marilyn says, two days in Westby is about 1-1/2 days more than you need since there is not a whole lot to do here, other than watch the grain elevators work, or hold a bar-stool down at Charlie's place.  But nevertheless, that was a rather unusual find with a free campground. 

        We have seen a good number of Pronghorn Antelope, Deer and some beautiful Ring-Neck Pheasants in the area.  We enjoy spotting the critters of nature.

        And as usual, many changes were noted by Marilyn that has occurred over the years.  So much has not changed, and yet a number of notable changes are seen on a tour of the area.

A number of newer homes; a much newer school; a few buildings on Main Street are gone, and a couple are somewhat newer.

        With the green rolling hills and the multitude of numerous lakes, ponds and sloughs, it is a very scenic area in its own right.

        After a breakfast at the local café' tomorrow morning, we will pull up stakes and continue westward on MT-5 to Plentywood, the county seat of Sheridan County, and then on to Scobey, Montana where we will turn south in order to pick up US-2 through Glasgow and the Fort Peck area.

        I have thrown in a number of pictures here to let you travel along visually with us.

        And oh yes,  the weather has been absolutely great for the past six days or so now, with the exception of some high winds from Spearfish to Belfield, and then diminished quite rapidly as we continued north.

Our temps have continued to range from about 72F to 76F with lows at night of about 52F to 57F, all quite pleasant and enjoyable.

Sunday, June 20th  -  HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO ALL THE FATHERS OUT THERE!!

        Just finished a great country breakfast at the "Prairie Kitchen" in 'downtown' Westby.  It was even more enjoyable since Marilyn met several folks in there that she knew or knew of their local families.  Some even got word that she was there, and they came in to say 'hello' and sit for a while and talk about the preceding years in Westby.  It was very enjoyable for Marilyn and I, to hear more about her family, friends and classmates from Westby School.

        It looks to be another beautiful day here in northeastern Montana.  We hope that your Father's Day is also one of sunshine, fun and laughter!

Sun, Warmth, Turkeys and the Norris'

Ahh yes, sunshine ...again!  The rain left us yesterday after about 4-1/2 inches over almost four days, so the sun is a very welcome sight to us once again.  And as a bonus we get warmer temps too.  But as I have mentioned before the emerald green is very awe-inspiring to see.

Well, our dear friends, Ralph and Tammy left us today, as they needed to continue heading east so as to meet their schedule for Ralph's class reunion for his high school over in Iowa.  It was great having them stop in and visit, and we enjoyed the time we got to spend with them during their short stay here.  We had dinner at one of our local favorites here in Rapid City, Stanford's Grub & Pub is truly a unique place with tons and tons of memorabilia and artifacts throughout, along with 211 various televisions all over the place even in the ceiling, and about every other place in between.  It is located in large, former old brick warehouse.  It was started about 12 years ago by three graduating college guys attending Black Hills State University in Spearfish.  There are now ten of these Sanford's located in 10 cities in South Dakota, Wyoming, North Dakota and Colorado.  They provide a great atmosphere as well as excellent food and good service in the numerous times that we have had the pleasure to visit their interesting restaurants.

Yes, we all left with our 'take-home boxes' which contained about as much as what we had already eaten.  It was great having the opportunity to "break some bread" with Ralph and Tammy, and sitting around and talking 'story' with them.  We wish them a continued safe trip.

We went to one of our favorite local breakfast places in Rapid, the Cambell Street Café'.  They provide an ample breakfast cooked in the old country style and served with a big smile. 

Went over to our "home" and picked up our mail; a fast stop at Wally-World; and then by the library and for Marilyn, "Mona Lisa's on Main" a neat little boutique that has all that feminine 'fu-fu' stuff that women seem to love.  Then it was back to our portable castle to take care of a few odds and ends around the coach.

We noticed that there appears to be more and more RV's coming into the area and many of the RV parks and resorts.  Summer must be here and now many of the families are headed out on vacations, and of course the 'snowbirds' are shifting further north for a more enjoyable summer.  Some of the RV parks a month ago had like 4 or 5 units, and today those same parks have probably a good 25 to 30 units, which is representative of the increase.  We see more out of state plates now also (a lot of them I may add), with the adjoining states of Wyoming, North Dakota, Nebraska having the majority of those visitor plates, but also there are those from Colorado, Texas, California, Arizona, Iowa, Florida, Pennsylvania and a sprinkling of others.  I am sure that those out-of-state visitors will continue to increase until mid-summer anyhow.

Like I said, it has been an absolutely beautiful day with lots of sun, and warmer temps in the upper-70F's which is such a relief after days of rain.  Now, I just hope that this will hand in there for a while.  According to the forecasters, it should.  But then with the weather, and especially the weather in the Dakota's, you just can never be real sure.  Keeping our fingers crossed...      

Wild Turkeys (and there are a bunch of them around; Tom's and Hen's both

It was cool, but -196F...well that was a stretch!

At Sanford's Grub & Pub in Rapid City

No, that is not a worm hanging out of Ralph's mouth, but an onion-string!

The Norris' are on the road again, headed for Iowa...Safe and Happy Trails to them...