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MS Gulf Coast, United States
I am a Christian wife, mother and grandmother. I love to sew and create new and innovative items to share with my customers. The most popular area of my store is my Walnut Grove section which features clothing reminiscent of "Little House on the Prairie". Please take a moment to visit my store and see my latest creations. www.pattisoriginals.etsy.com

Saturday, October 11, 2014

Glacier National Park

We took a vacation and visited the Glacier National Park.  We wanted to share some of our adventures.  There is a link to the photos at the end of this narrative.

Day 1-We worked until noon and left Superior with temps in the 40's and a light rain. falling.  Before we were out of MN we encountered heavier rain mixed with snow and occasionally sleet.  The rain continued most of the day but we persevered.

Around 3PM we received a phone call from the rental agent saying one of their maintenance vehicles had hit our car (in the driveway).  They had to call the police and have an accident report created.  For awhile we were not sure if we were going to have to turn around or not, but they got things handled with the insurance company.  So again we persevered.

We spent the night in Bismarck, ND at the Comfort Suites.  Our reservation was at the Comfort Inn but they called and   offered us an upgrade to the Comfort Suites and we took the upgrade.  This was a mistake-the room was small, the headboard of the bed squeaked and the pillows were not comfortable.  Oh well, we were tired and slept okay just not deep enough or long enough.

Day 2. We finally entered Montana.  We had heard a lot about Billings so it was a bit disappointing-too many people for our liking and just not what we were expecting. 

Back in the car and a few hours later we were in Bozeman.  We were both really tired from our long day yesterday and another 10 hours on the road today, so we called it an early night.

Day3 We woke up early 4:30 and decided to take our time getting ready and then to drive to Missoula for church.  We left around 7 and just made it to church on time.  Church was ok-not too exciting.

Headed north to Kalispell and drove past Flathead Lake-it is really big and so beautiful, surrounded by mountains.

Tonight and tomorrow night we are staying at the Red Lion Hotel.  Our room is a suite and is very nice.

Had dinner at the Blue Canyon which got really good ratings.  Most of the food was good but the calamari was rubbery, most disappointing.  I had elk meatloaf and Larry had pecan crusted Walleye, both were very good.

Day 4. It has been interesting to see all the mountain ranges that make up the Rockies.  For 2 days we have driven through tall hills and craggy mountains but the really tall ones always seemed far away, at least until today.

Today we finally made it to the park.

What a glorious day for this trip.  This morning was slightly overcast which was perfect for photos and on our way home the sun came out. 

The drive across Glacier National Park was open as far as Logan Pass, about 2/3 of the way.  The road up the mountain is 2 lanes, one in each direction, and only about 10 Ft wide each.  This means there was approximately 1 1/2 Ft on each side of the car-or in other words, 1 1/2 Ft from the mountain on one side or the edge of the cliff on the other.  The mountain was straight up and solid granite.  The cliff was the edge of a drop off that went down about 10,000 feet to a ravine. 

It was a fantastic drive and when we reached the top of the mountain it was super windy but the views were beautiful.  It was definitely worth every hair raising moment.

Our waitress from last night recommended a restaurant just outside the park gates called The Highland Restaurant.  We visited there for breakfast and tried huckleberry pancakes and French toast-they were delicious.  After our trip up the mountain we stopped in for some huckleberry pie and that was also very good.

This evening we took a drive to Whitefish and ate at a local pub.  Whitefish looks like an interesting town that we would enjoy visiting.  Oh well, maybe at another time.

Day 5. Today we head to Idaho on a quest for a coffee cup.

We stayed in Sandpoint Idaho and found our coffee cup at the local town market which was a small shopping center.

Idaho accomplished-tomorrow starts the long trip home.

Day 6.  We drove Highway 2 all the way.  Highway 2 is the southern border of Glacier National Park and once you cross out of the park you are immediately in prairie land.  It is amazing how few foothills there are in this direction.

The rest of the day was a boring drive, thankfully we only drove about 2 more hours and spent the night in Shelby, MT.

Shelby is a small railroad town with not much in the way of eateries. 

The hotel had a book with local places to visit so we headed out looking for a place for a very late lunch, early dinner.  Larry always asks me where I would like to go so today I told him it was his choice.  He selected The Montana Club which advertised 50 different types of burgers. 

The Montana Club is located in the 2 block area of downtown with parallel parking.  I was driving and it took me about 10 tries to get the car parked, I hate parallel parking.  We were finally parked and walked to the 'Club'. 

We are from New Orleans and have been on Bourbon Street so 2 things should have warned us about this place-the man sitting out front apparently looking for customers (in the French Quarter they call them hawkers) and the solid wooden door.  Nothing inviting about this place but Shelby is an old town and most everything looks old and in need of repair so I guess that is our excuse.

 We opened the door and immediately saw the flyer on the inside of the door advertising all the women who would be performing.  Larry saw the flyer, I saw the inside of the building which looked the part of any dive I had ever heard of.  The only other person inside was some guy at the bar. This place was a definite no-no.  We turned around and left and decided to stick with a fairly well known eatery, we ate at Pizza Hut-we were not taking any more chances.

Surprisingly our hotel was pretty comfortable and we were able to get our last laundry on the road done.

Day 7. We got an early start this morning because today is our longest drive home.  We passed the Bear Paw Mountains and the Sweet Grass Hills but other than that nothing but flat prairie.  One of the high prairies was so high we could almost see Canada.

Glendive, MT tonight.  Not much in Glendive so we ate at CC's cafĂ© across from our hotel.  It turned out to be surprisingly good.   A quiet night and an early start tomorrow.

Day 8 Heading home.  We had planned to drive as far as Fargo today but since that is only 4 1/2 hours from home and we arrived in Fargo about 2 PM we decided to go all the way home.

We followed the GPS directions and it took us a different way home, through a town called Walker.  The drive was through some very pretty scenery.

We arrived home safe and sound and are very thankful to be in our own home tonight.