06/26/19 – 06/29/19 Our Caravan, now complete, hit the road and traveled to Deer Lodge, Montana where we stayed a night at the fairgrounds. Cost $5. Two more couples, friends of Jim and Jackie from Parker AZ also met us there. They were driving a Class A and brand new large Class C Motorhome with all the bells and whistles. They too were going to AK to visit family but only have 6 weeks to complete their journey and so they will be putting on many more miles per day than our group. J & J also have another couple who are doing the trip ahead of us and are reporting on road and weather conditions on our route. The weather through Canada has been wet and there are some fires causing smoky conditions in AK. It is nice to have other run a bit of interference for us to help us with our decisions on which routes to take and interesting things to see along the way. We headed up to Glacier National Park passing many bright yellow Canola fields and spent the next few days camping just outside of the National Park at Emery Bay Campground on the shores of Hungry Horse Reservoir. We were able to split a double campsite with Bob and J & J were able to snag the last non-reserved site. Many of the sites at this campground were empty but had reserved signs on them. The people that reserved them just never show up. Many campers were turned away when space was available. We spent the next couple of days touring Glacier National Park, we drove the very narrow, “going to the Sun Road”, up to the summit and back. We also walked the lovely “trail of the Cedars” recommended by Larry, our camp host. The park was very busy this time of year and we had difficulty finding parking everywhere we went. I spent a lot of time shooting pictures from Jim’s truck. There were so many beautiful waterfalls and rivers and creeks with bright blue snow melt. I was able to capture a good picture of a big horn sheep at the summit. The scenery along this road was stunning. We passed a bicyclist near the summit and when he stopped at the top we found out he was 81 years old. Good for him! We also took the next day and inflated our kayaks and paddled out on the lake. Sierra, our new sweet little retriever was not too sure about the boat initially and jumped out on our first trek but after hauling her back into the boat, soon relaxed and enjoyed the ride. Jackie and I have begun our Cribbage tournament and we also involved the guys in a round of Mexican Train Dominoes and Ladders. Let the games begin!
Living the Dream 