Flathead Lake, MT

Since you haven't heard from us in a while (we KNOW that has really been disconcerting!), we'll catch you up:

We left Salmon, ID for Wisdom, MT. We were very excited, because the RV park in Wisdom was supposed to be a gorgeous, small place on the Big Hole River. We had tagged the Big Hole as one of our key destinations due to the beauty of the valley and great fishing. When we got there and drove through, the reality was that it was on a stagnant pond, and the river was low, mossy and unfishable. (We'd post a picture, but there was nothing to shoot.)

So we motored on; a gorgeous drive, ending up in Garrison, MT. We stayed in a lovely park, Riverfront RV Park, run by Bernie and Sharon, Christians who feel that God gifted them this place. It was peaceful and quiet and beautifully maintained. We were close to Jack's favorite fishing spot of all time - the upper section of Rock Creek - and we spent a fantastic day up there. Caught lots of fish (rainbows, cutthroat, browns, maybe even a bull trout, but I can't be sure).

Upper Rock Creek, Montana

Mandy was hysterical! Despite her labrador heritage, she hates getting her feet wet, let alone crossing streams. This makes it really tough for her because she loves being with us. Being the responsible parents we are, we ended up CARRYING her across the creek a couple of times.

She also discovered the magic of Pronghorn antelopes.  We were getting our fishing gear ready, and Mandy was waiting for us, wandering around sniffing.  Suddenly, a large group of Pronghorns came towards us across the pasture, elevated themselves over the barb wire fence, and landed directly in front of Mandy.  They each took a couple of hops and sprinted straight up the cliffs on the other side of the road.  Mandy was excited, but never seemed to figure out where they came from, or where they disappeared to.  It must have seemed to her that they dropped out of the sky, and vaporized into the air.
Her confused look was priceless.

The next day we went 60 miles up the road to Missoula for an overnight at Jim & Mary's RV Park. We stayed here last year in our little trailer and loved it. Mary loves growing flowers, and they are EVERYWHERE!

Since most of our trip has been very trouble-free, this is worth mentioning: The scenery was so spectacular, Stacy wanted to take a picture (see above), so I pulled off without regard for the fact that you can't turn around a 30-foot trailer on a narrow two-lane road. Brilliantly, I decided we could loop through the native cemetery that was there.

Well, 3/4 of the way through we encountered a low hanging branch that we had failed to notice before entering. We had two options: (1) drive over several graves, or (2) back all the way out. Choosing the latter, and thanks to the woman enjoying lunch at her late husband's graveside, 30 minutes later we were on the road again.

We are in Polson, Montana. Despite its rather blah name, this is a spectacularly beautiful place. We are in the Eagle's Nest RV Park. We were assigned an out of the way "overflow" site that, despite really abysmal wifi and no cable TV, is so much nicer and more private than the "premium" spots. Couldn't be nicer.

After two weeks of eating in, we decided to have a nice dinner out. The Finley Point Grill and Bar was incredible.

Here's our campsite:

Oh, one thing I failed to mention is that Polson, MT is home to the "Miracle of America Museum", the self-proclaimed Smithsonian of the West. We'll report on it tomorrow. (With all the anticipation, I hope you can sleep!)

Cheerio,
Jack and Stacy