Week 3 - Got to Montana avoiding the Fires

Still smiling especially after driving through Glacier park (twice) - incredible

July 23rd - 25th - Peter & Anita's - Bellevue, Seattle

We arrived at Peter & Anita's great lush street, with homes set back in the lush gardens and an awesome cul-de-sac for turning around in with a trailer. We parked at the bottom of the driveway and the neighbors were notified before we arrived that a truck and trailer would be there for two nights.

So good to see P&A's home and where and what they have been doing in the garden for 15 years, incredible. We met the two dogs, Maddie and Dreidel, cats Bowie, Draco -otherwise known as the Apex Predator and the shy one, oops forgot this one's name as we never interacted, We sat around chatted and then went out for Sushi. Saturday morning started off with an amazing Vegan Veggie breakfast at Cafe Flora and then a little sightseeing in Seattle's trendy neighborhoods like Fremont

That evening we had an incredible middle eastern and Mediterranean taste sensation at Amie's in her new place in Bothell, 20 mins from Peter & Anita's. Amie had chef'd the most amazing vegan spread for an army ( AJ will be eating leftovers for a week or so)and wine pairings, and we started the evening off with a little fizz. So good to see Amie and hear all about what she's up to in Seattle, we never met her two cats and so I can't remember their names either, I know they were cool ones though, of course its Amie! We had so much fun we forgot to take photos, so here is one of the best Baklava I have ever tasted.

Driving across Washington & Idaho - Jo did a great job navigating around wild fires

July 25th - Harvest Host - Northridge Farm, Almira

We drove from Seattle via Spokane and spent the night at Northridge Farm, lovely quiet spot and bought some newly laid eggs and straight out of the field zucchini. Met Moab the very cute farm dog who was happy to pop into the airstream and say hi.

July 26th - Harvest Host - Riley Creek Blueberry Farm, Near Priest River

This was a pick your own blueberries and blueberry offerings farm shop, we bought 100% blueberry popsicles, blueberry vinaigrette, blueberry muffins and garlic salt all made on the farm. We ate blueberries straight off the bushes :)..

Met some other overnight campers and four paws, great to hear, why and where stories, and where to next.

July 27th - 29th West Shore, Flathead Lake State Park

Peter reversed into our 2 night spot, dry camping, no wifi, no data. Peter is getting to be a bit of a rockstar at this trailer reversing! We walked down to Flathead Lake scoped out the smoky views and where to come back to for our late afternoon swim.

We woke up to three hours of proper rain. Determined to see some of Glacier as unfortunately for 4 mornings in a row we had tried to purchase the Sun Road tickets, we watched repeatedly as we found a spot for wifi the 375 tickets disappear in 6 mins from the 8am purchase time. Glad we went into the park in search of information with our National Parks annual pass, we met a guide who mentioned we can drive the "Going to the Sun Road" after 5pm without a ticket - hurrah! Nowhere on the websites does it mention this. The National Parks are so busy, I suppose this is a way of filtering. The guide also gave us some shorter hikes to do from the West Glacier entrance. We decided on the trail to Lake McDonald where there was some amazing homemade ice cream. There was some smoky vistas not as bad as we thought.

Another early evening swim. Much clearer skies and vistas.

July 29-July 31st - St Marys Lake - KOA

We left Flathead Lake at 10:30am and stopped for lunch with my feet in a stream to cool down. Our AC has decided not to work, well what do you expect when you to buy a 1997 Ford F150 so yes things are going to break and stop working. All good as, we are soaking neckerchiefs to keep cool.

The most challenging part of the journey was Route 49 which bypasses Browning, but is partly unpaved, very twisty and big hills. We thought that everything in the trailer would shake loose, but turned out all was ship-shape,

We arrive at St Mary's at our 3 pm check in time, yes reliable'ish wifi and data. T-Mobile does not like to roam in Montana. We quickly set up the trailer in a pull through spot. Then got in the car again to drive "Going to The Sun Road". WOW!, WOW and WOW! the pix will tell the story. We ate supper at the top of Lake McDonald Lodge on a bench and took in more views, and then drove back. 10 hours of driving today for Peter.

Going to the Sun Road in Glacier Park

"Going to the Sun" is an amazing road - one of the most exciting that we have seen in US Here are some of the Tunnels carved out of the rock

Glacier Park Animals (Bears n Horned Sheep)

Today, Friday - July 30th, write the blog whilst doing the laundry and then a bike ride into St Mary's with maybe a Kayak on St Marys Lake this afternoon. Life is definitely very enjoyable!