Wheeling with the club and Happy Fathers Day !

Let me start by wishing all the Fathers out there a special Fathers Day.

This last week we were pretty busy and it was a week off !  Monday, Bren got up pretty early and went over and watched the Grandbaby's for a couple of hours while their Mother went back to work for the first time since Knox was born.  Later that day we worked out in the Gym and went for a long power walk up the hill.  Our daily routine this time of year almost always includes sometime in either the pool or the hot tub or both !  Tuesday and Wednesday were just R&R days.  I still have that feeling that we always have to be doing something, I have been told I need to learn how to relax........... :) !  Soon all of our free time will be used up helping build our Son's new home. Thursday we played some pickleball in the AM and went out with one of the other host couples after Happy Hour at the resort.  Our first stop was the Smoke House a cool place just up the road.  They were hosting a Trio on the patio that walked around and played some funky / funny music table by table.............

We actually sat with another group that was a riot.  The guy in the middle of the group would stop playing his guitar from time to time to play the little red kids piano you see on the table above.  I think we had one as kids.  Plays real tinny sounding and he hammered on that toy and made it sound ridiculously good !  It was a hoot.  From there we went down to our favorite place to hang out, the Finley Point Bar and grill.  We ordered a Burger to split called the Mile Marker 46.  It is a huge burger in between 2 grilled cheese sandwiches which served as the buns.  It came with all the fixin's, and it was delicious.  Even I could not eat a whole one.....................

Mile Marker 46 !

Friday, we got up and worked out in the morning and in the afternoon Bren went to get her hair done and I worked on the rig a bit.  Saturday we went out on a Trail Ride with the Jeep club that we hooked up with here in town.  Just to the North West of us is the Black Tail Off Road Area.  It is taken care of by our club, the Sky-liners and a Kalispell Jeep Club.  We had about 12 rigs with us and it was a blast.  It seemed we just kept going up and up into the mountains.  Along the 4 wheel drive trail from time to time there are created obstacle's that you can test your jeep (and your nerve !) on.....

Then I was offered a ride in one of the bigger "Rock Crawlers" !

Yep, that is me holding on for dear life !  This ride is going to cost me some $ $ $ !  LOL.

Even my Jeep Girl went for a ride.  Disney world has nothing on these crazy Jeeps !  Here is a cool Group shot from the trail................

Look how dusty our Jeep is !  Along the way the views and vistas were incredible.......................

And all over the woods above an altitude of 6,000 feet or so grows this pretty white flowers called Bear grass.  Supposedly the stalks only bloom once every 7 years.  They were all over the place !

Yesterday, Fathers day, we had a Pizza and Beer Potluck here at the resort.  Everyone brought out a six pack of their favorite beer to share and a dish to pass and the resort supplied pizza and hot wings.  A great time was had by all.  Tony and his family came over for the event and we had some Grand Kid time too.  We even Skyped with my parents.  It was good to see them and see that they are doing well.  I think they got a kick out of seeing Knoxon as he was wide awake and pretty happy at the time.

That is it for now................more to come !

Has it been a whole week ?? !!!!

It sure does not seem that it has been a whole week since I last blogged........  As I mentioned in the last entry we were just starting our 4 day "work" shift last Sunday.  So Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we were pretty busy around the park.  Since Brenda is in charge of the office and I am usually out and about in the park, I usually make our lunch's.  This last week I had some fun with it.......

 More and more people are showing up as different events around the area crop up.  This last week we had the National Retriever Trials here in the Polson and Ronan areas.  We have about 3 or 4 couples that are here for that.  This last weekend we had a large girls softball tournament that basically filled us up.  Suddenly our little oasis of fun has turned into a busy RV Resort !


Here is a cool barn pic we took on the way back..........

Friday we went to the Farmers Market, did some grocery shopping, and just hung out.  In the early evening we found out that our house in Royal Oak was no longer our house.  It has closed and moved on to its new owner.  Just one more thing that we do not have to worry about any more !

Saturday we got up in the AM and played pickle ball.  Me and another one of our new friends were sitting out waiting our turn to play and he did not look like he was feeling well.  We were carrying on a conversation so I did not think that much of it.  I then stood up and started walking to stretch my legs in anticipation of playing and all of a sudden our friend fell straight back off of the picnic table and hit his head on the cement with the most disturbing sound I have ever heard.  I was just a few steps away and it all happened right in front of me, but there was no way to stop him.  Once I got to him his eyes were rolled back in his had and he was convulsing pretty bad.  Susan, one of our other friends and former nurse ran over to help.  911 was called.  He had a pulse and we determined he was breathing, however very shallowly.  He was bleeding pretty bad from the back of his head but that is fairly normal with head injuries. I used a trick learned back in my National Ski Patrol Days and used my knuckles back an forth across his chest and with that he was conscious again and talking to us. The paramedics  showed up, check his sugar, his heart with an EKG, and back boarded him and took him to the Hospital.  He was released later that day with the determination that he had a virus and was probably dehydrated and that is what caused him to be dizzy and pass out.  We saw him this morning and he seems like he will be fine.  I was sure that when I first approached him that the outcome was going to be much worse, thank god it was not.  Not a good way to start the day,  The rest of the day we put vent covers over our ceiling vents.  This allows us to keep the roof vents open all the time and not worry about the rain but yet have great ventilation. WE also took a nap and went to happy hour.  At night we watched the Hawks beat the Lighting (go Hawks !).......

Today, Sunday, we went to the Rodeo over in Hot Springs.  It was a great day for it with lots of sunshine and temps in the lower 70's................Check out my Cow Girl !!!

On the way home we ran across a candidate for a new Motor home, but we thought it might need a little more work that we were willing to put into it.........................

The views coming back to town from the north were incredible too.............................

Here are a couple of shots from the dock at a park we stopped at........................

It never ceases to amaze us how beautiful Montana is.......

More to come !

Chasing Waterfalls.......................

Catching up !  Last Tuesday................. We went to the Gym and did about 45 minutes of weights and floor work, then went for a walk.

Wednesday, after our last adventure of scouting out waterfalls, a friend of ours loaned us a book of Montana waterfalls.  So we decided to scout out North Crow Creek Falls.  Like the last time it starts off with a dirt road heading to the mountains, turns into a two track, then a 4 wheel drive road.  It ended at a small trail  head.  The hike in was about 2 miles, up hill with about a 750 ft. gain.  The trail was visible, but not as well worn as we would have hoped.  Over every hill there were beautiful vistas of the canyon we were going up.........................

We spotted this fall way up above us...................................

As we hiked closer it was evident by the sound that the falls were near.  These falls are comprised of an upper fall which drops 22 feet into a pool that then slides down a granite chute and gives way to the lower falls.......... BEAUTIFUL.  The sound of these falls is incredible..........

There is a bit of folk lore about these falls and an old gold prospector back in the late 1800's.  It seems he was exploring these hills for gold and came across an exposed vein of gold that was about a foot wide and 100 feet long !  He chipped off a hand full sized nugget and went back to town where he told only family and close friends.  The next day he snuck out of town with some dynamite and blew the ridge above the vein to cover the it up until he could file a claim and get some men together to dig it all up.  He then died mysteriously the next day never disclosing the location except to say it was above these falls.  Along our hike there were several granite cliffs and fields of stone that had fallen off of them that the trail went across.  At each crossing we could not help but wonder is this where the gold is ????????????

 Thursday, this was a page out of the perfect day book....... Pickle ball in the morning................

then a swim, a hot tub, lunch, shower, nap, happy hour, Pizza night with the gang.  How could it be any better.......hmmmmmm.

Friday we road the tandem with 2 other couples from the park down the hill into Polson for the Farmers Market.  Once again, the sticky bun did not last long enough to take a picture.  When we got back we went swimming, took a shower, did some grocery shopping, and then hit a couple of local bars to do some research for places to hang out later this summer when our friends come out for a week.  We ended up the night listening to a great band at the Finley Point Bar and Grill.  A great place just up the road.  It could be our new hang out...............

Saturday, Our third falls adventure takes us down to the Jocko valley about 20 minutes south of the resort and then about another 20 minutes into the mountains.  The directions to the falls in the book were very inaccurate and it took us about an hour and a half to find them.  They did not disappoint..........Jocko Falls.......................

The nice thing about these falls was you could pretty much drive right up to them (once you actually find them !)....  Again the sound of the falls is amazing.  We just sat on a large slab of granite along side in awe of Mother Nature......Back home we hit happy hour and had some dinner.

Today, Sunday, was the first day of our next work shift.  Back in the groove of working around the park and meeting new people.  One couple that came in today started full timing the same day we did. They too sold off everything and hit the road.............we are not the only nuts in the world.........Not looking back !

More to come !

Time flys when you are having fun !

It has been a while since I posted and we have been very busy !

Forgive me if i jump around a bit.  Saturday was the first BBQ contest of the season.  It was down in Missoula and it rained the whole way down until we hit I-90 and the sun came out.  We checked in and mingled with people.  It was weird that we were at a BBQ contest and did not know one team or any of the other Judges !  A whole new gig !  The Chicken category was first and it was some of the best chicken that we have judged.  It made us think we were in for a good day of BBQ.  The next category was Ribs and things started to go down hill.  Lots of St. Louis ribs and not one of them were cooked properly.  Flavor profiles were off too.   The pulled pork went further down the hill.  One box looked like they just chopped the pork in big slabs and literally threw them into the box.  The last category was Brisket (my favorite) and it was pretty good.  All in all a good day when you can eat competition BBQ for free..............

Here is the pic of the Grand Champions Trophy.......

It was made by a local company called "Zombie Apocalypse Tools" (Hmmmm).  It was made out of 1/2 steel and was very sharp.  It was placed in a cool block of wood and partly into a Bobcat skull.  At first we did not get the connection, but the BBQ contest was put on by the University of Montana's culinary department.  They are the Grizzly's and their arch rival are the "Bobcats" !!

The contest was held at the Fair Grounds and included a bunch of other events,  The Culinary students were doing some BBQing of their own.............

3 Lamb's on Spits, and they smelled delicious..........

And a whole Steer on a really cool adjustable grill made up by the University welding department !

On our way home I spotted a sign that we needed to take a picture of.  Brenda's Brother Steve is always teasing us that he lives in Gods Country over in Rockford Michigan.  We just had to show him what Gods Country really looks like......................

Also on our way home we saw this rig.  Not sure what it was exactly, but we thought it was pretty cool.  It looked like it would float !

Today (Monday), we went with a group of our new friends from the resort to a town called Polebridge.  It is truly a "small" town up on the western side of Glacier National Park, that is famous for its general store and its bakery.  We had a great ride up the East side of Flathead lake, which is about 20 miles long.  From there we entered Glacier National Park and headed up the west side.  This area had a forest fire back in 2003 and it was incredible to see the growth.  Jack Pines will not release their seeds unless under extreme heat.  So when the fire rips through these stands of trees it is actually replanting them at the same time.  Mother Nature is cool.

There was some beautiful scenery along this part of the park.  We saw a few deer, but were really hoping to see a bear........ no Luck.  Here we are at our destination........................

This store and a little bar next door are the town of Polebridge.  The whole town is "off the grid".  They have some solar panels and a big generator.  Our sticky bun with whole pecans did not last long enough to get a pic of.  I think Bren was thinking there was going to be more shopping !

Oh, and the bear that we were wanting to see..........................well he was in the Orchard, right next to the RV Resort !!  This pic was taken by one of the others that did not go on our little jaunt........

A little too close to home !  That is it for now.  More to come..............................