Montana – Riveted

Camping at the Bolstad Homestead

Laura Domela — Thu, 12 Sep 2013 00:13:13 +0000

Here we are at Kyle's family's place this morning in Bigfork, Montana (from the hexacopter):

Our Airstream is the one on the far right, by the airstrip, and Kyle's Airstream is on the left near his family's house (and that little cluster of dots over on the far right edge is Kevin, Kyle, and me):

We had such a nice visit with Kyle and his parents! We left late this afternoon and got to Coeur d'Alene and will spend the night here, work in the morning, and then make some more progress toward home. It was a gorgeous drive! (Okay but seriously, what is WITH the lack of cell service on that HUGE chunk of I-90? It's an INTERSTATE, right??)

We got to our campground and saw that we were parked right across from a cute little gazebo lined with surfboards. I looked on the map and saw that it was "Spa 1" and "Spa 2." Score!! We got parked and walked over to make sure they were still open (it was only 7:30pm) but sadly, there's a paper sign taped on the door: "Closed after Labor Day" Bah!

We went for a walk instead and now will sip some wine and do some work.

Airstream on an Airstrip in Bigfork, Montana

Laura Domela — Wed, 11 Sep 2013 12:09:49 +0000

We left Glacier yesterday and stopped in Hungry Horse, MT to have lunch at the Elkhorn Grill. Elk burgers seemed to be their specialty so we went with two of 'em. Solid burger, good fries, and exactly the ambiance you'd expect from a place called the Elkhorn Grill in Hungry Horse.

After lunch we headed over to meet up once more with our friend Kyle at his family's home in Bigfork, Montana. They've got a beautiful place and they let us park right out here near the grass airstrip that borders their property — great view of green meadows and mountains (only one plane so far, but last night we heard a who-ing owl and a pack of coyotes loudly celebrating probably something gross).

Last night we headed down to the family cabin in Flathead Lake for a relaxing evening on the water.

Delicious dinner on the porch overlooking the lake, and a lakeside campfire after dinner. It was a great time with great company!

Later this morning we'll head into town for some walking around and some breakfast or lunch before we make somes miles toward home.

Webcam View of Lookout Pass

Laura Domela — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 14:13:17 +0000

Here's the pass at 8am this morning (eastbound):

Here's what it looks like now (westbound, 10am):

Improving. Not "go" but improving.

Marooned in Missoula

Laura Domela — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 20:12:54 +0000

We're so close to home, now! Here's the current map of our trip so far:

We're currently stuck (or rather, staying, on purpose) in the Missoula area because the road conditions on Lookout Pass between us and Spokane (where we'd planned to be tonight) looked a little iffy. It's been snowing up there, and according to the webcams and road data the roads have just been wet but clear most of the day, but we figure we'd rather not risk it so we'll just wait. (This is where we're getting our minute-by-minute information, if you're curious.)

I cancelled the dinner reservation I'd made in Spokane for Kevin's birthday tomorrow night, and found another place that looks great here in Missoula. Luckily, we're really good at being flexible. We're at a park with good Wi-Fi, all the amenities we need, and so we're set for a few days if need be.

We went into town to get some groceries and grab lunch (cobb salads and a cup of soup at the Hob Nob Cafe on Higgins). Missola feels a little like Portland. It's a university town and the older buildings combined with the rain and hipsters in knit hats made us feel, well, right at home. The grocery store we found was awesome: The Good Food Store. It's like a cross between a Whole Foods and a small neighborhood organic foods co-op. Love it!

I'm going to cook dinner for Kevin tonight here at the Airstream (shrimp ceviche, homemade crab cakes, veggies, salad, champagne, brownies and vanilla bean ice cream for dessert) and then tomorrow night we'll go out to dinner in town (unless the roads are clear and he'd rather make the trip over the pass, his birthday, his call). After watching the road conditions all day it looks like we could have gotten over the pass just fine today…but whatever. Better safe than stuck.

Here's what it looks like around here:

I'm pretty sure we're the only temporary residents here. Most of the other campers that are here look like they're hunkered down for the winter.

Driving Day: Billings to Missoula

Laura Domela — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 22:15:59 +0000

Today was a driving day. I-90 from Billings to Missoula. Nothing too exciting, but some really gorgeous scenery. I think this was perhaps the last day of blue sky for a while though.

Airstream in a field:

Our Lady of the Rockies above Butte, Montana:

Transformer cityscape (Kevin took this shot out the window while I was driving):

We are at a campground right outside of Missoula called Turah RV Park. Wi-Fi, hookups, great little store…more than perfect for the night. We'll be able to catch up on last week's Homeland, maybe download one of the Walking Dead (video game) episodes to the Xbox 360, and have a shorter drive to Spokane tomorrow. The roads were fine today…fingers crossed for tomorrow.

A Walk Along the Rimrock

Laura Domela — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 20:11:22 +0000

We went and walked a couple miles along the Rimrock this afternoon. There are several nice trails up there with great views of the city (Billings, Montana). The light was kinda crappy so I didn't really get any good city shots, but I did take a photo of this nice huge crack in the rock!

Reminds me about the story I read the other day somewhere in Billings news when I was researching something else about a part of the rimrock that fell onto a house a year or two ago. Eek!! Wouldn't THAT be a bummer?

Kevin Finished His Aerial Video of Yellowstone River

Laura Domela — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 12:49:18 +0000

(Taken from the hexacopter, of course.) Oh yeah! And the music is again from local faves 3 Leg Torso!

How beautiful is this place?

Pictograph Cave State Park

Laura Domela — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 22:03:26 +0000

This afternoon after I finished up a bunch of work I decided I needed to get out a bit and do something, so I headed over to the Pictograph Cave State Park for a little hike.

Pictograph Cave State Park is a 93-acre park and includes three caves (Pictograph, Middle, and Ghost cave). It's only about five miles south of Billings. There's a nice trail that passes in front of the caves and winds around the base of the rock. Parts of the trail are paved, and parts are gravel, and some of the trail is quite steep (perfect for a quick afternoon hike).

Excavation of the three caves began in 1937, and there have been over 30,000 artifacts found in the caves. Some of the pictographs are over 3500 years old and are still visible in Pictograph Cave (the largest of the three caves). They are paintings of animals, warriors, and rifles that document the story of the Native Americans of the area for thousands of years.

Here's an overview of Pictograph Cave from the information display (cave wall above, pictographs outlined below):

Here's one of the pictographs (guns!) I could see pretty well from where I stood:

It's a beautiful area, worth a visit.

The bunnies and I took turns startling each other on my hike:

Looking back, from the end of the trail:

And here's a view of Billings from the Rimrocks yesterday morning:

Snow's mostly gone now and the road conditions for the pass we need to get over on our way home now say "scattered wet" and no more "areas of frost and ice." Hope it stays that way.

Frosty Morning

Laura Domela — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 21:06:00 +0000

The frost on the window of the truck this morning. Billings, Montana.

Yellowstone Art Museum, Downtown Billings

Laura Domela — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 16:56:32 +0000

We went into town yesterday to do some laundry at the Speedy Wash laundromat. So. Exciting. We waited while our stuff finished the wash cycle, then while things dried we headed around the corner to check out the Yellowstone Art Museum.

This is a relatively small museum (it is Billings, after all) but they've got a good collection of contemporary art. We were pleasantly surprised.

One of the exhibitions up now is a show entitled: Herb & Dorothy: Fifty Works for Fifty States. Herb and Dorothy Vogel were unlikely art collectors, and if you don't know about them and if you like quirky documentaries, you should check out this fabulous little film.

Late afternoon cityscape I took with my iPhone through the shade screens upstairs in the museum:

We found an Art-O-Mat downstairs in the lobby and got ourselves some $5 art.

We chose a package from our friends at Boxfotos: inside was a print, a pinhole camera (the box), and instructions, woohoo!

We decided we'd stop at a liquor store to replenish our supply of Blanton's and I'd seen this place with all its neon on our way past the other day:

We stopped, but turned out it's not a liquor store…it's a bar and grill. Oh well.