Part 5 Day 26 to Day 29 Home and Special Notice

Day 26 Friday October 8
We went to Gem Mountain to pan for sapphires. Took I-90 East to Montana 1 going through Anaconda. Turned off hwy 1 onto 38 and drove 16 miles to the site. We paid $15 for a bucket of gravel, washed it in a trough, then picked out the sapphires. We got about 30 carats worth out of two buckets. Only four were supposed to be able to be faceted and were about 1 carat each. The others were small. It rained most of the time we were there and cool. Still fun. They tried to sell us heat treating and faceting. Stopped in Anaconda to visit antique shops. Found one that had an amazing amount of stuff of all kinds.

Day 27 Saturday October 9
Left Deer Lodge and headed West on I-90. Spent the night in Osburn at Blue Anchor RV Park space 57. Sunny and nice drive today. Look Out Pass was beautiful. Rained overnight.

Day 28 Sunday October 10.
Left Osburn and headed West on I-90. Rain off and on. Very windy from Vantage to Ellensburg. Spent the night at E & J RV park in Ellensburg space 301A. Went for a swim and hot tub before dinner. Will head for home tomorrow.

Day 29 Monday October 11
Well we made it home in one piece and to beautiful sunsets again at the lake.

Special Notice

For those of you who do not already know, Judy and I are planning to get married on November 27 here in Shelton with a small family get together. We are both very excited about this new chapter in our lives.

Part 4 Day 19 to Day 25

Day 19 Friday October 1
Judy went to a “party” with four of her friends and coworkers from the nursing home. They had a great time I am told. While Judy was gone, I washed the motor home, put the rocks from our rockhounding trip in the basement, washed the windows and vacuumed the floor. Also, discovered a leak. One corner of the basement storage compartment has had a wet spot off and on. I found that there was a leak somewhere between the refrigerator and the hot water tank. Search high and low but could not find out where it was coming from. I shut off the ice maker water at the manifold. Will check in a few days to see if the dripping stops.

Day 20 Saturday October 2
We drove to Conrad Cemetery where Judy’s parents and grandparents are buried. Headed down town to shop, looking in a few stores. Ate lunch at Norms News, infamous 70 year old news stand. We each had a bison burger. Yumm. Better than beef. Back at the motor home we sat out side in the sun and read our books. Ate lamb for dinner. Turned off all water at the manifold except toilet for the night to see if the water leak will stop.

Day 21 Sunday October 3
The leak was still there so assume is in the main water line coming in. Will fill the fresh water tank and use it instead of outside water. As we started out, lots of water came out from under the bottom cover. Rats. We headed out of Kalispell on hwy 35 down to 82 across to US 93. Stopped at Doug Allard’s Flathead Indian museum. The museum was closed but the gift shop had lots of nice stuff. Judy got some beads there and was excited about the quality. Drove south to almost I-90 spending the night at Jim and Mary’s RV Park space A-13. No more leaking so far when using just the fresh water tank.

Day 22 Monday October 4
We went to the Bison Range National Preserve just north of Missoula. It was rainy most of the day. That was the good news. The bad news is that there were a bunch of school busses there since it was the annual bison round up. The visitors center was loaded with kids so we just pick up a map and headed out on a scenic drive bypassing the roundup corral. Most of the drive was closed because of the bison round up. On the drive we saw five elk, one with a big rack, a herd of about 25 antelope and five deer. We drove to the round up corral and most of the school busses were gone so we went for a look. They were tagging, inoculating and segregating the bison. Some were sent back to the range, some singled out for sale, and the females were ultrasonically tested for pregnancy. Very fun place to visit and were lucky to be here for the round up as it occurs the first Monday and Tuesday in October.

Day 23 Tuesday October 5
Left the campground and took I-90 East through Missoula to Deer Lodge exit 184. Took space 57 at Indian Hills RV park and set up the motor home. After lunch we took a drive about town. The three houses we lived in are no longer there. Two were replaced and one was gone. Tried to find the Catholic grade school and low and behold it burned down some years ago. Stopped in a couple of shops and the old prison was not open today for tours. We went to the Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site and took a tour of the ranch house started in 1860 and added on in 1890 to 5000 square feet. They were closing for the day so we did not tour the rest of the ranch building. It is the only working ranch in the National Park System covering 30,000 acres. When we lived here it was still a private working ranch. We had a nice pork chop dinner with fried potatoes, salad and beans. Yumm. Nice day.

Day 24 Wednesday October 6
We decided to go on the Pintler Scenic Route to Philipsburg. Foggy at the start of the trip. Philipsburg is an old mining town which is being restored. Now a tourist trap. Walked around, looked in some stores and headed up into the mountains to the old mining town of Granite where we ate lunch. The fog had finally burned away. Only a few building were left in the town and part of the stamp mill was still there after the superstructure was burned down by the owners for safety reason.. We picked up a few “pretty” rocks there. Finished driving the rest of loop.Anaconda smelter stack worlds tallest even to this day. We had soft tacos for dinner.

Day 25 Thursday October 7
First off we went to the old Montana state prison and took a tour. Judy actually was inside once when she was a nursing student back in 1962. I remember walking outside it when we lived there when I was in the first and second grade. It was an interesting and scary place. There was an auto museum there with 150 cars from 1884 to about 1970. After lunch we went on the Circle Tour which goes 28 miles on the East side of I-90 up into the mountains. As we started up we saw the Zosel pioneer ranch. We drove in and talked to a lady who told us our family friend Clay Zosel was the great grandson of the early settler. This pioneer , beside ranching, discovered a gold/silver mine. Clay and his wife and his brother and wife lived and worked at the new mine site called Emery Mine. I am not sure this is the one we went to when I was a kid. We found the Emery Mine which is closed to the public and found what we think was the original mine site. We picked up some pretty rocks from the tailings. Whee. We then continued on the scenic drive back to Deer Lodge. Wonderful day and the weather was great.

Glacier Trip Part 3 Day 13 to Day 18

Day 13 Saturday September 25 We drove to East Glacier and then took hwy 49 to Two Medicine entrance to the park. The area is a lake surrounded by mountains. We saw lots of mountain goats (none very close) and a couple of mountain sheep. It was very windy due to high pressure coming. It is a very beautiful place. On the way out we took a short hike to Running Bear Falls also known as “Trick” Falls because part if the year the water comes over the top of the wall and in low water times comes though the rock.We left and drove to Browning which is on the Blackfoot Indian Reservation and went to the Museum of the Plains Indians. A very interesting place showing native clothes, implements, and ways they made things and lived. On the way out of Browning we drove past the Blackfoot Bison reserve and saw about a couple hundred bison. Got back late again to the motor home and had pizza for dinner. Day 14 Sunday September 26 Took the day off, sort of. After breakfast, we did the laundry, the first time on the trip. After lunch I washed Goldie who was very dirty, muddy after our trips on the back roads. Noticed one of the tires was low and found and aluminum? something imbedded in the tire. Will go to Les Schwab in the morning. We ate a nice leisurely dinner. After dinner watched Sunday Night Football. Went to bed early in preparation to go to St. Mary on the East side of the park. Day 15 Monday September 27 We went to Les Schwab and got the tire fixed. Somehow picked up a horse shoe nail. Then off to St. Mary on the East side of Glacier park. Drove up to Logan pass where we ate lunch. We headed back down the stopping several places along the way. We went for a hike to St. Mary Falls, a 3.2 mile round trip. Beautiful falls. The drive over and back was spectacular due to all the aspen trees turning yellow, glimmering in the sun. Another fun day. Day 16 Tuesday September 28 We cleaned up the motor home again in anticipation of company for dinner. We went to friends to pick up the clams and salmon we had left in their freezer. We had a very nice dinner with Matt and Linda and enjoyed talking about old times. Day 17 Wednesday September 29 Went rock hounding today. Headed North on 93 from Kalispell to Olney where we headed West into the mountains. We stopped and had a short hike to Martin Falls. The rock hound site was hike about half a mile where we got some “limonite after pyrite” meaning pyrite that had been decomposed by heat and oxygen to iron hydroxide. Very nice weather and had a fun time with sledge hammer and chisel beating on the rock. We got a few nice samples which were fragile and hard to get out intact. Day 18 Thursday September 30 We went with Matt and Linda to Glacier NP and did the Trail of the Cedars walk. Very pretty stroll through cedars along Avalanche Creek. After the hike we drove to Izaak Walton Hotel which is the old railroad train station on hwy 2 at Essex. We had a nice lunch. The place is full of railroad memorabilia.