Hi Everyone!

We are doing well and are still enjoying our travels. We stay very busy and time sure flies on the road! It has been a while since our last post, and we wanted to give you an update on our recent trip to the great state of Montana.

We came here to experience the landmarks and nature this state has to offer, and particularly to see Glacier National Park. Glacier Park is a 1,500+-square mile beautiful wilderness area in Montana's Rocky Mountains. Craig was really looking forward to going across the park by way of the famously narrow and winding 50-mile, Going-to-the-Sun Road. Unfortunately, this primary feature was closed and we did not get to make that drive, nor see the glaciers there, because of the abundance of unmelted snow that remained on the road. We hope to come this way again sometime and experience many features of the northwest that we’ve missed for one reason or another. But we’re not complaining because wherever we go, we always find fun and exciting things to do.

After crossing the state line, it did not take us long to learn Montana is huckleberry country. Huckleberries grow wild all over the state, much like blackberries do in many other states. They're delicious and like blueberries or many other fruits, are used to make everything from jams and jellies to lip gloss, salad dressing, beer, and gin. Bears are known to love huckleberries, and there just happens to be more grizzlies here than anywhere else in the lower 48 states, which brings us to our next story.

We didn't get to see glaciers, but another experience at Glacier park may have made up for it—the bear encounter. One day while leaving the park, we spotted the bear pictured above, walking in an embankment beside the road. As we slowed to look, the bear came our way, right in front of the truck. Craig slowed more to let the bear decide where he would go. To our surprise, he didn't "go" anywhere, but continued to walk on the pavement in front of us. We eased along behind him for a while, but with traffic starting to back up, we decided we should pass him. However, when we did, the bear began to run. When we slowed down, he began to walk, and when we sped up, he ran again. It was clear he didn't want to be passed. This cycle went on a few more times, and at one point, he even ran back and forth across the road in front of us. Not wanting to frustrate the bear, we continued to creep slowly. We then decided we must pass the bear, and as we got closer, he stood up by a tree stump and seemed to take his frustrations out on the stump, clawing quickly and aggressively, causing wood chips to fly as we passed. The bear was annoyed, but we didn’t know what else to do.. On our way out, we let the ranger know that back behind us, a 300-pound, ticked-off bear was destroying a stump right beside a traffic jam. Since everyone, including us, is delighted to just get to spot a bear, for even a second, this was quite an experience! We were exhilarated and were the envy of our RV camp neighbors when we returned with our story and pictures! 😂 Be sure to watch the video below for more of our bear footage. 🐻

Below we've shared a few more highlights of our time in Montana. And our video shares even more. Next, we will continue to travel west to Washington and Oregon. We are excited about this part of the journey because we will finally reach the beautiful Pacific coast and because our children, Kevin and Rachel, and Curtis have scheduled trips to come and see us! 

See you soon! 💗