Day 37

Up at 8am and rested until 9am.  I do not want to have a cold!  

Frozen rain on the tyvek.

Shelter somebody built and looks to have done a pretty smart job!  There were only a few wet spots inside.

French toast and bacon for breakfast and then waited around for the body shop to call.  

I gathered laundry, did dishes, got out hummus and chips for lunch, stowed the fabric I’d bought along with some other things I’d bought and wasn’t using.  Jeremiah finally called the body shop and got an appointment for 3:30pm.  We left for Missoula around 1:30pm.

Mom and Jeremiah did some shopping at Michaels and I went to the pet store to price dry dog food options.  The canned stuff is a bit expensive.  We got bread and 2 discounted bear claws at Wheat Montana Bakery and did the grocery shopping at NG.  We all got on our computers until time to go to our appointment.  

This guy made me think of you, Jake.  :)  Best of luck to you tomorrow!

Just as we were pulling in, I got a text from Katie asking to talk.  I just love that girl!  But I think I did catch the rest of my cold sitting out on a pile of rocks near the parking lot so we could talk.  I’m ok with that.  There was a walking trail on the other side of the fence and all kinds of interesting people came by.  A guy dressed in black with long hair and an open ankle length coat striding along as if he had a castle to save, a bicyclist with all the pariphinalia, a teenager on a trick bike, and … a gentleman meandering along, reading a book, and, for reals, being walked by his cat.  I didn’t notice the cat at first, just thought it was interesting that he was walking and reading.  Then saw the black and white cat when he stopped to wait for it.  The guy sat down on a bench to wait for the cat, only to get up a moments later when the cat continued walking.  

From there a Walmart trip, Good Foods just to check it out (did buy a few things including sprouts), Sportsman’s Warehouse, and Cabellas.  I was feeling fairly sick and snuffly by this time. 

We got back to camp around 9 after listening to The Hobbit on the way back.  It was quite cold and we all sat in the car while Jeremiah finished altering the oven dome, listening to The Hobbit, and catching up on trip notes.  Jeremiah offered to make dinner so I could rest and he could mess with his cooking apparatus to his heart’s content.  I got pretty tired, so I stashed my plate and spork under my cot, took out my contacts, and burrowed in.  There was already a good layer of frost on the tent, so I had put all my cold weather gear on: thermals, pants, snow pants; wool base layer, fleece, down vest, down coat; two pair of wool socks, two wool hats, scarf, and wool gloves.  It did it’s job.

Mom woke me when dinner was ready and dished me up some rice and curry. I ate and prompted went bak to sleep.  I’m not sure what time it was, but I do know it was after 11pm. 

Day 36

In the middle of the night, I woke with something inside me cringing at the almost echo of dripping water on my pillow.  I rolled over, then I heard it again.  Blasted.  I felt my pillow and rubbed the the beads of water into my pillowcase.  I felt along the tent above me.  Nothing.  I laid back down suspiciously.  There it was again.  So I got up.  I’ve slept many a night in cheap Ozark Trail tents and never gotten dripped on and here I am in a tent that I won’t tell you how much it cost.  Getting dripped on.  I traced the source to the zipper where the wind was blowing it underneath the zipper cover.  I cinched down the liner until it was touching the zipper, hoping It would run down the liner instead of onto me.  I’d woken everyone by the creaking of my cot as I as I stood on it feeling around well aware that if I shifted to far forward the thing would collapse, and by shining my headlamp around.  Jeremiah pointed out the weakness of the zipper after Mom had tried to convince me that it wasn’t dripping.  *insert angry cat noises*  :)

I burrowed back into my sleeping bag and did some thinking and praying as I tried to go back to sleep.  I woke with a start a 8:50am.  40 minutes to get on the road for church.  

I promptly started raining.  I was quite grateful for the mud-colored embroidery  on the bottom edge of my skirt as I leaned into the van to throw away a cream cheese box.  I cut my thumb as I was slicing bagels on top of the cooler using the hatch as an umbrella.  I taped it up and hurried on making a to-go breakfast for everyone.  Everyone was finally in the car by 9:45.  We stopped at the wrong building first off and finally found Emmanuel Chapel on the second go around.  There were only 3 families and a few others there.  Later we were told that the other 5 families were in Missoula at the Reformation Celebration there or in Moscow for a prospective student orientation. 

After church, we went to Sportsman’s Warehouse to try to find something to help us cook inside the tent without making messes.  We got gas and ice and went to the Good Samaritan Thrift Store again. Mom decided she would get the odd words dictionary for Grandpa.  I found some fabric.

Back at camp...

"Walking the dogs", he says.

Started a jar of hopefully alfalfa sprouts yesterday!

... we managed to get packed, lunch made and on the road in an hour and forty minutes.  We headed toward Missoula.  The hills that way are beautiful … dark blue with bright yellow trees, little homesteads nestled here and there … one in particular had two large pigs, a bunch of chickens, several colorful goats, and some sheep all in the same grassy lot, a very happy little picture.  The larger stretches of bottom lands were sprinkled with cows and large herds of sheep, even a few haflingers.  The weathered wood of the barns is lovely, lines of dark brown and golden yellow, not at all gray.  

I got a thing for snow fences, especially this style.

I'd love to know how they make these!

The high school football field in Drummond was squished on the west side of the road where they had eked out a flat spot before the hill shot up again on the other side.  It made me laugh, the flattest spot I’d seen in ages!  

We went through Missoula about 6pm, then Lolo and Florence.  

We got to the Charles Waters Campground up Bass Creek Road about 7pm. 

I cut a piece of Tyvek to go over the picnic table to prepare dinner on since everything was soaking wet and dirty here.  We heated up some roasted red pepper and tomato soup in the tent to try out the oven dome.  Then outside, I sautéed some broccoli stems which went in the soup along with a can of black beans.  Feta cheese got sprinkled on top and we had that with grilled cheese.  

I started coming down with a whopper cold.  I took everything we had except garlic.  I didn’t feel like draggin it out and chopping it up.  The boys rigged up a rope full for the tipi zipper.  It works very well and we don’t have to crawl to the edge of the tipi and get wet agains the side wall to get out anymore!  Joshua staked out the bottom third of the tipi so we’d have more room before the liners hit the tipi wall since that’s about the level our cots are at.  It rained intermittently all evening.  

Jeremiah and I told each other it would be way much work for the other person to do dishes tonight.  I’d have to wash dishes and he’d have to pull down the shower bag from under the canoe and get it rigged up so I could rinse them.  We both happily went to bed.  ;)

To bed about 11pm and slept very bundled up.

Day 35

Jeremiah and I popped out of bed just before 8am.  We got ready and scooped granola, planning to eat on the road.  Mom and Joshua got in the van 10 minutes after the last minute.  Joshua had been advocating packing up the tent before we left since we were considering camping else where.  He got out-voted and we rumbled our way into Helena about 9:15am.

Jeremiah dropped all of us off at the thrift store, agreeing that we’d meet up at Natural Grocers.  I found a short the color of a stormy sky and brown Mary Jane sketchers both of which I bought. 

I passed up a brown sweater that had a really interesting cut, and a pretty green one with a big collar that was half acrylic.  :/  Mom found a book, A Moose for Jessica, which I remember reading when I was little.  Bought that to.  Mom bought a bigger pot for our camp cooking and we even found a lid that fit!

Jeremiah came back just as we were walking to NG.  Joshua had already gone over there to start downloading The Hobbit recording by Rob Inglis, another Annie and Jonathan recommendation.  Jeremiah and Mom went back to the thrift store and found a $15 lamp with a metal shade that just might work as a hood for the stove inside the tent. 

We hung out at NG for a while, decided to camp another night at Moose Creek and use the afternoon for a trip to see the mountains around Anaconda, MT.  

We took a road just before Anaconda toward Wisdom, MT.  The mountains were the most beautiful I’ve seen yet! 

 Lots of hunters around.  There was a game check station, a guy in a camper trailer with a white board chart hung on the side.  I thought that would be a great job.  You’d get to see what everyone bagged and hear all the great stories!  

Some lunch!

Makin' that minivan legit!

Yep.

This, folks, is a magic tent stake.  It opens the hatch.  Photobomb by Litterer

We went back on a different road up through Deer Lodge.

Another thingymabobber.

Quesadillas have been on the menu and we finally had them tonight!  Cheddar cheese, diced red peppers (from Dawn) and onions, canned TJ’s chicken.  So tasty with sour cream on top!  Wishing for some salsa and guacamole …. :)   

Another whiteman fire kept us from running to the tipi first thing when it started spitting rain.  It did eventually chase us in.