Day 21

Guys, I'm not sure why there aren't any pictures for today, but there just aren't.  How about a dog?

;D

Up at 8:15am.  That granola sure comes in handy and I was glad we hadn’t just had it yesterday.  The van was packed and we were out by 11:30.  We stopped at the visitor center to check in maybe a ranger had picked up Joshua’s chair.  I flipped through some of the field guide on the shelf and recognized some of the flora I’ve been seeing.  Boy do I love a good field guide!  I also found a memoir about a girl who worked the trail crews in Glacier.  I was tempted to buy it, but $17 on something I’d probably read once made me strong.  :)

At the entrance station we got an access pass because Mom has a permanent disability.  It gets free entry for the vehicle, free tours and such for Mom, and half price camping for the vehicle.  Apparently not all agencies give half price camping on the annual pass that we already had.  It was nice to get that a bit more nailed down.  

From there we set sights on Kalispell.  Again.  It’s a handy town … and I’m ashamed of how much time we spend there.  My pride doesn’t bother so much when I spend an hour or 2 popping in and out of little shops … I love walking the main street.  But when you’re talking a straight up city … not so much.  We did stop in Columbia Falls at SunDrop Health Foods.  That is one fantastic little store!  My favorite so far.  It’s along the lines of the Sunshine Market in Moutain View, about twice the size, and they have an incredible selection.  Just about anything you could possibly want, and they have at least 3 varieties to choose from!  They’ve got pretty good prices.  

We got a new tire at Les Shwab and poked our heads in the Goodwill.  Typical big city Goodwill … too pricy for my scruples.  I got another half gallon of milk and some pecans at Natural Grocers.  We to the Ski Haus which was a Cabelas-ish store.  Mom was looking stuff sacks and I was still looking for a good deal on Merino glove lines … though I haven’t needed them yet.  I may just give up on that.  They had all the nice outdoor brand clothes, another section with brands I’m not familiar with …. it wasn’t outdoor stuff, more trendy … I’d call it urban tatters.  :)  You know the shirts with all cut out or bleached designs, could be kinda cute, but a little to dark and a lot to impractical.  I did find a denim shirt with a bleached design that got inspired me to go find a shirt at the thrift store and buy a bleach pen.   

It was getting late and we decided to eat out.  So we sat in the Five Guys parking lot for maddeningly to long and dried to decide whether to eat there or Panda Express.  I’ve been pretty good about putting a space there, so that stuff provides more amusement than irritation for me.  It also provides some vision for how I would like to improve stuff like that in my own life.  

I had my string bean chicken and ran goons while Jeremiah drove to the gas station.  I bought another bag of ice.  Jeremiah was standing there with both ice bags (dry bags) drained and ready when I walked out.  I like that guy.  

I drove up to Bowman while he ate his dinner.  We took a different road … not sure what it was called, but it was to the west of Camas Road.  It was incredibly rough.  Wash board everywhere, you couldn’t get away from it, going slowly wasn’t worth the trouble.  We got up there at 9pm, were decisional challenged about which campsite to choose.  I was tired and started unpacking once we had a bit of consensus about what everyone thoughts as best.  We could move to our second choice tomorrow night if we wanted!  :)