The Tetons haven’t been a disappointment, but our experience hasn’t been what people talk about, for sure. No Bear Bell Pictures of Banjo and my morning walk are grand, yes. But we lost her bear bell at Yellowstone, and, mysteriously, not only does no one sell them around here, but all the shops say, “We […]
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Doing It All in the Tetons
We had a super efficient travel day when we left Yellowstone! We pulled out of that quiet campground at the crack of dawn, drove through the park on it narrow and winding road (amazingly, towing the trailer), used the dump station and potable water at a campground in the park, and then drove straight to […]
Stand in the Place Where You Are
Your feet are going to be on the ground. Your head is there to move you around, so stand. REM Missoula Then and Now To me, this town is filled with ghosts: unpublished writers, slacker pool players, crystal jewelry purveyors, and long-dead mining engineers. People I knew 30 years ago. I keep seeing them in crowds. […]
Perpetual Stranger in a Strange Land
I’ve a friend who lives in her Airstream but travels less than we do; she and her husband own a parking pad in a little Airstream community that they use as a home base. So we share quite a bit in terms of lifestyle, but we also live very differently within that lifestyle. What’s funny is […]
Missoula Shows Its Quality
Two quick pieces of background before I get to the point of this post. Towns Change; We Change You know that I lived in Missoula, Montana for grad school and loved it, but, when we visited a few weeks ago, I found it crowded, with terrible traffic. So we spent most of our time at […]
We Think We’re Such Badasses (Hiking to Bluebird Lake)
We decided not to hike the local trail here outside Eureka after Tracy rode his bike up and back and found evidence of the reported grizzly bear all along the way. Tree branches pulled down so the bear could get better access to the chokecherry bushes. Mounds of fresh scat. When Tracy rode the trail […]
All the News from Lake Koocanusa
It’s been a quiet week here at Lake Koocanusa. Wait, wrong part of the country! Plus it’s been only a weekend since I posted last. But we’ve enjoyed the weekend, and it’s worth sharing, especially with real-world news depressing enough to need a reprieve from. Weekend Neighbors Cause Scare The scare is that we had […]
Dodging Forest Fires in the Belt Mountains
We’re not in Oregon dodging that colossal fire—we’re still in Montana. How can you top the Beartooth? Our plan is to head north, cross Glacier National Park on Highway 2 (that we left because of the heat), and see if we can boondock for a good long while at my friend Jess’s family house on Flathead […]
Beartooth Highway
According to Destination Red Lodge, Beartooth Highway is “the most beautiful roadway in America.” Maybe “roadway” is the operative term here, being used in a very specific way, because I sure do enjoy Highway 101 along the Pacific Coast, and The Going to the Sun Road in Glacier Nat. Park, and even Skyline Drive along the […]
Prairies and a Petrified Forest
Goodbye North Unit of Teddy Roosevelt’s Park I’ve been looking forward to getting out west for a year and three months now, so, in a way, this place has been a dream come true. And by “this place” I mean both the North Unit campground and the park that we’ve driven through and hiked. As […]
