"Flat Land Above Lake"

Kalispell is the name given this area of Montana by the Flathead Indians and its meaning is the title of this bog entry.  The Flathead Indians spoke a language common in the northwest called Salish, or Salishan.  Most of the Salishan dialects are either extinct, or have very few "speakers" left alive today.

Kalispell, Montana---looking toward Glacier National Park

After a soggy last night in East Glacier we decided to wait until close to Noon to leave in order to give the awnings, and the car a chance to dry out a little bit before we stowed them away.  While that slow process was taking place I wrote Friday's blog, dumped the black tank.....this time with none of the excitement of a few days ago, and organized the interior of the trailer to receive the T-Bird one more time.

Our destination for Saturday was Kalispell, Mt located on the west side of Glacier National Park, and just about 30 miles from the entrance to the park.  Originally we only intended to go only as far as Columbia Falls, but when TLE's iPhone stopped working we decided we needed a bigger town with a Verizon store.  Kalispell fit the bill and we began our 88 mile drive there around 11 am.

The countryside continued to be spectacular.....so spectacular it has almost become mundane.  We took a brief rest stop just past the west entrance of Glacier NP, and then continued on the last 35 miles into Kalispell without incident.

There is a large shopping mall on US-93 that has every chain store known to man, including virtually all the "big box" stores like Walmart, Costco, Cabelas, Home Depot, Lowes, etc., including a movie theater.  Initially we had wanted to stay at the Lowes for their free WiFi, but the parking lot was packed, and not too easy to get in and out of, so we continued on about 2 blocks to the Walmart.  I was stunned to see how many RV's were in the Walmart parking lot.....we were arriving around 1 pm and there were no fewer than 30 RV's parked there.....it looked more like a campground.  We found a spot to park, intending to stay until early evening, and then move over to the Lowes lot when it was less crowded.

Once we were settled into our spot we noticed a sign that says, very clearly, "NO UNAUTHORIZED OVERNIGHT PARKING"......I'm looking around at all the RV''s noticing that many look like they've been here a few days, if not a week....motorhomes and trailers with all their slides out.....lawn chairs deployed.....BBQ's out, etc.  I walk over to one gentleman and ask him about the "NO OVERNIGHT" signs and he says that the key to the wording is "UNAUTHORIZED".....there are a lot of locals who try to live in the parking lot during the summer, and they are trying to keep them out.  Transients like us they have no problem with.  The gentleman I spoke with have been in the lot for 5 days.  

Well, okay then....doesn't look like we've got a problem, so we begin our walk over to the Verizon store.....of course it is on the far end of the mall from where we are parked, but it is a nice day, and we have no real schedule to keep, right?  When we arrive at the Verizon store it is full of people buying phones, upgrading phones, getting phones fixed, etc., but we are quickly met by a young lady with  an iPad in her hands who logs us in and then asks how she can help us.....TLE shows her the dead iPhone and tells her how it just shut itself off suddenly and won't come back on.  She holds down two buttons for about 60 seconds and suddenly a little "lightning bolt" appears on the screen.  She then plugs it in using TLE's charging cord, and says she'll let it charge up for a few minutes and then see what is wrong.  In about 15 minutes she calls us over and shows TLE how virtually every program on the phone is running in the background, and then shows her how to close them.  Apparently TLE's iPhone had reached its limit after about 5 months with too many programs running and just shut down.  Well, at least it was a simple problem and didn't require the removal of the fresh water tank to fix it......lol!

From there we decided to walk over to the Lowes parking lot to get a firsthand look at it, and decided we would just stay put at the Walmart.  Right next door was the Costco....we haven't been in a Costco since Indianapolis back in May, so we went in and got a few things, then walked back to the coach to deposit them.  Then we walked into the Walmart to transfer some money to them, too.  About this time TLE realizes that when the Verizon lady returned her charging cord to her she did not give her the part that plugs into the electrical outlet, so we took our purchases from Walmart and then walked all the way back to the Verizon store to retrieve the plug.  

On our way back we walked by the movie theater to see what was playing.....they had "2 Guns", a Mark Walhberg film, starring Mark and Denzel Washington, that we had wanted to see so we decided we would walk back over around 7 pm to see it.

By the time we had returned to the coach it was after 3:30, and it seemed like we had walked miles....well maybe a couple anyway.  TLE said she was hungry and had seen a Mexican restaurant called Bahio's Mexican Grill right in the Walmart parking lot so we headed over for a late lunch/early dinner.  They fix your order right as you are going through the order line to your specifications, including making the flour tortillas right in front of you.  We each got our enchilada's just the way we like them.  We actually had two enchilada plates with rice and beans, chips and salsa, and two Negra Modello beers for $20.....a good deal.....I love the NO SALES TAX in Montana!

By the time we got back to the coach it was almost 5:30 so I took a nap while TLE played with her resurrected iPhone.  Around 7 we walked over to the CineMark 14 theater to see "2 Guns".  We enjoyed the movie as we pretty much have enjoyed most of Mark Walhberg's films.

As we walked back to the coach we were stunned to see how many more RV's had come into the parking lot....I think there were in excess of 60 RV's of all makes and descriptions.  There were a few people out sitting around a portable fireplace, and others just sitting in lawn chairs......like I said, it looks more like an RV park than Walmart.

We turned in around 11 pm....there was remarkably, little noise, and we fell asleep quickly....looking forward to Sunday, and some more exploration!

Thanks for stopping by!