Kalispell redux.....

6:48 am - Tuesday - July 21st - Kalispell, MT - 51° F, 96% humidity, wind - CALM.....crystal, clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 86° F......the view this morning.......↴

.....on this day in 2014 I was at Mammoth Mountain riding my Intense 5.5 in their bike park.....

On the way through Valier to the Lake Frances Campground on Saturday afternoon we noticed there was a self serve car wash with a large RV bay.  We haven't been able to wash the Newell for some time, so when we departed Lake Frances Monday morning around 9 am our first stop was that car wash.  It costs 25 cents per minute, but is well worth the cost.  As I was rinsing off the Newell I noticed the water was nice and hot so on the spot I decided to also give the big rear facing radiator a good cleaning.  By 9:45 am we were back on the road heading northwest toward Kalispell, MT on Montana 44 to US-89, which would take us to US-2 in Browning, MT and then around the southern edge of Glacier National Park to Kalispell.  As has been the case the past few driving days the views did not disappoint......

....as we approached Browning, MT the mountains came into full relief once again, and soon we were back in the coniferous forest gliding along beautiful mountain rivers.....

Middle Fork of the Flathead River

.....Browning, MT is in the middle of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, and the eastern gates to Glacier National Park, which are all on Reservation land are closed at the time due to the Wuhan virus.  Our destination for the day was the Elks Lodge in Kalispell, MT located on the north end of Flathead Lake.   There are no reservations at this Elks Lodge, so we arrived not knowing if one of the 10 sites would be vacant, and available......there was just one single site left......it always works out for us......😋 

....these are all 'back in' sites, but we opted to pull in nose first to face the mountains and the local municipal airport.  We were here (Kalispell, not the Elks Lodge) back in July of 2013 for about a week.  Kalispell is a Salish Indian word meaning 'flat land above the lake'.....the lake in this case being Flathead Lake.

Once we were set up we found a local micro brewery, Sunrift Beer Company, at which to take a leisurely late afternoon lunch.  Yelp gives them 4.5 stars on 30 reviews, but we would be right at 4 stars.  As is often our habit, we ordered a flight of brews to sample.  Flights can vary from 4-6 brews, and in this case it was 4.  We sampled (from right to left) their Blonde Bomber, Coconut Heff, Sundown Honey Brown, and Sol-Gravy Stout.....

.......we loved them all, but both settled upon the Sundown Honey Brown to pair with our late lunch choices.....

 Great alfresco dining!

....a spinach salad for TLE, and a Caesar for moi.  We added a plate of sweet potato fries for good measure.....

......they have a lovely covered alfresco dining area, which really sealed the deal when we were trying to decide between three local breweries....we'll check the others out later in the week.  The food, service and atmosphere were top notch....a perfect way to while away a lazy Monday afternoon.  We were home by 4:30 pm thoroughly pleased with our decision to visit Sunrift.

We had a subtle sunset, and a quiet evening spent reading, and watching another Hallmark movie.  Life is good....we'll be here at least 5 days, perhaps a week....time to slow down and smell the roses, or the brews, whatever happens float your boat.....:-)

 Thanks for stopping by!

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Whoooosh......

6:50 am - Sunday - July 20th - Valier, MT - 49° F, 90% humidity, wind 8 mph out of the west by northwest......partly cloudy today with a forecast high in Valier, MT of 74° F.....we roll our wheels in 2 hours....the view this morning......I love empty campgrounds.....↴

I took out the drone again Sunday to get an aerial perspective of the Lake Frances Campground, and surrounds.....

 

...and am throwing in a short video as a bonus.  It was a beautiful 80° day in Valier, MT, and as is often the case on Sundays in most campgrounds around America the proverbial 'vacuum' was activated, and by 1 pm the campground was empty of all but the long term folks.....you could almost hear that 'whoooshing' sound as one RV after another rolled out of the campground.........

.....I spent the morning working on a few minor projects, including doing some of my own vacuuming in the trailer.  I also cleaned the rear A/C condenser of a year's worth of lint buildup, and installed a new air filter.  The air flow increased immediately, which means the job was a success.  Additionally, using my new windshield squeegee purchased at the Sheridan, WY Super Walmart last week I cleaned the bug apocalypse from Saturday's drive off the front windshield, and nose of the coach.  By the time I was done with all that it was time to get out the outdoor TV and watch the final round of the Memorial Golf Tournament won ultimately by John Rahm by 5 strokes.....he was up by as many as 8 strokes on the back 9, and by as few as 3 strokes as he made a few mistakes, and the chasers made birdies....pulling away on the last hole. Tiger and Phil both finished well outside the top 10.  Only 10 golfers finished at, or under par....the course made the best of them look like amateurs. 

TLE and I took our 4th walk in as many days around 7:30 pm.....the skies were beginning to look threatening, and we even were pelted by a few drops on our walk, but it never really rained.  We did, however, get a small rainbow......

....the sunset looked like it was going to light up the skies, but this was as good as it got, which, when you think about it, is not too bad at all......

.....we'll be rolling our wheels again on Monday to Kalispell, MT the home of Flathead Lake....we were last there in July of 2013....it does not feel like like 7 years.

Thanks for stopping by!

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'The long and winding road........'

8:45 am - Sunday - July 19th - Valier, MT - 62° F, 48% humidity, wind 10 mph out of the northwest......clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 80° F......on this date in 2013 we were at the Columbia Ice Fields in Alberta, Canada.......↴

......the view this morning.......↴

 Lake Frances (Valier, MT) 

After rain most of the night the dawn broke very clear, and cool....a perfect driving day.  We were on the road a tad after 9 am driving to the fairgrounds to Central Ave. where we turned left to make the run uphill to US-191.  On our way we stopped briefly at the Napa Automotive/Hardware store to exchange our 36" fluorescent tubes for the correct 48" variety, then we were on our way once again.  As was the case on Wednesday US-191 continued to amaze......the never ending long and winding road.......

....after about 36 miles we transitioned to US-87 which continued to elicit 'oooohs and ahhhhs' as we trundled northwest toward Great Falls.......

We saw thousands of acres of 'rapeseed', an interim crop.  You see a lot of this in Southern Alberta....fields of gold stretching for miles in all directions

.....our total mileage for Saturday was around 202, so we took a couple of breaks at Rest Areas to break up the drive, and stretch our legs......

.....eventually we came to the outskirts of Great Falls, and something we have not seen for quite sometime.....traffic signals.....one after another for about 8 miles as we slowly edged toward I-15 to head northbound to the small burg of Valier, MT, and our destination for the day of Lake Frances.........

....we arrived just minutes after Claude and Gail who had driven the 55 miles from Choteau, MT to meet us as we continue our tandem journey.....

....the Lake Frances Campground is first come, first served, so there was some concern on our part about getting a couple of sites on a Saturday, and as we approached the campground on Lake Street those fears were realized....the place was packed....but never fear....it always works out.....Claude and Gail had already snagged a two site package enabling us to park with our patios facing each other.  For $25/night you get a lake view and 30 amp electric......score!  

Before parking we utilized the onsite dump station to discharge our effluent from the past 4 5 days, and then backed into our site.  The view (see the picture above called 'the view this morning') is nothing at which to sneeze.  Lake Frances is an irrigation reservoir providing boating, and fishing opportunities, as well as camping with electric, or dry camping if you prefer....the dry camping is free, just like the boat ramp, and other related facilities.

Just before sunset TLE and I took a long walk over to the boat launching area, and back to the far end of the campground.......

.....this is the first time in a while we have been in a position to see a sunset with the big horizon as the backdrop.  We returned to find that Claude and Gail had started a campfire, so we retrieved our chairs, along with adult beverages and joined them until after 10:30 pm.....a great end to another nomadic day wandering around the hinterlands of Montana.

Thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which over the course of a year adds up to enough to by a tank of diesel for which we thank you very much!