Oh, my. The internet connections on our trip do stink. Fortunately, the scenery does not.
Manskills is becoming quite the wildlife photographer. On our last day in St. Mary (East Glacier), we drove partway up the Going to the Sun Road at dusk and on the way back down stopped in time to see a black bear up on the nearby hillside. We got out of the car and followed him along, hearing him crunch bark and shake the bushes. I was madly calculating just how far we would have to run to the car if he started toward us, but my braveheart partner just kept clicking. Fortuately, Mr. Bear was much more interested in a natural dinner than in us.
Our next adventure took us to Canada. Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta sits astride the international boundary and is called a Peace Park. The view from our campsite in Waterton Township was awesome--bordering a huge lake and surrounded by beautiful peaks. The Divine Miss M was in dog heaven--the place was covered in green grass and innundated with ground squirrels. She felt that it was her official duty to sniff every hole. I was just praying that she didn't get her nose nipped. We also had deer right in the park, close enough to get pictures.
Waterton Lakes has a couple of nice drives available. Red Rock Canyon was pretty--it gets bad when you have seen so many awesome places that you rank a gorgeous canyon as pretty. Then we took another drive to Cameron Lake--wow. It nestles in a glaciated bowl surrounded by peaks. It comes in a close second to Lake Louise--which, in my humble opinion, is the most beautiful scene on the planet. Just shows, you never know what's around the bend.
My favorite part of Waterton was the ranger talk. We had a perky Canadian girl who would have made a great first grade teacher. You may sense where this is going. Her talk was called "Where the Wild Things Are" and she connected aspen trees, elk, and wolves within the ecosystem. (Her bachelor's degree is in Eco-tourism--great idea with all of Canada's supreme national parks.) Anyway, Miss Ranger had laid out a lot of props and during the course of her power point, asked the audience to participate in acting out various roles. To my total amazement, Manskills (aka Mr. Reserved) acted out (as an audience member) the role of a bull elk--complete with hand antlers and bellowing--for at least ten minutes!!! Just when you think you know your spouse...I am still laughing at that memory.
We had the joy of coming back through US Customs after we left Waterton. Canadian Customs were a breeze--guess they want our tourist bucks. We were in the RV line and it took at least 30 minutes (10 minutes per vehicle) just to get through. We politely answered all their questions (of course--we're not crazy) and handed them the key to the trailer. They confiscated my cherry tomatoes (from TJ's) because they came from Mexico. Guess it's all right to eat them in California, but not in Montana. We were given a list of no-no products and I had to laugh. He didn't take my wilted green onions. Maybe they do take the stuff home for dinner...
We stopped back in Glacier, unhooked the trailer at the Visitor's Center, took off the extra mirrors (yeah, Manskills is getting quick about this) and drove up the Going to the Sun Road to the summit at Logan Pass. They are very restrictive about vehicles on this road. Many years ago, Bob's mom, bless her, lost a side mirror on their motorhome trying not to graze a car on the other side. Nowadays, she couldn't have driven the road in it. This year set a record for the latest opening of the road due to snow. Traffic wasn't too bad, but it was a zoo at the VC. The snow was piled at least ten feet high and they had shoveled little paths between the drifts. Some brave souls walked up on the ice, but I know how slippery it can be, so we opted out. Still amazing--in thirty minutes you go from windy prairie to deep snow.
On another subject, do you know which fast food place has the most restaurants? No, not McDonald's, we read recently. It's Subway. We can confirm that statistic. We have traveled through some podunk towns and there is often no McD's, but there is a Subway--even in Canada. Go figure. At least, we can hope that their food is somewhat healthier.
We are definitely like the horses returning to the stable. We have opted out of taking a more lengthy scenic route home, and are instead pretty much high-tailing it south. We're in Spokane tonight and will wend our way home through eastern Washington and Oregon. It's warmer here, but at least we haven't noticed any mosquitoes. Thank goodness for small favors.
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