Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Our Montana Vacation (part 1)

We got to escape the heat of the the Phoenix valley for a little while this summer. Almost 2 whole weeks. We left the last week of June on a Thursday night and drove straight through like we always do. I have to say that the last 6 hours of our 21 hour drive are almost painful.
I took lots of photos of my view from the front seat of the truck.
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As soon as we crossed the border, I took a picture of the first Montana snow-capped mountain. Beautiful. From here we only have about 4 more hours of driving until we make it to Plains.
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Our windshield has collected some of the native insects. I’m very happy to see the sign that lets me know we are almost there.
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Love the green hills up ahead.
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This is the Clark Fork River. It is so swollen from all the snow melt. It’s flowing FAST and it’s muddy.
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I had to throw this picture in here. This is down the street from my mom-in-law’s house. I LOVE it. I should have knocked on the door of the house and asked if they were interested in selling it. Don’t ya just love the wings?
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Here’s another view of the Clark Fork as seen from the bridge in Plains.
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It’s Tina (Fat Lard). These folks also had some miniature horses.
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Isn’t it adorable?
We went to the cabin after the weekend. I was looking forward to seeing all the work that Jacob and his cousin Brittany had accomplished during their 2 weeks before the families arrived.
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There used to be a shed right where Jacob is standing. He and Brit had muscled that thing down during many trips back and forth from Plains.
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Katy Lou had to get a permit so we could burn all the scrap lumber and the kids each helped to chop some of the wood into fire pit sized chunks. The rest would be for the bonfire later.
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Tell me who doesn’t enjoy a good bonfire? This picture does not do that fire justice. It was BIG and it made so much black smoke (probably creosote in those old railroad ties). I half expected the fire service to show up.
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When dinner time rolled around about 3 hours later, Jacob decided to use it to cook his hotdog. Those coals were pumping off some serious heat, so he found himself some protection. LOL!
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No trip to the cabin is complete without having s’mores.
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Check out the wood burning stove. After our first night, Jason fired it up and cooked us all some bacon. He’s awesome.
The kids did so much work that they were done after one night and we ended up going on to Kalispell later on this day.
To be continued…..