Ramblin’ Ramblings

LONG drive day… We left the RV park at 7:30am, dropped off the rental car, got the obligatory pix in front of the Glacier NP sign which we had not gotten yesterday. By 8:05 we left for Lake Easton, WA. Betsy estimates our arrival time at 4:40pm. Of course, that would be if we drove straight through. We’ll probably add 1-2 hours to that.

RAIN! We awoke to rain this morning shortly before 4am. My waking thought was “Oh, gosh I hope UN-faithful doesn’t leak.” I got up to use the restroom and realized we had left 2 of our 3 ceiling air vents open. Of course, we had some wet floors but no big deal.

Another God moment last night: Parker was washing his dishes ….his dishes, see we bought these plastic plates at Wal-Mart – 4 plastic plates for $0.94 and 4 large plastic cups for $0.94, now that is a bargain, I love Wal-Mart. For some reason we bought 8 of each. Why 8? I don’t know. Were we expecting company? So anyway since we have these cheap plastic plates, I decided we would put our initials on them. You know, monogrammed to make them more “up scale”. So everyone has his own plate, cup, and bowl - if you eat off of it YOU wash it. ANY WAY! Parker was washing his stuff and he said, ”Mom, this is the funniest trip we’ve been on, more funny things have happen on this trip than any other trip we’ve been on”. You know, we are having fun. Despite all of the hiccups along the way. Yesterday was just the greatest – we were walking along the trail in Glacier just being – just being together – the boys climbing on rocks, jumping over fallen trees, taking pictures of BIG bear poop – this is why we are here. What a glorious time in a glorious place.

And so how is UN-faithful doing? She’s doing fairly well. She started right up this morning and the slides came in. Who could ask for more? And our toilet isn’t leaking. Life is good. Have I told you that we had to replace our low toilet with a standard height one? This may surprise you but the RV repair place in West Yellowstone had a limited supply of things. So it was this or nothing. There is a little riser in our restroom that the toilet sits on. It was perfect for the low one but now it is a tippy-toe experience. My toes barely touch – the boys, well, they get to dangle. Yep, I agree with Parker – it has been a funny trip. But the toilet works and that’s what counts. UN-faithful now seems to have a slight problem with her leveling jacks. Poor thing, I think she is just tired. When we stop for the evening Ray puts the leveling jacks down. By dinner time they start to slip. Just one loud groan at a time, every hour or so. Bless her heart! And Enrique, our RV delivery guy, hit something on the way to us and knocked off the right side mirror. His solution was to buy Gorilla Tape (one step above Duct Tape). He taped the mirror to the RV. There is NO falling off – it is secure – secure, but poorly angled. Ray can see the passing country side from the driver’s seat. Lovely view, but not very functional. However, that gorilla tape has proved rather useful. We taped our $0.88 Wal-Mart thermometer (accurate to within 10 degrees) to the outside window. NO falling off. And we have a misbehaving kitchen drawer. Last night when Ray was trying to fix it, he pulled out the screw driver, I suggested the tape! I’m slightly worried about future uses for this tape, but we have it. By the time we reach San Jose we may be held together with tape.

Montana sure is a big state. Sunday we drove all day and traversed the state from south to north (the short way). Today we drove FOREVER on Hwy 90 from Montana through Idaho and into Washington. That has to be the longest, most boring road ever. We stopped for a mid-afternoon nap at a Rest Area. One of the joys of RVing.

We got to Lake Easton State Park around 7pm. It was worth the drive. What a beautiful gem. The camp is around a gorgeous little lake. We walked down to a nicely maintained playground by the lake and then found that if we just walked over the hill behind our campsite that we were overlooking the lake. Time for another of those God moments. While we were sitting on the hill looking over the lake Preston asked if we couldn’t have a church service. We had told him on Sunday that we would do a little Bible study but never got around to it. He said he used to not like church but now he did and he missed the preaching. He asked if we could come back up here tomorrow morning for our church service and make Wednesday, Sunday. By ALL means YES!

A black dog barked from the campsite next to ours as we pulled in. As we started on a walk to explore the boys wanted to go say hi to the dog since they miss Jingle so much. We walked over and introduced ourselves to Denise. Denise is by far the most interesting person we have met so far. Her dog had been mistreated when she found him along the side of the road 3 months ago. As a result he is very afraid of men. The boys slowly approached to pet him. Ray stayed back.
Denise’s camper was a restored 1958 travel trailer. On the back was an emblem reading “Sisters on the Fly”. All of my “Fly sisters” know that interested me. This group of women is all Fly Fishers. They all buy these old travel trailers and restore them – restored they can bring $10-15K. These women rendezvous all over the area for fishing and other activities. The group includes several notable women – heads of corporations, designers of jewelry for the stars, etc. Denise is member #791. She was just returning from one of their events in Idaho and had come here with her dog to unwind.

She let us look in her trailer, named “Chantilly Lace”. It was absolutely adorable. It looked just like something right out of the 50’s: an ice box (not a refrigerator), gas lantern, working gas stove and range, original vinyl dinette bench seats, renovated wood paneling sides and ceiling, feather bed, tiny closet, and a chamber pot “for emergencies”. The only thing not original was the black and white square linoleum floor. Vintage linoleum apparently is very expensive.

I, of course, took several pictures so I could share with my Fly Friends. “Chantilly Lace” was outfitted in her “cowgirl” theme since she had been to Idaho. Her normal décor is fancy with a little hanging chandelier. Denise told us that the group has been featured several places. They are supposed to be on “Good Morning, America” next month. Their website is http://www.sistersonthefly.com/. I suggested that Denise search the web for “FlyLady” (so named because she likes to Fly-fish) – a totally different type group.

We have decided to just go straight on to Leanne’s tomorrow and skip sightseeing in Seattle. We’re going to get up slowly and enjoy this campground.

Gas today #1 $164.02 $3.79/gal