Going through Montana

Saturday 9/17/2011

We drove to Essex where Don had a room reservation at Half Way Motel.  It’s a sturdy cabin set in the woods and still it has everything! TV, table to type on, coffee.  It was a large room with lots of space and a modern bathroom but very poor internet so once again I cannot upload anything to facebook.  This was a short drive from West Glacier but very pretty which was fine with me.  I was very tired today and was happy to get to the motel with little driving.  However we drove up to Isaac Walton Hotel to look around.  It has a train theme (surprise) , walking in you see a huge stone fire place and fire going with lots of comfy chairs and people sitting reading books and newspapers.  Oh boy I fell in love with this place so comfy and homey feeling so we decided to stay one night here.

September 18 2011

Woke up in Essex at the Half Way Motel.   It had rained overnight and oh boy is it cold, and yes Don is still wearing shorts! Its Sunday so the restaurant next door is closed, so we make do with cold cereal and room coffee that was not very good.  Don was not thrilled with the in room coffee that comes prepackaged so he improvised and made a filter out of a napkin and added some Boyd’s but he added too much and it was mud, but, I still drank it!  

Funny thing the train tracks have been near all of our hotels….hmmm I wonder why that is????  Don planned the whole trip so guess what??? We were following the Amtrak line the whole way.  Good Grief you should see Don every time he hears a train go buy he jumps up and runs out the door.  Just like a little boy!

We drove up to the Isaac Walton Inn and they let us check in early.  Guess what the theme of the motel is?  TRAINS…

In the front there is a Great Northern Caboose and a Engine they converted into hotel rooms.  Don could not wait to get to climb up the engine and take a look inside.  It was amazing what they did with the engine interior.  They had sofas, dining room set, and a stone fire place it was awesome and only 300 dollars a night and a minimum 2 night stay.    Sheesh. 

The Isaac Walton Inn was built by Great Northern Rail Road next to the railroad yard in 1939 for the use of railroad service personnel. It was also intended to serve as an entrance to Glacier National Park between East Glacier and West Glacier.  It is now owned  privately and still kept in the same condition and traditions as it was back then.  There is train memorabilia and history on all the walls and its fascinating to read. 

We parked our bags in our room and went immediately outside to walk around the estate, its resplendent with lawns, flowers, trails and trains all set beneath the lush mountains.    There is a rail yard next to the Inn with trains waiting for this and that and a bridge that overlooks the tracks where we can get a great view of oncoming trains   Above us set in the mountain are several more train cabooses that serve as more rooms for the Inn, as well as several cabins.  It is a bit of a drive to get to these units, or a pretty good walk over the bridge.  For those patrons without a car they will take the customer over the bridge on a motorized  “scooter’’.  These cabooses and cabins are quite a walk  from the Inn itself, so that takes away the “fun’ of being at the Inn.

We had dinner in the “dining car” and then retired to the sitting room where there was a great fire burning the  massive stone fireplace.  We met people from all over the world here, and it was great fun sitting and meeting new people.  Another fun filled adventure with Flennie.  What a fantastic man I married!

While sitting here Don met a retired couple (John and Katherine) that were first time train travelers who were taking the train from White Fish Montana to Chicago,  so he educated them about what to expect on board the train.  They were riding coach, Don let them know the advantages to upgrading to first class and staying in a sleeping car. Katherine was so grateful for the information she had never been on and train and had looked into upgrading but the price quoted to her was astronomical.  Don explained the prices and they looked it up on the internet and she said they would think about it. But more importantly she was happy just to know what to expect while riding.  Yep another good deed done by UD the train traveler!  

9/23/2011 I think.

We woke up in the Izaac Walton Inn, what a fun place to wake up!  We had our coffee and went outside for a look.  The sun was up but it was cold and overcast and starting rain a little. The weather made this place even more breathtaking.  The clouds were rolling down the hills and the rain made the lawns greener and the flowers stand up to take a drink.  Oh it was so pretty we decided to take a walk and not care that we got wet.  Don went up to the bridge overlooking the trains and waited for Amtrak.  It’s a custom here that all the residents of the Inn wave to Amtrak as it goes by,  how fun is that!  Amtrak flew buy and blew its horn, if Don could jump up and down he would have!

Amtrak does stop at the Inn and many people from all over the world come to the U.S to take to the Inn and stay here.  Whether the train is late or on time the Inn provides an shuttle from the flag stop.  A flag stop means the train will only stop if there are passengers getting on or off Amtrak. It’s the only flag stop between Seattle and Chicago.  There is no station -  just a platform passengers disembark onto and the shuttle picks them up and whisks them off to their wonderful stay at the Izaac Walton Inn

Well as always all good things come to an end and this was the end of our stay.  We loaded up our car and away we went to East Glacier.

September 20 2011 WHAT EVER??? I CANNOT REMEMBER.

Woke up late this morning in East Glacier at the Mt. Pine Motel.  This motel is a 1950 motel that is run by a family -  mother father, grandmother and grandsons.  The mother is a verbose person who talks loud and cannot wait for the season end so she can close up shop and leave before the snow.  Oh boy she lets everyone know that when they check in! Very funny. Don has us booked here for 2 nights, this should be fun!

It’s still 44 degrees and Don is STILL WEARING SHORTS.  He did finally say that he would put long pants on today….HA! 

We were getting ready to go when all the sudden we hear bird squawking and flying from tree to tree; then the verbose mother shouting “Yer stirin up the magpies, ya hear? Yer stirin up the magpies” to the cleaning lady who was just pushing her cart to the next cabin.  It was sooo funny.  Don and I were crakin up! 

Next the power went out so we drove up town for breakfast; well the power was out up there also so we had to have Peach Pie and milk for breakfast….yum was it tasty! We ate at the 2 Medicine Grill.  A funky place, the waitress was perky and sweet dressed in a 1950 style dress and hair but had on skull earrings, tats and black keds.  Kinda ironic. 

We are in Blackfeet Indian Country so many of the names of stores and streets have Indian names, like 2 Medicine.

Driving into East Glacier Park itself  we stopped to see some falls and met a very nice ranger.  She took the time answer all my questions about the wildlife and plants.  I really wanted to know what trees we have been seeing they are so pretty.  Turns out they are Aspen and Cottonwood.  They are both sun loving trees that look similar except the Aspen has wide heart shape and the cottonwood has a narrower shaped heart with little points.  The trees were spruce but I noticed that many were brown and dying, she told us that the spruce has a “spruce butt worm” that has been killing the trees.  These worms have only one life cycle but due to the longer warmer season they have been living 2 life cycles there by killing the trees.  This will leave more dead fallen trees and more sun will shine down on the earth: the spruce being shade loving will not germinate and thrive but the Aspen and Cottonwood are sun loving.  So in as little as 10 years the whole area could be filled with Aspen and Cottonwood and much fewer, if any Spruce.   Interesting!

we also learned the names of some of the flowers,

Spotted knapp weed

Pearly Everlasting (great name)

Purple Aster or as the Indians called it Flee Bane.  They used it on their dogs to rid them of fleas.

Snowberrys, so cute and so little

Stinging nettle, will give you a buring rash if you touch it.

Mulberry and huckleberry

Thimbleberry, this flower looks like a thimble.

Yarrow white,  we have yellow here in CA

Chokeberry

One of these the Indians used as TP very cool.

Saying goodbye to the ranger we then walked down a trail to see the falls.  The trail was filled with all sorts of flora and fauna, the park had labeled some with placards citing their Latin name, I love when the parks do this. We reached the end of the trail and saw a bench seated at the edge of the drop with a perfect view of the falls.  The  falls were rolling and splashing  down the mountain into a rocky river filled with fish.  Don and I sat on the bench in the sun, held hands and remarked about the loveliness in front of us and how lucky we are to be here; and with each other.  Yep its times like this that make life wonderful.

Don and I are perfect traveling companions; he loves to drive for hours and I love to look out the window.  So off we drove through East Glacier where we saw more wonderful scenes of lakes, mountains, flowers and trees while listening to jazz…..

The next day we drove through eastern Montana - what a place!  All the Luis Lamoure books came alive for me! The miles and miles of golden  prairies, creeks, streams and big blue sky. I understand now whey they call it big sky country.  The air was filled with the perfume of the wild sage brush a sweet smell with a hint of sage. I could just picture some cowboys riding across the plains.  We followed the Prince Nez trail, there were lots of nature stops along the way.  One stop we made we got out of the car and the crickets were soooo loud I had to video them. Oye,  you should see our windshield and the front of our car a gazillion wings sticking up from crickets and whatever.

We drove through the town  Browning and stopped at an Indian museum and looked around, it was so interesting. Then thru the town of Cut Bank which records the lowest temperatures in the entire nation in the winter.   Then we went thru Havre (pronounced Have r) a big town out here -  so big it even has a hospital.  We stopped at Mc Donald’s for lunch.   Driving thru the prairie there was one thing that followed us the whole way… flies, bees everywhere tons and tons.  Its natural part of people’s lives here.  It’s crazy.   Stopping to have a burger we were standing by our car and were swarmed by flies and bees they wouldn’t stop they just kept coming and coming. 

We finally had to get in our car to finish our burgers. 

At this mc Donald’s in Havre  it seemed the whole town was there.  It was only 12:30 and the place was packed.

We went into the town of Harlem what a great example of small town America.  Just a little town with little houses and small streets.  We stepped into a pizza parlor that also served as an antique shoppe of sorts, they really were not antiques.  I just had to look around….and yes I found some pyrex salt and pepper shakers from the 1970s   I just had to have.  Don just shrugged at me like “really?”.

Don wanted to continue to Malta.  He was adamant about going here and made sure we got up early and left quickly.  Ugh I am on vacation I do not want to rush around and especially not get up early Malta  waaay out in the middle of Podunk nowhere.  When we pulled into Malta and stopped  I understood Dons excitement for coming here … Amtrak…… The train stopped here and he had never been to this particular station.  Ok here we go again Don regressed to a 10 year old and could not wait to get out of the car.  He walked quickly (cause he can’t run) all around the whole station pointing out the  track and that it will be a westbound Suplerliner that will be arriving .  Of course he planned it so we would arrive when the train does. 

Don may have had his own motive for diving out to Podunk America but I was thrilled to be living in a Luis Lamoure novel seeing American history come alive.

Malta……. What a place to wake up in  The flys are crazy here zillions and zillions.  A flyswatter was provided to us in our room and you know Don was on fly patrol!  Everywhere you go restaurants, stores, wherever flyswatters are everywhere and for good reason!

The owner of our motel also owned the hotel / casino in town so she gave us coupons for drinks at her café.   When Don checked in she warned him about the emergency siren that goes off every night at nine thirty;  ohhh boy small town America again, gotta love it.  She said she has had a lawsuit against the city to have it go off during the day but the city council told her they thought she would give up and go away.  After all she is a “new comer”, who has only been there just ten yrs.  Lol.  Just as she said the siren went off at 930 we had waited up for to hear it and was not disappointed.  It was such a poor siren the poor thing sounded like someone cranked it and wound up and then when the persons arm got tired and stopped cranking it slowed down until it stopped.  We got a good laugh at that.

We had breakfast the next day at the place she suggested and took our coupon  I had oatmeal and Don had a full breakfast.  We decided we are on vacation so why not have a bloody mary with our meal.  When the bill came Don had this strange look on his face, he handed it to me and it was 13 dollars.  That’s right 13 bucks for a great meal and a drink!  Righton!

We left Malta and headed for Red Lodge, I will always remember Podunk Malta what a fantastic place.