Montana

 This past week I had the spectacular opportunity to go to Montana with my dad.  He has taken all of his kids up to the homeland for a tour of his old stomping grounds and a fun review of his life as a young boy.  My dad is a planner and he had each day planned with fun activities and stops.  He drove the entire trip.  He never really seemed to get tired.  I hope that I am that energetic when I am 77.   Dad started the trips when my brother mentioned meeting him in Montana and they have grown from there to a weekly excursion the past 4 years.  He has made each trip include certain must sees and customized each trip a little for each child.  My trip included an boat ride  that I had taken back when I was four!

Montana is a breathtakingly beautiful state that was first explored by Lewis and Clark in the early 1800's. Dad knows a lot about the history of the state and also about the many rivers and geographical features.  I learned more about the continental divide which is where the rivers diverge into the separate oceans.  We would stop and read road signs that described the beautiful landscape we were traversing.  

We started our trip driving to Missoula.  We went up through Idaho and hit into the state at the Lolo pass.  We spent a day in Butte which is my dad's hometown.  Butte doesn't look a lot different than it probably did in the 50's.  The old bank is still there and my dad showed me the houses he lived in as a boy.  We were able to see the Orphan Girl Mine which is where my grandpa worked.  Dad showed me where Evel Knievel is buried in Butte.  Apparently my Aunt Dot went to high school with him and didn't like him very much.  We also saw the graves of my great grandparents and my great aunt and uncle.  I started taking some notes because dad had so many good stories of his child hood.  Some of them I had heard bits of when I was younger.  Dad was very close with his cousins and they had really fun adventures.  Especially he and his cousin Billy.  Dad played in the neighborhood with all the kids and shot rats in the neighbor's chicken house with his 22 pistol.  He did a lot of hiking and fishing.  He spent lots of time with his grandparents and was very close with his grandpa Bill. His grandpa's house is still standing and is still painted pink!  We ate at Pork Chop Johns and got pasties at Joe's Pasty shop which has been there for many years.  One of our favorite family foods was tamales and in Butte they sell Truzzolino tamales.  Dad and I bought a frozen one and microwaved it in our hotel for fun treat.  We went up to Helena and took a boat tour through Gates of the Mountains.  This was so fun!  We saw some baby brown bears eating berries in the trees while on this ride.  That night we walked through the city and ate Licorice ice cream.

After being in Butte we drove to West Yellowstone and spent the day at some cool spots.  One of the places I really enjoyed was the beach out on Yellowstone Lake near the fishing bridge.  This was dad's favorite beach from his child hood.  He camped here with his grandparents.  We spent the night at in West Yellowstone.  After that we drove by Hebgen Lake and found the cabin he had lived in when he worked at a ranch.  

We went to Virginia City and also to  Bannock which is a ghost town.  We drove to Elk Horn Hot Springs and were able to go swimming.  We also went to La Marche Creek where dad and his friends built a cabin in high school.  We got 5 miles from the cabin (which is now on private land) and took pictures.  We drove to the Big Hole Battlefield and saw the Nez Perce Center and ate Rocky Mountain Oysters.  

When we drove home dad took us through another scenic route that included Salmon and Stanley Idaho.  We stopped in Caldwell and helped babysit the grandkids.  Zeke really enjoyed dad and would softly say, hi Grandpa about every 10 minutes.  We took him on a walk, dad juggled and we held baby Jenny.  

Finally we returned back home after being travel buddies for a week.  It was the only big trip I took in 2020 and it was so worth it. 

In other news... Kris and I have been called as seminary teachers.  Proof that the Lord has a sense of humor.

My phone has reached it' maximum storage so I  will post photos when I get a new phone this week.