29th July, 2017

We slept surprisingly well at Sears Motel despite the rather basic accommodation and wandered over the road to the cafe for an excellent breakfast of omelettes with all the trimmings. We were now practised in the art of loading the car and we were soon on the road again and heading back towards Kalispell.

There was nothing particularly planned for the day, so we drove round Glacier Park on Highway 2 and headed for Whitefish where we parked and walked about the town. Whitefish is decidedly upmarket and caters for the skiers in the winter and the vacationers in the summer. Lots of chic shops with prices to match (and that is not simply because of the lousy exchange rate!), so it was decidedly window shopping only. An attractive town – or city? The US seems to call even tiny places city and we went through one recently that only had 94 inhabitants.

We feasted at Chick a Fillet (I may have got that wrong). Tasty enough, but the pounds are definitely starting to show! Chris went to Boot Barn and treated himself to a very fancy pair of proper cowboy boots so he should be looking the part when he is in Texas later in the trip. Nick and I found a free plastic bow and arrow range and had fun trying to hit balls floating on jets of air. It was not as easy as it looked!

We then set off for our accommodation for the night, just outside Kalispell, at the Lonesome Dove Ranch, where we arrived mid afternoon. This was a bit of a different experience as we were all sharing the same cabin and all basically in the same room, as you can see.

We were located in the middle of the ranch with a rather scruffy bison and lots of horses scattered about. Very idyllic, though we pretty much crashed out on arrival until it was time to go to supper. Nick did try his horse whisperer act (I found one of them lying down on its side soon after, which was a bit of a worry, but it still seemed to be breathing). There horses seemed friendly enough!

Supper was a short drive to a local pub, but Val was feeling a bit tired, so we left her resting in the cabin and tucked in to a variety of pizzas and other fare. We are getting seriously close to scurvy with the lack of vegetables, but no teeth have fallen out yet! We took Val a vegetable pizza back and started a game of Crazy Whist until eyelids started to droop. Val and I had the massive bed in the middle of the cabin and the kids were on the mezzanine floors, which looked a bit challenging especially if you sat up quickly and banged your head on the ceiling!

A quietish day, but fun and we were well rested for the adventures ahead!

More soon.