Decamping to Rising Sun

First a note - now that we are in the park proper we don't have phone access and the internet is only available in the restaurant, so don't worry if you don't get your daily Glacier fix!

Sunday, July 6, 2014

Leisurely day today, just moving north to St. Mary’s and our cabin at the Rising Sun Motor Inn and Cabins, one of the Xanterra facilities inside the park.  Our lovely place which we are leaving, the Whistling Swan, is outside the park and we have been driving into Glacier every morning.

We pack up “all our cares and woes” and stop at the laundromat next to Brownie’s store and deli.  We stop in to get quarters for the machines, start our wash, and return to do some window shopping.  There is a lovely bakery at the front and we think it would be a fine idea to come back after our clothes are dry and have some of their sandwiches for lunch.  After all, they come with a banana and we are out of those!

We sit on a bench for a few minutes then go inside to transfer our clean, damp clothes to the dryer.  Across the street is a t-shirt shop run by the Sears family.  The lady running the place lives in Ft. Myers during the winter and has lots of family in Florida.  Her mother has lived there since the ‘30s!  She tells us that the big news in East Glacier Park was the theft of the purple spoon which marks the Twisted Spoon shop.  That was four years ago and it’s still news!  Also, one hour and forty-five minutes after Logan Pass was opened this year, an 800-pound boulder fell and closed the road!  Sure glad we weren’t there!  It’s open now.

They have some cool stuff and I get some birthday and Christmas presents.  Marilyn shops too, although once again I win the sales competition.  I guess I have more people to shop for than she does!

I guess even t-shirt shops have to sell CS-Rs now!

Giggle!

The Sears family also has a motel, a rental car franchise and a gas station.  We fill up the car here because she is such a cool lady and we’d rather support a family-run business, especially when we know the owner.

Back to Brownies for our lunch and we there is a man at another of the outdoor tables who thinks we want to talk.  At least he wants to talk.  He moves to a closer table and rambles on and on, asking questions about where we’ve been and what we’ve done and mentioning several times that he can’t afford this or that and will be staying with friends.  We feel “the bite” coming on;  but he never actually asks us for money, which surprises us both.

As we head back to the car, we notice that there is a dog barking in a closed car.  We are both worried and I got back in to tell the kids running Brownies.  What we didn’t notice was that the Explorer was running with the a/c on!  The lady who owned the car and, presumable, the dog, came out to assure us that the dog was probably more comfortable that we were!   Not to embarrassing!

That settled, we head off to St. Mary’s.  We’re about half way there when we spot two horses chatting across a fence.  That means that one of them is on the road side of the fence!  I call 911 to report a horse lose near the highway.  

Hey, how's it goin'?

The 911 operator transfers me to Browning and that lady takes my information and says she’ll take care of it;  but she doesn’t sound too disturbed.  As we drive further along we see cattle on the side of the road and two more horses!  I guess it’s like Ireland and the sheep.  A horse should would put a dent in a car, though!

That's one of the Jammer busses behind us!  We'll be taking one of those in a couple of days!

 At the “town” of St. Mary’s we stop at the Supermart for a few necessities, like wine, chips, creamer and, oh yes, bear spray.  If it means Marilyn will hike with me, it’s worth it!  We head north to Many Glaciers where Marilyn said our cabin was.  Not so much.  But we stop at the store at the end of the road, which is part of the lodge there, and do a little more shopping. 

Now those are some ginormous marshmallows!

 Heading back to St. Mary’s, where we really belong, we stop at every picture point and note which hikes we will want to come back for.  It isn’t all that far back to St. Mary’s and several of the things we have planned to do depart from there anyway.  

We're not sure what these are, so for now Marilyn has dubbed them Glacier Daisies!

Although we are pretty bummed initially, we eventually recall that there wasn’t room for us at Many Glaciers for the amount of time we wanted to spend in the area.

There is a St. Mary’s Visitors’ Center and it is larger than the others we’ve seen so far.  There is a movie, which we will probably watch at some point, and information about the Blackfeet and how they are certain that the treaty which they signed only gave the US a 99-year lease to the land, not full title.  The young man at the desk shows us where the Beaver Pond trail is for a ranger-led hike and tells us that the astronomy program will begin tonight around dark, 9:30 or 10:00.

These beautiful stained-glass panels are in the St. Mary Visitors' Center, with an display
about the several native peoples who live in the area.

There is also a bookstore for some more shopping and that young man suggests that we try Sun Point on the Going to the Sun Road for sunset or sunrise photos.

We check into Rising Sun and everything is going fine.  Marilyn checks with Many Glaciers to see if perhaps they might have an opening for part of the time we will be here;  but no such luck.  Never mind.  We have dinner at the restaurant which is part of the lodge, Two Dog Flats.  I have trout with rice pilaf and carrots and brussel sprouts.  Marilyn goes for the meatloaf and cheddar mashed potatoes and adds a side salad for some veggies.  Everything is delicious and after we ask the poor receptionist all the questions we can think of, we drive to our cabin.  It is half of a duplex and we have our own parking place right outside our door.  It is rustic but has everything we need, two big beds, hot water, clean sheets and towels and a coffee pot with coffee and tea!  And by the time we get to it, that sweet receptionist has already seen to it that we have a fan!

Our cabin in the mountains.

We bring in everything from the car to reorganize and get ready for the next part of our adventure.  I wander out several times to see if the evening light will hit our mountains.  There is a bit of color on the mountainside and it is still hall moon time, so I’m a happy camper.

Tomorrow morning we are taking a boat ride on St. Mary Lake which includes a ranger-led hike to St. Mary’s Falls.  We’re thinking that we might drive up to Logan Pass in the evening for some wildlife watching and maybe catch the sunset.  Then we can sleep in the next morning if need be.

A quick trip outside to see what joys the sky might be bringing!

Time for a lovely, hot shower and bed!  Up a bit earlier tomorrow so we don’t miss the boat!  (So to speak!)