Heading home

Monday, July 21, 2014

It’s been a beautiful trip and we’re really pleased with the way our plans (and non-plans!) came together but it’s time to pack up and get home.  I miss my kids!  But don’t tell them!

We hang around the lodge until the last minute.  Marilyn has printed our boarding passes for our six a.m. flight and we are, once again, TSA Pre-checked!  Hurray!  We’re looking up wildflowers in Jennifer’s book and tying up loose ends.  We’ve given her our cooler, extra water jugs, bear spray, my old hat and some assorted odds and ends of food stuffs which she says she can use.  I’m so glad that it will not go to waste!

Here's Jennifer, our charming hostess. 

Everything is packed and we think, maybe, our suitcases weigh less than fifty pounds.  I sure hope they take them away from us when we are boarding!  As I contemplate hoisting my monster down the eighteen stairs, one of the pretty young things that does housekeeping volunteers to take it down for me!  I’m not too proud to take help when it’s offered!  Marilyn declines assistance.  Show off!

One last shot of Glacier Guides Lodge

We’ve stashed our bags in the trunk, our backpacks in the back seat and our lunch, leftover from last night, on the floor with the rest of our bottle of huckleberry wine, and go inside to say good-bye to Jennifer.

We’re just going to Columbia Falls which is only fifteen minutes closer to the airport, but at four am fifteen minutes counts! Our first order of business it to find a UPS store to ship some things home.  Marilyn spots is tucked away alongside the grocery store.  Next order is to either get lunch or see if we can check into our motel, the Glacier Inn Motel.  

In the cold light of day it looks a little iffy.  There are huge construction trucks in the front of the parking area and we can’t figure out just what they are doing there.  

See what I mean?

We go in and the man at the desk is very friendly and says we can check in now if we’d like.  He also suggests a couple of restaurants for dinner.  He charges an extra 3% if you pay with a credit card;  but I've got my debit card!  Yay!

Our room is around back and it’s really very nice!  Big beds, efficient a/c, table for computering – and eating our lunch and finishing our Glacier Park Montana Wild Huckleberry!  Lunch out of the way we play with our pictures and go on Trip Advisor as we had promised so many people we would!

Eventually, our tummies realize that it’s dinner time.  We go to The Back Room which is a separate restaurant from the Night Owl even though they occupy the same building and share entrances!  The owners of the Night Owl built the Back Room about thirty years ago!

Perfect way to say good-bye!  And he's even blue!

The real entrance to the Back Room is around the side but they don't seem to care
how you get in, as long as you do!

We share a pound of country ribs, with cole slaw, baked beans, little red potatoes and fry bread with honey butter.  And we can barely finish it!  And it was only fifteen dollars!  Maybe the best deal of the trip and a fitting way to bide adieu to Montana!  We want a piece of huckleberry pie to go but it turns out to be blueberry.  Oh well, close enough! Walking past a Montana car I notice that the license plate has a panther on it!  They probably call it a mountain lion.

This enormous building is the Columbia Falls Chamber of Commerce
and Tourist Information building.  Apparently it is a Montana Certified Community!

Back to the room to finish our blogging and set the alarms – we figure it might take two of them to get us up!  Marilyn is going to fill the car tonight so that’s one less thing to worry about in the dark of the morning.  It’s been a great, grand time!  Thanks for coming with us!