This was several miles, waiting for a pilot car and then traveling at 20 mph along a dirt road as U.S. Hwy 20 is re-worked. We got out promptly at 8:00 Tuesday morning, but didn't get to Glacier until after 1:30.
We entered Glacier from the West entrance. Of course this is the peak season for traffic in the park. The one time we stopped to look at the information center, there was no parking available. We parked about half a mile away and just ran to the restrooms before joining the line of cars on Going to the Sun Highway. It was just our day for construction. Even the main road through Glacier was being resurfaced.
We got to The Loop and looked at the glaciers which are much smaller than we remembered, but we'd only ever been through on the train in the winter. We had to keep reminding ourselves that Glacier National Park isn't a park of glaciers, but of what glaciers did.
What those glaciers did was pretty amazing. The horizontal light streak in the middle is the road we came up to get to this point, about three miles from the continental divide.
At Logan Pass, we crossed the Continental Divide at 6600 feet. We had to decide whether we were going to turn around and go back through the construction to leave by the West exit or continue 25 miles to the East exit. We decided on the latter, but found there was an hour's delay going that way for construction as well.
That left us on the east side of Glacier National Park and Q's train was slated out of Whitefish, twenty miles west of Glacier. We went down U.S. Hwy 89 from Glacier to Rt. 2 at East Glacier and then headed back west, following the train tracks that she would get on in the evening. We were a little concerned that we'd be on time as we'd been caught in a pretty heavy downpour and a road that was 25 mph for 20 miles. Then just as we rolled into Whitefish, Q got a text message that the train was two hours late.
She considered just commandeering the Burlington Northern engine next to the train station, but we finally settled in to nap a while in the truck before the train finally came rolling in at 11:15 p.m. I sadly let my girl go and she headed back for Seattle. I spent the night trying to find a comfortable sleeping position in the truck. Have to work on that one. I finally got up at 7:00 and headed to the Mystery Spot in Columbia Falls. It wasn't opened yet. Knowing what the construction on 2 was like, I decided to head south on U.S. Hwy 93 and cut back on I-90. I spent an hour or so flanking Flathead Lake. What a great way to spend the morning. With the Rockies rising across the lake with the sun, this was one of the most beautiful drives I've had.
I stopped for gas in Alberton, MT. I only mention this because this gas station had one self-serve pump. No office. No people. It was just the gas pump.
Getting back wasn't a short trip. I went through Coer d'Alene, ID and took a stroll along the beach. It was really beautiful. (And so were the bikinis.) I spotted this playground in the park, though, and remembered that M, Q, and I visited here fifteen years ago on a vacation near Sandpoint. What impressed us was that the kids of Coer d'Alene designed it. There was no one in the park when we visited (in the middle of winter) but Q had a blast. We came back inspired to give playground equipment to Aldersgate Church for the preschool. It was a warm feeling to visit the park again and see the dozens of kids running around having fun.
Well, the travelogue is over for this post. I expect I'll do much less travel over the next few days as I get caught up on my work. But I have to say how much fun I had with the darling daughter over the past four+ days. I'm so glad we had a chance to launch this adventure together. We talked a little about everything. Meaning I'd ask a question, she'd answer it, and we'd be silent for another twenty miles. It was okay, though, and we started discussing everything from why M and I were separating so I could do this to when we'd see each other again, who was important in her life, and what we were writing.
That last, I suppose, occupied more words than anything else as we discussed everything from mixing past perfect and past tense to how to occupy and claim an uninhabited island. We talked about plot, motivation, character development, and even conversations that our characters have. I explained that this was probably one of many reasons I wasn't a very good father or husband. Those conversations go on in my head all the time and I have a hard time thinking about other things, or doing anything else. While attempting to excuse me from poor fathering, Q said that she thought the trait was hereditary since that was how her head was always working as well. I think we realized we have a lot in common and we'll continue to hold that in common for years to come.
I love my daughter and my wife very much and the fact that we can't live together doesn't change that. Right now, we each have our own path to follow.
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