In front of me in Deer Lodge, MT is an elderly couple. They arrived at the KOA on a Honda Goldwing, sat up their tiny tent and now they sit side by side eating ice cream at the picnic table, instead of across from each other. You can tell they enjoy each others' company. A nice surprise.
Norm and I have had a few surprises in the last few days. Saturday we rolled into Ennis, fly fisherman heaven I'm told. The town is really sweet, small, catering mostly to summer residents and fishermen. We were surprised to find a peaceful pretty campsite beside the river that Norm was dying to fish. Norm met a fellow fisherman and off they went. I sat around and read and watched bunnies and talked to the fishermen walking by every so often. It was splendid.
Then the sun went down. Whoa, wicked cold. But we were prepared for it and we climbed into our little tent cuddled up in fleece and sleeping bags and slept peacefully through the night. Then the sun came up and it was still wicked cold and... wet. Breaking camp was a little yukky, Ok, I was miserable. Cold feet and hands. I just wanted it to be over. All the beautiful, peaceful thoughts I had about our little campsite were gone and I was tired of being cold, wet, tired, miserable and unshowered. But, all things pass and as we left Ennis for a camping site on a lovely lake I was feeling much better.
On the way we came to a town called Twin Bridges. As we drove up to the town, a policeman stopped us and informed us we couldn't drive through because of the Madison Valley County parade. He showed us how to detour town to be on our way. Norm and I decided to stop and watch the parade. Unexpected surprise. It was fun and then we were on our way once again.
On the way to the Lake we got a little lost. Norm had gotten directions from the website, but they left out a few small details. But, we finally found the right dirt road to go down. Then we traveled 6 miles into thick, lonely woods and finally came upon the campground. The empty campground. There were no other campers there. Seems we had the place to ourselves. The first surprise was that the lake really wasn't a good fishing lake. Norm said he didn't think it had any fish in it at all. Perhaps the reason for all the vacancies. We had expected to pass some sort of store on the way to the campsite, but we never did, so we were not afforded the opportunity to buy firewood. Norm was not worried though - I mean, we were after all in a forest.
Seems there is very little wood in this particular forest. It was "picked clean". So we had to do quite a bit of walking and driving and knock down a couple of dead trees to get some firewood. The 1.5 hours of sunlight the forest floor got daily was almost gone. And you know, it was getting cold again. We managed to start a fire and cook some food and stay thawed out. We sat around the fire until just about dark. We laughed and joked about being pioneer people and we discussed what we would do if faced with a bear attack. I asked Norm if he locked the car before we went to bed and he looked around the empty forest and laughed a bit, but he humored me anyway. Good thing, I dreamt of bands of robbers and who knows if it was a dream or not?
I slept in 2 long sleeve shirts and a fleece jacket. A pair of polar socks and fleece socks on top, fleece pants. I had a fleece sleeping bag inside of my regular sleeping bag. Norm had similiar attire. I was warm in my bed and I actually slept well despite hearing spooky forest noises and dreaming of robber bands and bears. In the morning it was cold, so cold that our stuff was frozen. We started a fire thawed out, packed up and left. No breakfast ... we'll eat on the run!
Tonight I sit in a cozy little campground with other people doing their thing, the sun going down while I sit comfortable in just a swearshirt, mountain views and the couple I talked about before just walked up hand in hand. Norm has been fishing in the Clarks Fork River and is just returning. He kisses me on the head and informs me I left the propane burner on. Just like at home. Sometimes we rub each other wrong, but all in all we get along great. No surprise there.
Life is good. Montana is beautiful. I miss my cat, my friends and my sister, 2 weeks to go. Can't wait for the next surprise!
Peace and LoVe,
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