Our last morning in Montana has come. After a nice warm shower we began to make our way home.
Before we crossed the border we decided to stop and go for a little stroll to a waterfall. Just as we pulled up it started to rain!! We were used to the rain at this point so we put on our jackets and walked over to the waterfall.
There was more green and purple rocks so I hopped over the bridge to get some for my dads "Rock Garden"
After we were thoroughly soaked to the core, we went back to the van to carry on our road trip; and change into dry clothes. The drive was absolutely gorgeous!! The fall colors with the backdrop of the mountains, it was truly stunning. K adores the mountains and I adore fall, it was the perfect way for us to end off our trip!
The whole drive I had been scoping out the perfect backdrop for a "debut" Picture for Bea!! Just as we were approaching the border I saw the perfect spot! We pulled over and K took a ton of pictures for me!
And that concludes Beatrice's first trip! I must say that I really enjoy the new van. All the interior storage makes a huge difference, and the exterior storage drawer is fantastic for campfire/outdoor accessories.
The white interior of the van makes it feel much more spacious inside! I would like to begin remodeling a few things on the interior and will be posting all about it once I get around to doing it!! Sadly the camping season in Canada has come to a close and Beatrice has been winterized and parked for the bitter cold winter months. Only 8 short months from now the snow will hopefully be gone and I will be free to roam!
The next morning we went to Flathead lake, where we were originally were supposed to be camping the night before. The sun was shinning, but unfortunately the wind was blowing! We cooked some delicious breakfast, and then strolled around Wayfarers State Park. We took loads of pictures and enjoyed the sunshine, oh and the wind.
When we finally got bored of walking around, we decided to go back up to whitefish mountain resort to go on the adventure park. I turned out of Wayfarers State Park and we drove along Flathead lake enjoying the beautiful views. About 15 minutes later I realized we were driving in the wrong direction!! We turned around and got to see the beautiful views all over again! My bad...
The adventure park was loads of fun! I did every single course, including the kids ones. You gotta start somewhere right?
K did the first few with me and then got distracted by another handsome mountain man. To be fair the man had on a bright orange toque, so he was pretty hard to miss. I went on a few more of the courses while K gabbed with her new man.
Finally I got her to come on the intermediate course when suddenly she became scared of heights. I'm gonna chalk that one up to a coincidence, considering the mountain man was watching from below.(just kidding, she was originally scared of heights)
After the horror of the intermediate course K and I did an easy one to increase her confidence in heights once more. Mission failed, we stood on the platform for the final zipline for about 15 minutes waiting for her fears to tame themselves. To be fair the cute mountain men below heckling her wasn't helping.
There was only one course left, the black diamond. K was out, she didn't want to do the black diamond. I don't blame her really, it was extremely tough and painful to complete. K videoed me and laughed at my expense as I slowly made my way through the obstacles, each one harder then the last!
One particular obstacle was especially difficult. It was a ladder, made out of logs with tiny spaces between them. Sort of like those chains of hotdogs you get at the local sobey's. About the only way I could figure out how to get down was to straddle the log and slowly slide down to the next opening between logs. It was EXTREMELY PAINFUL and I was probably doing it completely wrong, but I made it down and that's what matters!
The second last obstacle was by far the worst. You had to hold on to the rope for dear life and jump your feet over to the platform circle at the bottom of each rope. I was exhausted. I clung to the rope and jumped my feet over the best I could. What seemed like an hour later I finally made it to the end!
The last obstacle was a "trust fall" similar to the one I went on in chase BC. With the two adventure park guides and K heckling me I opted to go for the actual trust fall instead of just stepping off the platform and gracefully drifting down to the ground. Instead I fell backwards and flopped around like a rag doll. Peer pressure, it's a real thing; don't give in!!
We were off, on route to find the perfect mountain setting campground. We drove through Glacier National park until the sun set, we picked the first campground we saw and pulled in.
It turned out to be a little diamond in the rough! Nice clean bathrooms, spaced out campsites and a fire pit. Finally I'd be able to make my campfire meals I'd planned!!
K made some Mac and Cheese in the van while I messed around trying to get the fire started. I got slightly sidetracked by another campfire activity I had planned, glow stick bubbles.
Once I realized the bubbles weren't going to work, I moved along to trying to get the campfire food ready!I wrapped the tinfoil around my creation and tossed them in the fire! Once again I was distracted by glowsticks. I cut them open and flung them around,this created a nice "starlight" glow around the campfire. By time K had finished cooking the Mac and Cheese I had used up most of the glowsticks and broke out the sparklers---or sprinklers as I kept calling them. (They sprinkle you with fire, DUH)
After I got our "Campfire Feast" loaded in the fire, we sat and enjoyed the roaring fire; eating our delicious M&C and admiring the stars in the sky (and the fake glowstick stars on the ground, and all over me). I even started to serenade K with one of our old girls-camp songs "Like the stars" by Jenny Phillips.
Once the campfire food had finally cooled off we were ready to feast on my "pinsperation dinner/dessert" I slowly unwrapped the pigs in a blanket and this is what I got.....
Thank goodness we had decided to have back-up food!!!
Turns out I suck at almost everything there is to do with campfires. I can barely get a good campfire started without going through mass amounts of matches and fire-starter. I suck at cooking campfire food, and my campfire activity of "glow in the dark bubbles" was also a huge disappointment! Better luck next time I suppose!
website. They had tons of off season activities going on, including zip lining, alpine slide, downhill mountain biking, and my personal favorite, a suspended "adventure park"!! I had done an adventure park course in Revelstoke the previous summer and was so excited to try one again!
When we woke up I called the mountain resort to book us a time to go ziplining!! It was K's first time I was so excited for her to experience ripping through the mountains hanging from a wire, there really is nothing like it!
While K cooked breakfast I took advantage of the fresh water connection and flushed out all of the water tanks in the van. The previous owner had left some water in the tanks and it did not smell very good! Being new to this whole "RV ownership" stuff I searched for about an hour for the grey water dump valve, and the fresh water fill connection. After finally finding the connections I hooked up the water to the van, not totally thinking straight I started filling the hose before unraveling it.
I turned my back for one second and the hose erupted out of the plastic casing. Having no idea what just happened, I dropped to the ground ducking in cover from the imminent danger! As I slowly got out of the fetal position, surveying my surroundings to figure out what had happened; I noticed that my neighbors had been watching the whole time and were now hysterically laughing at my reaction. I smiled and waved at my audience as I stood up, brushing the dirt and gravel off of me.
Over breakfast I told K about what had happened outside while she was cooking! After we finished breakfast we packed everything up to head up to the mountain. I had noticed earlier that the windows weren't rolling down, but didn't think much of it. When I started the van and began driving, I realized that all of my gauges weren't working!! A quick call to the dad's and we determined that we probably just blew a fuse. The trip just got a little more interesting, the only indication of how fast we were going was my GPS which only displays your speed some of the time. We also had no clue how much fuel we had... Let the adventure again!
We stopped at the local Safeway to get some Starbucks for the drive and headed up the mountain! The clouds were gathering early in they day while I was messing around with the water tanks, and by time we were heading to go ziplining they began to get really dark... No matter, the adventure must continue! When we got to the ski hill and were pleasantly surprised that our "Zip instructor" was super cute!! We suited up and took a few pictures while waiting to go ziplining!
Unfortunately it began to rain as soon as we began zipping! Rain drops hurt when you're zipping through the air at 70km/h, they pelt you like pieces of hail! On the first few zip lines We had to shield our faces from the rain drops! Luckily the rain slowed down and we were able to enjoy the beautiful views of the whitefish resort mountain. The rain turned the rocks a beautiful green and burgundy, K and I were fascinated by the rocks and kept " ohhh, ahhh" -ing at the beautiful rocks!
Check out this ACTION VIDEO, of K and I enjoying the rain at lighting fast speeds!! Featuring our super handsome zip guide guy and our equally as awesome zip guide girl!!
While we were picking out these fantastic professional pictures, Jeremy; our zip guide guy, came and asked for K's number. I nudged her arm, it's not everyday cute mountain men ask for your number; you have to take advantage of these moments!
After zipping in the cold for hours we went back to the van and cooked some grilled cheese and creamy tomato soup, cause what else do you eat when you're cold?!? We laughed at our pictures and gabbed about how much fun we just had. The plan was to go back and do the "adventure park" for the rest of the evening. Unfortunately they had closed early for the day due to the rain. So we chose to go look around some more American stores in Kalispell, that would get us out of the rain for a bit! I have really missed target since they chose to abandon us in Canada, so I was more then happy to spend an evening looking around at all the "Pinterest worthy" decor!
Later on that evening we met up with Jeremy for some dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings, there was a few football games on while we were there so we were surrounded by screaming fans. We sat and visited for a while before deciding to go back to Jeremy's place and hangout with him and his brother! We visited for hours before K and I had get going to our campsite, we bid our new mountain men friends adieu and headed down to flat head lake! The drive was gorgeous, there's just something about town lights at night that makes everything look so peaceful. The glow of the street lights on the water was absolutely beautiful, I stared out the window while K drove us to our campsite.
Unfortunately the gate to where we were going to camp for the night was closed, so we found the nearest church and camped there for the night. Ah the luxury of camper vans. Park anywhere and climb up into bed.
K and I had planned to go on a road trip down to Montana in Martha. I had kept it a secret from K that I had bought Bea and sold Martha, so when I picked her up I had her younger sister take a reaction video of K seeing the new van!
After running a few last minute errands around town we were on our way to Montana!! Our first trip to the states without our parents, we had truly reached adulthood! The 4 hour road trip down to Montana was filled with lively conversations. Mostly my new favorite past time of asking/answering lots of deep, personal, and hopefully soul searching-ly motivating questions! We talked about our goals and things that we aspire to be some day. We talked about how grateful we are to be single and independent. Sometimes it is a little lonely, but it is also incredibly empowering to be completely happy on your own. We also discussed the things we'd like to learn to do! K wants to learn new knitting patterns and to learn how to make new things, like mittens and slippers for her best friend! I'd like to learn to make beautiful patchwork quilts, and also to play the ukulele which has been comfortably living in my closet!
I love going on road trips late at night with friends! There's no social distractions so you get to spend multiple hours with your friends just talking! Something that our busy lives can sometimes take away from us. I love the opportunity to just sit down and visit, taking the time to learn more about your friends through asking questions which lead to deeper conversations.
Finally at 2 am we crossed the border!! The border patrolman was very direct and cold, my mom had warned me about this behavior so I was prepared. I answered all of their questions plainly and didn't try to make small talk. After shinning a flashlight around in the back of the van the gentlemen handed me our passports and said "that's all". We did it!! We officially made it across a border and we're off on our new adventure!!
A friend from work had told me about this great camping spot that was free and absolutely beautiful on lake Koocanusa. It was pitch black out when we arrived so we picked a spot close-ish to the water and climbed up into bed! Slowly falling asleep while chatting about how excited we were to be out on our own, seeing the world one road trip at a time.
I couldn't wait to see what our campsite looked like during the day!
