.beatrice goes to Montana .09.21.16.

While researching things to do in Montana, I came across the Whitefish Mountain Resort

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.

.martha trip part 7 .08.23.16.

Sadly our last day in Vernon has come. We woke up slowly to the sound of the ducks HONKING outside. Tia and Mia quickly started barking to alert us to the nearby danger🙄 (Too bad they couldn't alert us to the danger of our potentially murderous neighbour!)

Since it was our last day we decided to start a tradition and go back to cosens bay! See .excation part 7

Thinking we were smarter then last time, we followed the road to the last point where it crosses the path to the beach. M hopped out and took the beach stuff. I would bring the dogs with me on the 2km walk to the beach from the parking lot; that way they would be tired and sleep on the floaties. 

This trip to cosens bay was slightly different than the last, in that we weren't in my little car anymore. Martha was too big to turn around on the narrow dirt road. Luckily enough there was another parking lot farther up the road. As I drove up to the parking lot it was clear that it would be a much farther walk then if I had parked at the other parking lot. As I was walking down to the beach, I looked through the tree's for some trails that lead down to the lake. After all I could see it through the trees.

I picked what looked like a small bike trail and made my way down the (very steep) hill. The path quickly ended and I was left with a bunch of fallen down trees and a steep hill. The dead grass was very slippery, and the only thing to grab on to for balance was some rose bushes and pine branches. Ouch!! 

Oh did I forget to mention I was wearing a dress and slip on sandals? Not my best choice of attire when scaling a steep hill. Tia and Mia quickly became tired of maneuvering around the fallen trees and tall grass. I quickly figured out that the only way to get down the hill as quickly as possible was to carry the dogs. Luckily I can hold both Tia and Mia in one arm, I used my free hand to grab onto whatever I could to stop myself from falling down.

About an hour later I finally made it out of the woods. Once I emerged from the tree line I immediately found a real path to take me to the beach. 

***If I had only walked a little bit farther down the road from the parking lot I would have found the beginning of this trail. It went along the tree line into a valley which lead to the beach.***

Patience is a virtue everyone, and I learn that lesson over and over and over again. 

It wasn't till I was walking on flat ground that began to feel the stinging on my knee intensify. I had thought that it was just another scrape from climbing over the fallen trees, but it was beginning to turn blotchy and was even starting to swell. I began to worry that I may have brushed against some poison ivy. When I finally made it to the beach, M was already packing everything up! She was getting ready to come searching for me, with both of our cellphones and no idea what was taking me so long she was beginning to worry! 

We took some pictures of my battle scars and sent them to mom in hopes that she may be able to help us diagnose what was happening!

 

(Ignore my super sweaty, greasy hair. We were showering in the lake that day)

Mom sent me some helpful information, but it turns out it was just a case of stinging nettle. 

Tia was completely exhausted from being carried for so long so she quickly passed out in the beach stuff while M and I tended to my wounds. 

Unfortunately we only had the beach to ourselves for about an hour. People slowly started to trickle in, some just passing through on their morning hikes and others coming down for a morning swim. 

One particular beach visitor effectively ruined our afternoon. He had an adorable pit-bull puppy, but it was unleashed and it was making lots of people uncomfortable. I don't discriminate against different types of dogs, I believe that all dogs have the potential to be kind and loving creatures. The people around us did not share this opinion. All we heard for the next hour or two was people scoffing at the young "gentlemen" and his dog. The guy and his puppy were fooling around and the puppy was getting a little rowdy, jumping up on people, running around chasing the ducks and genuinely just disrupting the peace. Tia and Mia get a little worked up around other dogs so we took them out on the floaties to try to salvage a little bit of relaxation. 

Later in the afternoon my hands were beginning to wrinkling so much it was beginning to hurt. I paddled in to the beach to get some drying time in the sun, I let Tia and Mia jump off the floatie to walk up the beach to our stuff. Just then the playful puppy saw the girls and bolted towards them. 

*** As previously stated, I loathe people who don't leash their pets, or more specifically people who don't have control of their pets when they choose to unleash them. This did not help my temperament with what followed. *** 

I calmly swiped the girls up at the last possible second before the playful puppy came crashing in. Just wanting to play the puppy started jumping up my leg trying to get to the girls. My chatty beach neighbors exploded. The began to scream at the young guy that they were going to report him and blah, blah, blah. 

I walked back in the water, calmly bouncing the girls in my arms. My hands were shaking. Not because I was angry, but because it had scared me. That puppy was significantly bigger then my girls and if I hadn't of swiped them up they could have been seriously hurt. 

Finally the yelling petered out and only a few mumbles were uttered from my defending beach neighbor before he apologized for the outburst. I politely told him that I can speak for myself. M came out in to the water to ask if I was alright, we stood in the water rocking Tia and Mia in our arms planning what we wanted to do for the rest of the day. 

All of a sudden the young guy started to get worked up again. He was uttering how he was going to fight the guy who had engaged in the yelling battle with him. I was fed up at this point and I had heard enough. Less politely I told him that it's over, to stop whining about it and move on. After all I was the one who's dogs almost got hurt and I hadn't said a word up until this point. He immediately began to focus his angry energy on me, saying I was discriminating against him because he had a pit-bull. ------Now, I'm not overly proud of what followed. But I work in the oilfield and I've learned the best phrases to cut men down. I watch the guys do it all day everyday. 

I got in to a fight. A word fight. Luckily I won the battle and the skinny little loser leashed his dog and left. The gentleman who had fought with the boy earlier had a very surprised look on his face. He later told M that he should have just let me tell the boy off in the first place, and that I really could speak for myself! 

Sadly we had to leave the beach in order to get to our campsite in time! We were staying somewhere in between Kamloops and Jasper so it was a bit of a drive away! We stopped for an actual meal at "Mr. Mikes Steakhouse" before heading to the mountains!

^^^ M my very happy (not tired at all) co-pilot!! 

We didn't get to the campsite till late so it was pitch black by time we got there! The stars were absolutely beautiful and the crisp mountain air was exactly what I needed to cleanse myself of that crappy encounter at the beach. We had some leftover wood from the previous night's fire. After many failed attempts at lighting the fire, we decided to call it a night. I crawled into bed and began pinteresting/googling how to light a fire, because clearly my years of Young Women's Camps didn't teach me!! 

Sadly our trip was over, the next day was spent driving home and getting ready to return to my bleak reality. Working.