O Canada!

2019-09-11 Wednesday

Today, as planned, we packed picnic lunches, and Cassie, and our passports and vet records, and we drove the Jeep up to Canada! The landscape of mountains in this part of the world is truly stunning! It took about an hour to get to the border of the US/Canada, and the views kept us entertained the entire way. (I will upload a lot of photos, hopefully later tomorrow; my connection is very bad here.)

We had no trouble getting through border patrol-- Cassie’s records were acceptable and we had nothing to declare, of course. Then it was another 30 minutes or so until we got to the gate for Waterton Lakes National Park. The mountains around there are even more stunning than what we saw on our way up. The weather when we left the campground was warm and sunny, but unfortunately got cloudier as we came further north, so it was probably in the high 50s all day. If the clouds weren’t there, it would have been warm, because there was no breeze at all.

Morning view out my window from campsite

 The park was not exactly what I expected. The disconcerting thing was, it had a town right in the center, which was where all the information was. We drove in, and it was like driving into a little town rather than a national park. It reminded me of Bar Harbor--adjacent to Acadia National Park-- a little resort town which grew up around the views of the sea and the tourists who come there. Except this town is literally part of the park. We weren’t sure where we were going, and it was noonish, so we pulled into a picnic area right next to the lake, and had a lovely lunch there. We could see buildings and a boat dock area right across from us, and I assumed that was the town, but as I said, I didn’t realize what it was like until we got into it.

Prince of Wales Hotel

We found the visitor’s information building, which was a totally unprepossessing place; it looked like a scantily furnished trailer, actually. But the young lady inside was very helpful. She told me there was a waterfall a couple of blocks away, and where the stores were, and to be sure to check out the Prince of Wales Hotel (which I already had heard about, plus we saw it on our way into town.) Her advice gave us some direction for the afternoon.

We went first to the waterfall. It was really pretty. We sat there for a bit, and then went to the other side of the town (i.e. about 6 blocks away) to the waterfront. It was too late in the day to take a boat trip, because it was a two hour thing which left at 4pm, and we had to get back to cross the border by 6pm. So we walked down the “main street” of town, looking in shops and people watching. Then we got ice cream. Cassie met some VERY nice people who like dogs, and one of them even shared her ice cream with Cassie!

We suddenly noticed that it was about 3:30 in the afternoon--apparently our Jeep’s clock was not correct, and it may have been later all along than we realized. So we decided to head back home. On the way, we went down a road the lady at the visitor’s info had recommended, if we wanted to see a herd of elk. The road started out unpaved, then became significantly rutted, and finally narrowed down to basically one lane. We had some mechanical concerns (keep reading) and finally we decided the entire thing was a joke! We turned around and came back. From there it was smooth sailing back to the customs at the border, and back to St. Mary.

Cameron Falls

Unfortunately, we have a problem with the Jeep’s brakes. This morning as we started driving, we heard a squeaking sound. Joey looked and didn’t see anything, and decided it was mud built up from when we came through US 89 yesterday, and the road was so terrible and unpaved. But as the day went on, the noise became more worrisome, and became a grating sound. We both knew that was not good, and it made us worried most of the day. On the way home, the sound had changed again, but the braking was rough, and when we got to St. Mary, we stopped and Joe looked at the brakes (which, on a Jeep, are literally visible behind the wheels.) Sure enough, one of the  brake rotors is seriously scratched and rough, and none of them are smooth, like they should be. Something was probably stuck in there, and it really did a number on that brake. Or possibly, the problem is the auxiliary brake system when we are towing--Joe is really not sure WHAT could have caused this, but it's definitely a problem.

Our plans for tomorrow were to go on the Going-to-the-Sun Road, and needless to say, we do NOT feel like taking up a car with some kind of brake problem! The road is scary enough as it is. So we discussed it, and decided that we need to deal with this problem before moving on. The nearest town is Browning, which we came through yesterday. We asked at the gas station here, and they confirmed that Browning is the closest place with any mechanics who can look at the brakes only. We are getting a small amount of phone connection on our non-AT&T “fi-phone” (the one we use only for internet most of the time; but it connects to verizon and the other phone companies well.) So Joe was able to use  that and confirmed that there are two shops in Browning that we can call. It is 40 miles away.

So we are bagging our second day here at Glacier in order to attend to the Jeep’s brakes. This will be the second time our plans for the Going-to-the-Sun Road have been thwarted. In 1980, we were here on our cross-country trip in our VW bus, and the weather was frightful. When we tried to go up the road, it was raining; then it turned to snow, and became so slippery that we were afraid we would slide right off the road! So we turned back and spent an entire day in our tent during that trip. Now it’s the brakes on the Jeep. We may never make it over that road!

Instead, tomorrow we’ll hook up the Jeep and drive to Browning and see if anyone can help us. If necessary, we’ll stay over there until Friday (or drive further along if no one there can help.) One REALLY good thing is, today when we were driving, I discovered we can drive to Browning without backtracking over US 89! It isn’t really any longer, and the last thing we want to do is tackle that mess again--our RV and Jeep are both filthy from it, and of course that may be what caused the problem with the brake disk in the first place.

We’d like to be in Kallispell on Saturday for the football game, but of course now we are juggling this brake problem as well, so we will have to see how it all works out. Just part of the adventure, I guess, but it’s ironic that the problem is with our tow vehicle, and not our RV! The upside is that tomorrow I should have enough wifi to upload two days of blogs. And I’m reading a good book, and there’s a Museum of the Plains Indians to visit in Browning. And we need groceries, and we need to do laundry. So we should be okay for a bit, with plenty to do, if that's where we spend the day.

Interior of the Prince of Wales Hotel

Dining Room, Prince of Wales Hotel

View through Window behind Prince of Wales Hotel

View of the Lake Behind Prince of Wales Hotel

Chief Mountain

Driving to Glacier

The road ahead

2019-09-10 Tuesday (slow upload--photos to follow)

I’m planning for this to be a very short blog today. For one thing, all we did was drive. For another, I can’t upload it, because we are camped in Glacier National Park, and there is no phone service or wifi service.

We left Great Falls this morning at around 11:00, as usual. Joe usually is awake early, but I tend to be up late blogging, and sleep later in the mornings. Also, Joe was not happy with the electrical system in the RV again, and he was investigating various things to see why the “house batteries” were not charging properly. We actually drove for about 20 minutes today with both the generator and the Jeep turned on to charge things up.

However, other than worries about electricity, we drove all day on US 89 from just north of Great Falls, all the way to St. Mary, Montana, which is one of the gateways to Glacier NP. We didn’t take a lot of photos, although the rolling ranch land and herds of cattle we passed were beautiful. There were several stunning vistas ahead--unfortunately I was driving at that point, and Joe is not good at getting the camera out fast for a photo. He did take a couple, though, and I’m hoping to get a chance to add them to this.

US 89 passed through the Blackfeet Indian Reservation through much of our trip, including the town of Browning, which was large enough to have a community college. The town is also the seat of tribal government. We were happy to be able to buy gasoline as well. Then we turned north toward Glacier, and that was when things got hairy.

There is a lot of construction on US 89 between Browning and St. Mary. And when I say construction, it’s not like you’d see anywhere else. We drove on dirt roads that were barely wide enough for two cars, with lots of bumps and potholes (are they potholes on dirt roads? Or just holes?) It went on for miles, and there was just the lightest misty rain at the time, so it was muddy as well. Also, although there were orange cones lining the roads in some places, in many places it was just a dirt road with no people actively working on it (it was early afternoon on a weekday.) We passed machinery and supplies, but no workmen. I also wondered where the workmen might come from-- if they didn’t live on the reservation, they’d have to drive at least an hour from the nearest town--which was nothing at all, just a few dozen buildings. Life out here is just so DIFFERENT than the east or midwest. So much empty space, and a US highway is dirt for miles.

US 89 under construction

About 10 or so miles from St. Mary, the road finally went back to being paved, and we descended a long road to the valley and the park entrance. The campground I wanted (St. Mary Campground) still was not full, so I stopped to talk briefly to a ranger at the Visitor Center (it was surprisingly busy--a lot of people coming in and out!) and then we headed for the campground. The sites here are a bit closer together than we would prefer, but we did have a choice, and found one level enough so that we would not have to use our levelling blocks. We detached the Jeep, and then drove the RV around to the campground entrance again to use the dump and fill the water tank. And then we drove back and rearranged our vehicles yet again.

We have paid for 3 nights here, meaning we will have all day Wednesday and Thursday in the park. The weather for the next two days is not too bad (of course, it’s raining on us now, but that is no surprise, frankly.) I’m a bit worried about being cold, though-- I probably should have packed a couple of fall jackets, but all I brought was sweatshirts. It was hard to imagine being COLD during that miserable spell of 100 degrees in mid-August when we left home. I hope it’s nice anyway... we had really miserable weather last time we were here, in 1980, and that’s one reason we haven’t been back. It was not our favorite park. We’re hoping for better this time--we will be doing a lot of driving, and we don’t want to be doing it in the rain.

Views of St Mary Lake

Anyway, our plans are to go to Canada tomorrow, and the Going-to-the-Sun Road on Thursday (the best predicted weather.) Glacier’s full name is Glacier-Waterton Peace Park, and it is actually an international park. We’ve never been to the Waterton part of the park, and that would be fun. We just have to find out about what the requirements are for bringing Cassie. We have all her paperwork, but we need to be sure. We’ll ask at the Visitor Center before we drive the hour up to the border. We’ll be gone all day, and don’t want to leave her that long. I guess we’ll find all this stuff out tomorrow. For now, we’re eating dinner early for us (7:00 pm) and then I’ll relax, read my book, and go to bed early!