Off to see the Doc and Gail

May 18: After a great night with our best sleep in a few days we headed to our next destination….ACE Hardware! My friend Gary had suggested we try an ol filled electric heater he had. Our cousins had loaned us an electric heater to minimize propane use but given Jo’s noise hyper awareness at night it along with the propane backup and heat pump noise kept Jo awake. At 31 degrees outside all of these were working to keep us warm. We were warm but sleep deprived Jo more than me. At Gary’s house we tried the oil filled ‘fan less’ heater that made no noise (in all fairness it also wasn’t 31 but close to 40 i think so we needed heat). Without a fan the oil filled heater was silent except for a soft click when it came on. To make a long explanation come to an end, we ordered a similar heater to Gary’s at the ACE on our way to Bigfork and stopped to pick it up! Mission accomplished.

The next leg of our journey was to physician and nurse friends on Swan Lake near Bigfork and Glacier National Park. We had worked together in North Conway and occasionally saw them usually at funerals or weddings but had never been to their place in Montana since they retired a while back. The trip had always revolved around seeing them in Montana as our destination before Glacier and heading home. They, like Gary, were gracious allowing us to stay at their place versus another campground.

The stop at ACE was uneventful and off we went. Traffic was busy through Missoula but we made it through and out of town. When Phil and I spoke the day before to confirm our arrival he mentioned three words “hit the deer”. He meant that there are a lot of deer and swerving to miss one can get you in worse trouble than just braking and praying. We stopped at a rest area before starting up RTE 83 our final leg toward Swan Lake and within a mile had multiple deer in, beside and running toward the road. After an initial slight swerve I remembered the words “hit the deer” and cut my speed way back and headed on with Jo as my eagle eyes pointing out deer that seemed to be everywhere. All this while vehicles not towing trailers roared past at 70 mph. A bit of a white knuckled drive but we arrived without venison and parked in our friend’s driveway. I know there are skeptics but I do think the deer whistles I had put on our truck helped us at least once when a deer that was running toward the road lifted his head, looked toward the truck, and made an abrupt stop and turn to go back into the woods. Working or not for $10 worth every penny I think.

Another leg of the trip accomplished with hugs all around for and from our friends.