Holland Lake

A couple weekends ago we teamed up with our friends (see: Beavertail Hill camping) with the idea to camp at Lake Alva and maybe do some canoeing. 

Heading up MT 200 along the Blackfoot, it looked like rain. I was glad we'd installed these new super-ugly-but-amazingly functional Bosch "Evolution" wiper blades. No brackets to clog up with ice! It's like having a squeegee out there now.

It looked like we might miss the rain altogether, but just before Clearwater Junction, it was really pouring. But only for a minute, since we turned North while the rain kept on going East. 

Winter Camping Advantage no. 1: there's no such thing as a full campground in Winter. We got to Lake Alva early in the evening, but the campground was full. Where to go instead? We settled on Holland Lake, which also turned out to be full. Aargh! The campground host said we could camp in the day-use overflow parking, but couldn't have a fire. He also told us there were some spots opening up the next day.

So we honed in on a spot and hung around the parking lot until the occupants (finally) left. Luckily the rest of our crew understood our garbled cell phone message and found us that afternoon. We hauled the kiddos down to the water for some wading.

Tater Tot is still quite tentative about water sports. Her floatie-thing didn't see much use.

She likes the shore and we had fun throwing rocks. Above I'm helping her and Amelia make a little pond. 

Some horses escaped from a nearby corral and wandered through the campground. E liked them, but didn't want to get too close. She was impressed how "Mimi" (her name for Miriam) led them back to their home.

Ludwig and Meriweather (rescued from a Mennonite junkyard in Virginia).

There was some light rain that forced us to eat our burritos inside Ludwig that evening, but nothing terrible. It thundered all night long, which made me nostalgic for Nebraska.

The next morning we rented a canoe in an attempt to acclimate Esmé to the boating life but she clung fiercely to Melissa the whole time. We managed to stay on the water for maybe half an hour. At least she didn't have a fit, which gives us hope for the future. That afternoon we headed out. Those are the Mission Mountains in the distance.

Big Sky Country

Esmé finds enjoyment in the simplest of things. We used to worry a little too much about taking enough "things" to entertain her on our excursions. Her hands-down all-time favorite toy? Rocks. Her little pail and "dig-dig" (her word for shovel/trowel) provide countless hours of fun at home or the road.

We couldn't bear to wake her up so she slept another hour after we got home.

(miles 221,902-222,063)

Missoulaneous ACVWs

Sad rims, sad tires, cool stripe. I believe it's a '71, maybe a Super?

I was under the impression that Westies didn't come two-toned but this looks original so maybe I'm wrong.

A plain old passenger van.

I know it's not an ACVW or even a VW, but I like Gremlins*. I especially like yellow Gremlins. And yellow 4WD Gremlins with 3-inch lifts and roof racks are just about as cool as any ACVW. There, I said it.

After declaring my love for pinstripes a few posts back, I think this one might be a little much. Maybe not.

This thing makes me think "butterscotch-vanilla swirl". (It's a 1972, the oddest bay window year.)

Some of these photos might be a bit old, as evidenced by the snow. A 1971? 72? Beetle.

*I'm no AMC expert, so I'm not 100% sure this thing is a Gremlin and not a Concord or an Eagle or something. But it looks enough like a Gremlin for me.

Painted Rocks State Park

We went down the Bitterroot a few weekends back with the intention of camping at Lake Como, one of our favorites.

But it wasn't to be, as Upper Lake Como campground was full, and Lower Lake Como campground kinda sucked. Just down the road (if 25 miles is "just") is Painted Rocks State Park though, so we hauled Ludwig down the West Fork and found this site.

Luckily, it was free! Unluckily, it was free because they had some water contamination problem and thus, no water. Luckily, Ludwig's tank has had about three gallons of water in it for a long time. Unluckily, his sink faucet is broken. Luckily, Melissa looked at the set-up and found that we just had to yank off a water line underneath that has a valve on it to get at the water. Unluckily, the water in the tank had been in there for several months, and had froze and thawed at least a few times. Luckily, the water tasted perfect, as good as the water in our water bottles from home. Above we let Tater Tot do some exploring.

What's that?

A snake!

Unluckily, Melissa has found her old sunglasses and won't be wearing this much better pair anymore. Luckily, I now have two pairs of sunglasses and will hopefully never have to squint again.

Unluckily, I'm always more groggy in the morning when we're camping than at home. Luckily, I keep some super nice tea in Ludwig at all times for just such occasions.

E likes her own chair, the pink one, just fine until she thinks about it and realizes it's different from our chairs.

Three thumbs way up for the awesome WalMart awning score! I'll do a bit of sewing sometime to improve it a bit, but it's pretty nice regardless. We can't really afford the fancy-schmancy bus specific awning, however we've always thought it was pretty nice. I've got to say, I think about shade a lot differently now that we are living with a little kid.

The fam atop the dam. The three-point turn I had to execute to get off of it made me a little nervous.

Ludwig above the spillway

Melissa took this video of the dam and reservoir. The end is a little vertigo-inducing.

Trapper Peak, at 10157', the highest point in all the Bitterroots. Some of that precipitation up there is still falling as snow.

On the way home, we stopped in Hamilton to picnic in Ludwig. E is enjoying some bread dipped in hummus.

Thanks, Ludwig, for another trouble-free trip!

(miles 221,777-221,978)

And sometimes we park them in the yard

Ludwig needed a little one-on-one time with us since he's been given slightly less attention since the addition of Gertie. I spent a LOT of time shining him up, and Mitch helped me with the final wax.

Compare the photos above to the ones over here for a before and after. I'm ashamed (well, not really) to admit that in my 19 years of car ownership, I can count on one hand the number of times I've waxed any of my cars--and have fingers left over. But after seeing so many other buses up close that, frankly, looked better from afar, I realize that it was mostly their being clean that caught my eye, not their condition. And after seeing so many more buses up close in the past few years, I realize that Ludwig is actually in pretty stellar shape considering he's never had any major body work, has his original interior, and still sports his OG paint (and he's been driven and camped in regularly throughout much of his life).

It makes me wonder about Gertie's life before us when I see the condition of her seats. How could any self-respecting ACVW owner ever allow this to happen? Oh well, no point spending money on covers or replacements when Mitch has a set back in Nebraska from one of his previous Squarebacks. We'll be swapping them sometime in the (hopefully near) future.

I threw some t-shirts over the seats too, mostly because I was tired of my hair getting caught in the duct tape.

I love driving Gertie, and she loves these forest drives. This was on the way home from a hike in the Rattlesnake with some other moms and toddlers we know.

Ludwig shouldn't be the only one having fun mountain drives.

Damn we have pretty vehicles. They look like a couple escapees from a box of crayons.

Post Falls-Missoula

I hope that people aren't overly bored with this trip by now. (A little bored, that's okay.) When blogging there's a fine line to be walked between pictures and text, and length. On the one hand, not everyone has a good internet connection and photo-heavy posts are going to take forever to load, or crash their computer altogether. On the other hand, I get sick of hearing my writer's voice sometimes (like right now), so I must assume that others get sick of it too. Anyway, this is the last post from our Maupin '09 tour.

Yarn! Yarn! Yarn! Finally, after 1068 miles and three failed attempts we finally found yarn! Yarn! Yea for yarn!

This little store is CDA Yarn and Fiber. I spent a good 30 minutes in here wandering around and eavesdropping on the little knitting group that was chatting away. The conversation was just a touch bawdy, in the most rated PG sort of way. It could've been the Missoula knitters, you know, except for the fact that I didn't know any of them and we weren't in Missoula. I couldn't leave without some Fleece Artist Trail Socks yarn (colorway Stone) and some Boku wool/silk blend (it's similar to Noro, but less pricy). The owner couldn't have been more helpful or friendly.

This little gem is Harmony Yarn Studio. The shop is gorgeous (to a knitter at least), and it was another 30 minutes well spent.

Tater Tot seemed to enjoy the table and chairs. Maybe she'll look through some patterns with me next time. Here I bought three skeins of Ella Rae Classic wool, to use with some hat patterns I got at the Big Sky Fiber Fest a few weeks before. I'm also ordered the Tulip Cardigan sweater kit (you can see it in my queue over on Ravelry). Again, the staff was a dream! She was so helpful and kind, and even gave us a free sticker, "Knit Happens", that will eventually make its way on to Gertie.

Knitting porn

And that's it for yarn on the L & G blog until my next birthday (which will no doubt coincide with Maupin).

Now, I'm not trying to be mean, but Melissa and I were talking about Ludwig and how happy we are that he keeps up just fine with sane highway traffic, and how not all bus owners--particularly those ≤1971 owners saddled with Beetle engines--can say the same. For the skeptical, here is proof that Ludwig can easily break 70mph; he had some pedal left at this point.

In Nebraska, you'll see a deer crossing sign with the tag below, "Next 4 miles" or some small number like that. Montana allegedly has six deer for every citizen, and the signs out here say things like, "Deer, Next 160 miles". I think this sign gets it right: You're in Montana, so watch for wildlife. Period.

Tater Tot relaxing with her new shoes, bought at Fred Meyer in Coeur d'Alene. Finally, shoes that don't fall off.

Piney-fresh

Home at last: Missoula. Our house isn't too far from those in the foreground.

(click for map→ miles 221,523-221,701)