Kalispell, Montana

We spent the night here, and will pick up our forwarded mail at the post office. I have to say that, what Kalispell lacks in charm, it makes up for in traffic. Nancy is reading the morning paper aloud: "Glacier is in a designated EPA poor air quality region." No surprise, looking out the window at this traffic. "There is a plan in the works to build a new coal-fired generating plant in the area. It will spew a million tons of CO2 , 4000 tons of SO2, and 2300 tons of NO2 a year. the glaciers in Glacier NP will be gone by 2030." And a final note: "Cheney was just in town doing a fund raiser for senator Burns."

I have finished off the Hutterite sauerkraut. great stuff. The Hutterites speak an old dialect of German. I doubt their lexicon includes the much newer word, "auspuffen".

Here is Nancy's blog for the day.

8.16 Nancy
Yesterday I nursed a broken heart times 30 or how ever many horses I had to leave up on that mountain. The sadness was gigantic. It was almost as hard as spending great time with Arian then having to leave. Those horses refreshed me spiritually, soothed and thrilled. The fact that there could be horses roaming around these pristine meadows and forests meant that anything was possible, and soon I saw them sprout wings and soar, of course with me on board, discovering new planets. I felt 7 again.
While Jack was up on the hill watching them fight and frolic and getting pictures of that which have yet to be developed (whew! Stay tuned!), I was roaming in a meadowy spot with a group of 7 others: stallion, two mares and 4 babies of different colors. I tried to read their mood and to make sure especially that the stallion didn’t mind my presence among his beautiful brood. He seemed calm; I just sat and waited to see what would happen, and soon they were grazing all around me, eyes half closed while they munched. I could not have been happier.
Then there was the roan mare coming right up behind us as we sat on a rock, sniffed our hats, asked what we were doing and let me pet her nose. Yippee! Then the little gray youngster who nibbled on Jack’s tripod and let me scratch his ears. They are wild and yet they’re used to being loved and noticed by humans, and no person has ever harmed them so they don’t associate us with anything negative. They roam the mountains and their range is huge – half the time they’re no where to be seen – but if they are around they just don’t mind people at all.

My amazing brother, finding these Pryor Mountain horses on google earth! Rock on, Bud!

But, out of that unique paradise we had to come. Now we’re outside of Missoula headed in to Kalispell, Montana before going in to Canada. My crazy, fruit-loving husband just bought TEN POUNDS of black cherries from the roadside stand. But wait, there’s just two of us, right? These are the most delicious cherries ever ever in the world and at a dollar a pound a bargain, but still. I remember Jack doing this a couple of years ago and we had to stop constantly for him to -- let’s say move them through his system on a regular basis. I’ll keep y’all posted on this exciting subject.

This Hwy 93 from Missoula to Kalispell is gorgeous! Dang I love Montana. Too bad about the forest fire smoke.
I think all the time with the horses means we can’t also go to Glacier NP if we want to be out of Canada before winter and see the kids before we turn 80.

Love to you all and thanks for encouraging our blog!