Day 20 - What an adventure!!! Part One

Woke up to light sleet falling.

Most Airstreamers notice when another Airstream passes or they see one parked somewhere.  We do it and so do Bunny and Ed from Washington State.  They passed our campground along Highway 2 in Montana and saw us parked there.  More about Bunny and Ed later.

After breakfast and chores, we hit the road for East Glacier.  Didn't check the map, but it didn't matter, you enter the town of East Glacier and drive between "You can't get there from here" to "The jumping off place for the world."  It's a long way into the park from East Glacier to St. Mary's.  There's one road you can't take long or wide vehicles on...it's scarier to me than the "Going to the Sun Road.!"

We stopped for gas outside East Glacier and noticed a lot of people at the railroad station across the road, so we go to check it out!  Maybe it's a steam train!

Enter East Glacier:

 It's the entrance to the town, not the park.  The train runs above it.

The train we saw was a double-decker passenger train.  Here the conductor was checking his watch.  He actually punched each individual ticket as everyone got on board.  He had a pocketful of pens and pencils.  He also green cards that he wrote on a lot!  Thought I might have been watching a scene out of "Polar Express!"  The one thing he didn't do was yell "ALL ABOARD."  I was a little disappointed.  My grandfather I never knew was a conductor.  I wonder if he did...

Punching the tickets!

And we bid "Fond farewell" to those headed to Chicago and points east!

When it was fashionable to ride the train to East Glacier, you stepped off the train and got into a Jammer.  What's a Jammer?  It's a touring car made by the Checker Company.  They often had to "jam" them into gear crossing the Going to the Sun Highway.

And the cars look like this.  Still in use today!

You would also step to the car and see the view of the Lodge:

It was a beautiful site!  Onward around the park.  We passed the "World's Largest Purple Spoon."  Didn't get a picture.  Then scary road, but worth the drive!

The road goes over the area on Highway 89 and includes the area that burned two years ago.  You may remember that we were caught in that fire and forced to drive 100 miles out of the way to escape the danger.  It's sad to see it all burned still.  There doesn't appear to be much new growth.

All along the way we noticed faded flags, shirts, etc., tied to trees.  All of the ones we saw were on the Blackfeet Nation.  We later found out that they are prayer flags.  Some trees had dozens of them on them.


We road over the hill to the town of St. Mary's and decided to have lunch there.  We'd eaten at one of the two restaurants before and headed to the one we knew.  Alas, it was closed.  So we go to the other one that offers all kinds of pie...20 or more different kinds.  I made the comment to David as we left that "I was glad it was our second trip here to this restaurant....first and last!"   The service was terrible!  We had to wait at a dirty table and then they tried to give us the bill for the table.  We explained we had just gotten there!  We changed tables because a table that would seat 2 people had 4 sitting around it so we swapped.  The couples next to us at the new table had to tell the waitress their food had been sitting under the warming lights for 15 minutes.  Our orders were wrong and it took forever!!!  Why didn't we leave?  No where else to go.   We decided to try some pie as it was all they advertised.  Every flavor I checked on they were out of.  David got his razzleberry pie that he asked to be heated.  It was at least a little warm.  The next table had a difficult time with the waitress, too.  She'd say they had they pie they wanted and they'd order it only to have her say they didn't have it.  Won't go back there!

We did drive some of the Going to the Sun Road.  The whole road is about 50 miles in length and goes from west to east and back.  It crosses the Continental Divide at Logan Pass somewhere near the middle of the road.  The road isn't scheduled to open completely until June 18.  Snow and rock slides have blocked the middle section.  We could drive as far as Jackson Glacier..about 16 miles.


I did get a photo of Wild Goose Island.  It was taken in the misting rain.

One view of the clouds lifting was one I really liked:

This place is amazing!  It's mid-afternoon, so we start the journey back over Highway 89 and here we meet Ed and Bunny!

See ya down the road!

Jenny :)