Flathead River

Here's a picture of the Flathead River south and west of Flathead Lake as the sun went down recently. I forgot I took these pictures. They turned out kind of strange. There was a lot of light around even though it was sort of dusk out, so I set the camera to 400 and took a few shots.

Two Medicine and Saint Mary

Two storms moved through the park while we were there. One was bad enough to close the Going to the Sun Highway for a day. It just poured down rain. We had two small leaks around the windows of the Aristocrat during the first rain storm but it was easily fixed with a little silicone when the weather cleared. While we were in Two Medicine the ranger warned us about the "perfect storm" that was going to hit us again. But we decided to go to Waterton anyway and spend the day in the sunshine to the north. When we got back to Two Medicine (above) the storm was clearning.

The picture above is Saint Mary Lake with clouds rolling in.

Logan Pass photo

I know a lot of people take this picture at the top of Logan Pass looking east but I thought this one had good color. We drove up the east side of the Going to the Sun Highway this trip and I haven't been up that side of the pass in years. Lately we've been taking the free bus up the west side and I think that's really the thing to do instead of driving up, especially when there's lots of people, plus it saves on gas. It's often hard to find a place to park if you go up during the middle of the day anyway.

The red busses aren't free though just the more modern shuttles, but it's still nice that they are around as they give the park that nostalgic feel. I'm just the kind of guy that if I can be on a free bus or pay to take the red one, I'll go on the free one every time! Here's a red bus above Upper Saint Mary's Lake.

Glacier Waterton park vacation

Queenie and I spend the week up in Glacier National Park with a day trip up to Waterton. Here's a pic I took of Waterton. I've been wanting to go up there for a long time now and finally got to do it on a beatiful day. I'll post more pics of that area later.

We camped on the west side of Glacier for the first part of the week in Apgar and then we moved to the east side and made Two Medicine our base camp. Here's a pic of the 1969 Aristocrat travel trailer that was our home for a week. It was very comfy and everything worked with the exception of the oven pilot light which kept going out, but I'm sure I can resolve that problem. The fridge worked as did the toilet and we kept dry in the most intense rain storms.

Here's a pic of queenie and me on Logan Pass. I haven't had time to blog lately but I plan to post more pics of this vacation as we took a lot. It was really beautiful up there and there's a lot to go through.

Wild Horse Island pine trees

Here's a picture I took of pine trees on Wild Horse Island as I made my way back down to the shore.

Boat trip to Wild Horse Island

I made my first trip to Wild Horse Island recently. I beached the skiff at Rocky Beach and while I was there some people came in and hit a big rock under the surface with their ski boat. Man it made a loud bang. It's always so nice being on Wild Horse Island.

I came upon some bucks in the velvet. These deer are going to have some impressive racks this fall when their antlers fully develop. A storm moved in so I had to scamper back down the hill to get off of the island and back to the cabin.

The weather can change quickly on Flathead Lake, but my skiff is a very safe boat for its size.

Here's a picture looking back at Melita Island and the rain behind me as I raced home to out run the storm. Melita Island is just south of Wild Horse Island.

Replacing the roof vent on the Aristocrat travel trailer

I had to replace the roof vent on our vintage Aristocrat travel trailer. The old one did not have the proper lid which was just taped in place, so of course you couldn't open or close it. Thankfully it didn't leak. First I had to grind and cut away the goop that covered all of the screw heads so I could get a socket on them. That took forever and was a difficult task. I used my Dremel tool to grind around them and then an Xacto knife to cut the screw head free.

After I removed all of the screws, I pulled the old vent out and then cleaned the opening removing all of the old putty tape.

After I cleaned off the old goop and putty tape I scrubbed the area with steel wool and then cleaned the area with rubbing alcohol. Then I positioned the new vent in the opening and marked where it would be centered. I drew around the vent flashing with a marking pen. That mark also allowed me to position the new putty tape.
I positioned the new putty tape inside the lines I had drawn with the marking pen. I overlapped the tape in the corners and squished it together with my fingers.
I attached the new vent using #8 by 3/4 sheet metal screws. The wood was perfect in the framing and the screws went in well. Next I need to go around the edge of the flange with a sealant I got at the RV place. I'll do that tonight.
Here's what it looks like from the inside. I left the original metal interior trim in place and didn't use the plastic one provided with the new vent. I think it looks more retro with the metal interior flashing. Aristocrats seem to have this wire for lighting going along the walls and ceiling. My parents Aristocrat had this same sort of wiring also. Anyway, now I have the vent and rear window fixed. There's still more work to be done, but the only thing I really need to do now is fix one of the window screens and we will be able to use the trailer for our vacation in Glacier.

Brown black bear

Here's another picture of a black bear with a brown pelt, that I took in Canada last weekend. I just rolled down my window and snapped a few pics and then went on my way. They look slow and awkward but they can run really fast and can be on you in seconds. Plus I didn't want its filthy paws (and claws) on my nice clean lilly white car... This one looked pretty mean, but I've noticed that when you get close to bears they all look sort of artifitial. This bear and one other one were feading on dandilions. Who knew they ate dandilions? It wasn't growling, it just had a mouth full of dandilions.

Retro camping

We took the retro camper to Fairmont Hot Springs in BC last weekend. Here's a picture of it with the Columbia Valley in the background. I say "retro camper" because one time I was camping in it and some kid said "nice retro camper!" to me,.. and I was thinking it was just a camper but now I guess it's retro. And come to think of it, maybe I'm retro along with it?..

Queenie has been collecting Melmac to go along with the rest of our retro camping gear. So we got to have coffee for the first time in the lovely cups she found, and we made the coffee in the retro Revere Ware coffee pot that used to be part of the Gochenour collection. I appropriated it for our summer camping.

Painting in Missoula

You have to be careful when you pick someone to paint your fence in Missoula,.. I'd be happy with the job this person did.

They did a nice job on the Garage too,. Not sure who the artist is but I like it,. Only in Missoula.

Big Arm bay Flathead Lake

Here I go again,.. another picture of Big Arm bay in Flathead Lake.

I retain all rights to my photos.  Please do not use any of my photos without permission.

Vintage Melmac Dinnerware

Queenie bought this lovely vintage Melmac Dinnerware for us to use in the Aristocrat travel trailer when we go camping. I already have some other pieces to go with it and the hunt is on for more. We have to go for the full retro experience because modern things just aren't quite the same now, are they..?

Aristocrat travel trailer

Well I've been working on the vintage Aristocrat travel trailer to get it ready for summer camping. The previous owner had removed the awning that covers the front windows. It protects the windows from rocks on the highway and provides shade when camping. Plus they just look cool and the Aristocrat looked naked without it because trailers this vintage usually had them. Anyway the awning came in pieces with the trailer. So I managed to find all of the pieces, clean the years of grime off of the fiberglass pieces and figure out how it all went back together. I still have to get a few sheet metal screws for that. The picture above shows the awning closed, and below it is open.

Next I need to work on the truck side of my lighting issues. I think I have a bad ground somewhere in my truck connector as I get very weak lights on my boat trailer as well and I don't have this problem with the other tow vehicle, so I'm going to take apart and solder all of those connections. Then I need to figure out the wiring situation inside the trailer. The interior lights work but I don't understand how the running and tail lights are hooked up or how the RV battery plays in. I might even have to take this in to someone to reslove this but I'll try myself first.

Kootenay National Park pictures

Queenie and I went to Kootenay National Park over the weekend and took a lot of pictures. This is the Kootenay River at Dolly Varden.

Looking the other direction from the same spot at Dolly Varden.

Here's a picture of Queenie taking a picture of the Kootenay River. We both enjoy photography and Kootenay Park is beautiful this time of year as everything is coming back to life.

But watch out for the Bears! They are coming back to life too. This is a black bear with a brown pelt. A brown bear in color only and not a Grizzly. Between us we saw a total of seven bears in the park. We saw a black bear sow with two cubs, one that was black and one that was brown like the bear above. It isn't the best picture but here they are below. My uncle would call a brown black bear like this a "cinamon bear". So I think there's a lot of confusion when it comes to calling a bear a brown bear, because Brown bear technically means part of the family of bears that includes Grizzly and Kodiak, and that's different from a black bear. But I can see why we get confused. Brown black bears do look different than regular black bears.

Melita Island in Flathead Lake

Here's another morning picture I took a few weeks ago of Flathead Lake with Melita Island in view. I just zoomed in more on it. The Mission Mountains are off in the distance.

I retain all rights to my photos.  Please do not use any of my photos without permission.

Picture of Flathead Lake

I was watching this TV show about this artist, and he was making all of these circles that sort of all looked the same to me. Different but the same. It showed these people going through the art gallery looking at these cirlces and I had to wonder what they were thinking,.. Like that one is slightly different than the last one we looked at.., but very much the same.. I imagined they thought..

And then on my way to Flathead Lake I was listening to the new CD I bought for the road trip. The complete Columbia recordings of the Stanley Brothers. Ralph and Carter Stanley. Old time bluegrass recordings from 1949 to 1952. After listening to this music for quite a while I started to think that all of these songs sounded pretty much the same. Different but the same..

At Flathead Lake I took some pictures in the moring of Flathead Lake. Then I was looking at them and I thought,.. all of my pictures of Flathead Lake look the same.. different but the same...

So here's another picture of Flathead Lake that is different but much the same as all of the other pictures I've taken. Still,.. not going to stop me from taking more.

Spillimacheen and Columbia Rivers

Spillimacheen British Columbia near confluence of the Spillimacheen and Columbia Rivers. Another lovely spring weekend in Canada with Queenie.

Nathan and his octave mandolin

I logged into blogger on my laptop after I got back from Montana to make a blog post only to find out the browser was too old to continue to work with Blogger,.. so I switched to my desktop and then I couldn't get the pics off of my Nikon because the operating system on it won't read the new SDHC card.. It seems they are doing everything they can to keep me from blogging... and it's actually working... Anyway I finally got the pics off of my camera.

I stopped to get gas for my lawn mower in Montana and I noticed the guy behind the counter had what I thought was a really cool Weber Mandola. So I said "nice mandola." As it turned out it was an octave mandolin and Nathan gave me a very nice little concert on it. One of the highlights of my weekend actually. He's really good. Inspires me to practice more.

Pictures of Flathead Lake

Here are a couple of Flathead Lake pictures. One as the sun went down on above and as it came up the next morning below. If you open up the picture below you can see Melita Island in the morning haze off on the left.

i retain all rights to my photos,  do not use without permission!

Lake Windermere picture

Queenie and I went for a walk along the shores of Lake Windermere in British Columbia. We were the only people around, and the lake looked like it needed a shave at this spot. Hey I'm the same way and don't always shave on the weekends if nobody's around.