Thursday, October 6, 2022

For the last few days Andi’s parents, Janie and Jim, are traveling with us, Andi rented a different airbnb rental cabin in Seeley Lake, Montana. This house has plenty of space for all of us to spend time together, plus two bedrooms and a loft area. Janie and Jim took one bedroom last night and Aden slept in the other room.

We got up this morning and made breakfast in the kitchen. Andi worked in the RV while Tory, Aden and I did school work at the kitchen bar. Afterwards, the six of us drove the RV into town to check out the town of Seeley Lake.

Honestly, the town is smaller than we all expected. Our family camped north of here in the Holland Lake area a few years ago, and for some reason we remembered there being more substance to Seeley Lake. The small town has a few shops and restaurants (which were mostly closed today) and a gas station/hot deli & pizza counter/ACE Hardware called Rovero’s. We shopped around town at Grizzly Claw — a bookstore/coffee shop/rock shop where a friend of Janie’s works. Unfortunately, she wasn’t there the day we visited. Our stop wasn’t for nothing though. Jim bought a book, Aden bought some Lay’s chips to eat, and Tory bought a heart-shaped rock. Speaking of eating, not much was open for lunch given the off-season, but one of the gift shop employees recommended a place called Pop’s in town. We drove there next to get a bite to eat for lunch.

Pop’s Cafe was a typical small-town diner. We were greeted at the door by a very friendly waitress who seated us at the only six-person table in the restaurant. Most of us ordered burgers from the menu, except for Aden who had chicken tenders and I ordered a chicken wrap. Our food was very good & we enjoyed listening to semi-group conversations happening happening inside the restaurant about the daily pie specials and a big larch tree in the area.

After lunch, a restaurant patron who saw us piling into the RV, stopped to recommend we go check out Gus the largest larch tree in the US. Why not? Without much of a plan for the afternoon, we decided check it out.

The big larch tree (also called a tamarack tree) is located only a few minutes away from the Main Street in Seeley Lake, and has a dirt small parking lot at the entrance. We parked the RV there and walked about 0.5 miles to the base of the tree located in a pretty tamarack grove. There are some big trees in this area, but Gus — a 1,000 year old western larch — is the grand-daddy of them all. All six of us reached around the trunk of the tree with outstretched arms and barely made it around the perimeter.

Andi and I had originally thought we’d all hike at Morrell Falls this afternoon, but decided it might be easier to walk the nearby Boy’s Scout trail in this area. Sometimes, we spend more time driving to the “perfect hike” when there’s plenty of trails all around us. Janie stayed back in the RV to make a few phone calls while Jim, Andi, Tory, Aden and I walked the 2-mile loop. A very easy walk through the mature grove of trees; we all enjoyed it.

Next, we drove to one of the beaches along Seeley Lake to admire the scenery. The lake reflection was beautiful on this calm, sunny fall day and best of all — we had the whole place completely to ourselves. There’s something pretty special about traveling in the shoulder season!

Later that afternoon, we stopped by Cory’s Valley Market on the way back to the rental cabin for a few groceries. Surprisingly, there was a much better selection at this store than the last store we stopped at south of Missoula. We purchased a few veggies and breakfast items + another box of Creamies (a regionally-made ice cream bar) for Grandpa Jim. He can’t stop talking about them ever since he had his first one in Sula a few days ago.

I pre-made two meatloaves before we left on this trip, and defrosted those for dinner tonight. It was nice to have something warm & comforting for dinner ready to heat & eat when we returned to the rental cabin. Janie roasted some delica squash as a side with mashed potatoes.

While dinner cooked, Tory talked with her friend Abby on FaceTime while Aden and Janie played outside. It made me smile to look out the window and see Janie riding around the drive-way on Tory’s 20-inch bike alongside Aden! What lucky kids these two are to have grandparents who care so much about them.