Saturday, August 4, 2001 Texas to Alaska Model T Travel Report |
Today's report sponsored by: |
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1-800-337-6977 |
Last Revised: November 15, 2003
Saturday, August 4, 2001 Texas to Alaska Model T Travel Report |
Today's report sponsored by: |
|
1-800-337-6977 |
Day 60 - August 4, 2001 - We slept in a little and met for breakfast before leaving Kalispell on our drive to Deer Lodge, Montana. We have decided we really like Montana. The trees are lush and green. The farms are huge with rolling hills and mountains in the distance. There are lovely rivers and streams everywhere. We took at little gravel side road as a shortcut that turned out to be really nice. It was a lovely Model T day. The last few miles, we had to go on the interstate but even that wasn't too bad as the traffic was light. The Fordor ran beautifully, taking the hills in stride. We were checked into our motel by 6:00 pm and sitting down to dinner by 7:00. There is an excellent antique car museum in Deer Lodge but we arrived too late to go and were too tired to call and see if we could come anyway. I think everyone had crashed by 9:00 pm.
Since I've fallen a little behind in the website, I'll let the pictures tell the rest of our day.
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| 804a - Driving out of Kalispell, MT, the mountains were to the northeast and we were struck by the number of lovely farms just outside of town. The traffic on the highway through Kalispell was pretty heavy so we were happy to get off on more rural roads. |
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| 804b - David Cooley (from Kalispell) had recommended a road for us to Deer Lodge that he said was a lot more scenic than the main road and we were glad we took his advice. This road ran through lakes and hills and, even though there were a lot of motor homes on the same road, it wasn't too crazy because there were enough places for people to pass. This beautiful lake was on the way. It was very long and extremely clear. We stopped once along a bluff and you could see way down into the water. Very nice. |
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| 804c - Another pretty lake along our route. The lakes are shared by boat fishermen and water skiers, an odd combination. We later took a few minutes to wade in the water and it was pretty chilly. I bet it was freezing for the water skiers. |
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| 804d - A roadside break. Taylor, who loves to chew and fetch sticks, drug this one out of the woods and wanted someone to play with him. He would run around in a circle and dragged it behind him trying to get someone to throw it. He and Ross play fetch a lot but Ross wasn't up for some javelin throwing. |
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| 804e - Some of the lakes had little islands on them and several of the little islands had houses or cabins on them. We could live here. We all discussed it and decided that Montana was beautiful and that we could live here. |
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| 804f - I hope you can see the eagle circling over Ben's head. We stopped at the river and three eagles were greatly disturbed at us invading their space. They swooped overhead and yelled at us before they flew off across the river to wait for us to leave. They were golden eagles and probably had a nest in the trees above us. |
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| 804g - Jennifer, Ginger and Taylor check out an old abandoned ford in the river. We originally went down there thinking we might be able to cross it with the T's but the road had been blocked. |
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| 804h - At the same ford. What a pretty place this was! The water was clear and cold, you may have noticed how blue the sky was, the sun was shining. A really wonderful moment. |
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| 804i - At a Montana ranch. We saw lots of horses coming through Montana. These guys were riding and stopped to look at us. We, of course, were equally interested in them. |
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| 804j - Jennifer and Taylor riding down a dusty gravel road. Taylor has taken over the shelf behind the driver but, this time, was sitting alongside Jennifer to watch for cows. He LOVES cows and, shortly after this picture was taken, tried his best to go out the window to round them up. Jennifer snagged him by one leg and pulled him back in. |
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| 804k - Approaching the end of the gravel short-cut, nearing Deer Lodge, we passed this beautiful ranch. The ranches raise cattle and the crops they raise are primarily hay or other forage for their cattle. The snows are so deep that the cattle would not survive the winter if the rancher didn't have a barn full of feed. |
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| 804l - Can you see the grass on the shed roof? This old abandoned barn was within a few miles of the interstate highway connection that led us into Deer Lodge and was an interesting surprise. We saw a lot of grass-covered barns in Alaska but this is our first in Montana. |
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| 804m - Driving the interstate into Deer Lodge, we saw another double rainbow. It was a good ending to our day and a good omen to a trouble-free day for the Fordor and its new crankshaft. |
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