Creating Memories

Okay I am done with the gloom, despair and agony. On ward to happy fun things! I am not going to talk about any books or articles. Just life experiences today. I am that sick of reading, I believe my mind is on hiatus because two of my favorite things are being outside in the wilderness and traveling and I AM NOT SUPPOSED TO DO ANY. So I catch my mind wandering back through time. Recently, I have been reminiscing about Montana. Beautiful Montana. I swear if it wouldn’t be winter there for 8 months I would move like…tomorrow. Last summer I took a trip there with my mom and sister. After my gallivanting around two summers before, they wanted to see the sublime too!

The first part of the trip was just my Mom and I staying at Paws Up in a fancy tent along the Blackfoot river. (Rainbow rocks :D) The first night we slept there, I remember waking up at 6:30 am to rustling in our tent. Well then hell no I couldn’t fall back to sleep if I was about to be eaten by a big foot. Twisting and turning I looked over at Mom and loudly whispered, “Do you hear that?” and she said, “Yep, what is it?” so of course the smartest thing I thought of was sticking my head down to look if the creature was under the bed and examining the floor, all the while trying to make sure every other body part was under the covers BECAUSE IT WAS FREEZING. Nothing. I didn’t see anything but the sound made it seem like it was 80 pound beast about to do a flying leap on my face. “I don’t see anything!”. Then, we heard a “funny squeaking noise” (quote from Christmas Vacation) and we both looked back at each other with our eyes widened and she says, “I think its an Otter!” Well, I don’t know if it was absurdity of that or the deliriousness of waking up at the crack of fricken dawn but we broke out into loud whispers of laughter. All the while the creature is having a grand ole time running around inside and then running back outside . We finally go out of the tent to see what was happening and it was a black squirrel! (insert crying laughing face here) Mr. 80 pound otter was our friend for the rest of the time there.

My sister met up with us halfway through the trip on our way up to Glacier National Park. Of course we had no idea that an hour away the road would turn to dirt and I would have to make a significant deduction to my speed; adding another 1/2 hour to get to our Off the Grid cabin. A few days prior to starting our trip, I called the cabin owner and he said that there was a Brown bear with cubs and 2 wolves a few weeks before. Well of course that was on my bucket list to see then! When we got to our cabin, it was very beautiful; perched on the mountain looking down to a bog where beavers were having a grand ole time. We stalked about the place checking out all his antiques and Native American decor… when there it was. I heard my sister say, “Ohhh come look at this!”…….A RED HOT CLAW TUB. Never in my wildest dreams did I think being in Glacier National Park, in the middle of pure wilderness (nowhere), where there is NO SERVICE. (You need to carry a satellite phone if you want to talk to anyone) did I imagine to see a red claw tub. We made it a point for the rest of our stay that every time we used it, we said, “Okay, going to wash in the sex tub!”

On our escapades through Montana, when people were friendly (which was always) we would ask what was one thing we needed to do while here. A majority of them said we needed to drive on Going to the Sun Road in Glacier. So the day we decided to do that, we stopped at a quaint general store . The place was hopping and they had everything from gear, to home baked goods, to groceries, to mugs (where I got my Huckleberry mug), t -shirts, all of it. Outside was a small fruit stand with the best cherry lemonades I have ever tasted in my life. I wanted to drive so my mom and sister could look at everything, but also because I get these spontaneous urges to pull over whenever I damn well please. To my surprise, not ONE of those friendly people said beware because this road has a several hundred feet sheer drop on one side and a several hundred feet mountain cliff on the other side. My sister kept saying, “I’d rather not die today thanks.” But the people that would drive this daily would come ripping around the bends and here I am (acting like a Grammy again) because some areas of the roads were too narrow for two cars to pass through simultaneously because a piece of cliff just decided to stick out in midair. When they called it Going to the Sun Road, I just thought it was a fun name, not because YOU LITERALLY DRIVE UP THE MOUNTAIN AND MEET THE SUN. I would do it all again. Around every bend there was a waterfall, or awesome cliff face with unique coloration, something that demanded attention.

I think everyone should be forced to have an experience in the pure wilderness. Something happens and it alters your mind to come back to what it truly important. Watching tv, playing video games, complaining about a coworker or your job just doesn’t seem to make sense when you are witnessing something truly remarkable. Your body remembers those experiences and thirsts for more. It creates stories you will remember for the rest of your life. Hell, I remember us singing to the top of our lungs, Free Falling by Tom Petty. Each of us snapping a picture pretending bison droppings were our own. Sitting at Bowman Lake and really trying to love our home baked goods and failing because the food was created with a lot of vitamins, filling and energy ingredients. Playing what quote is this movie from and having fellow hikers stare at us because we said something absurd. Experiences like those are the type I will crave for the rest of my life. Wander.