Last/first post gave you a brief overview of what we decided to do and how we got there. Now it’s time to let you know some of the details of getting to the place where we could leave and what’s been happening since we departed Bellingham.
First of all, let me say it was a concerted effort to actually leave! Leaving is always a chore for us, but now we had to say goodbye to our family and many, many friends. To leave on any length of trip there is the inevitable check list of what needs to be gathered and stowed for the trip. When we are leaving for an indefinite period of time, the list is different. Do we have all our necessities? What about all the things that go into changing addresses after 40 years! How about Estate Planning and updates to our will? All these things and more needed to be dealt with before we could leave.
We also had some stuff that we couldn’t decide what to do with. We have a fairly small travel trailer (TT) of 180 sq ft, so lots of things we wanted to bring along simply couldn’t come. We are limited in the weight we can carry as well as the space available to store everything. So everything got taken out, looked at and a decision had to be made…again! Take, store, get rid of. “We’ll save this for our next, bigger trailer.”, we told ourselves regarding things we really wanted with us but couldn’t find room for.
Thanks to our pastor and his generosity in letting us stay in our church parking lot, and a good relationship we developed through the years with our next door neighbors and their parents, we had two lovely places to bring our new home after we had to move out of the driveway of our old house. Between our church and our old neighbors place we were able to take several days to get the final sorting of our things organized and say a few more goodbyes. Yes, we missed some of you and I’m sorry!! We will return, God willing, and reconnect in a few months!!
We finally took off on August 6, 2021. Our first destination was predetermined by a non-refundable RV resort reservation we made in Montana by Flathead Lake. Let me say that Flathead is a beautiful place and I highly recommend visiting there whenever you can. Put it on your must see list! There are a few things we learned during our stay here that will help you have a great time.
First of all, try to get a reservation where you actually have access to the lake. We were in a park that was close to the lake, but there was no easy access to it. There are lovely state parks that provide beach access, but those parks are pretty busy in the summer. In state residents have free access to the parks, and out of state residents pay a minimal daily fee of $8 per day. You can also camp in the state parks but you need to reserve those spaces early! The fees vary for these sites and can be found at this link for their website. https://fwp.mt.gov/stateparks/fees-and-general-information
The next thing I would recommend when visiting Flathead Lake is to bring water craft if you have any. A kayak, stand up paddle board, or anything else would have been super fun! If you don’t have watercraft/toys, then look around for some place to rent something. The one place we found to possibly rent small boats was closed for the season due to Covid, so we didn’t get on the water. I’m certain we could have found something somewhere if we would have persisted, but we did have work that needed to be accomplished, so we passed on the watercraft. That being said, I believe a kayak or some sort of watercraft is in our future because we end up on lakes quite often!
The final thing I will say about Flathead Lake has to do with working. Andy has a remote job that REQUIRES him to get access to the internet daily. The park we stayed in had WIFI, but it was totally inadequate! So often, RV parks do not have good internet, and this one was like so many others. We finally ended up in Kalispell where we bought a MIFI hotspot to be sure we can get online. That was a bit of an expensive solution but we have not had huge problems getting connected since then.
If you have questions or comments feel free to put them on the bottom. I would love to interact with you and answer any questions. I am also happy to entertain suggestions as to where we should go and what we should see. We have already acted upon several suggestions and we haven’t been disappointed!
Thanks for checking in! There will be more to come in the future. We have traveled through several states and gone several thousand miles so far, so keep checking in for updates. I will will continue to write about our adventures even if we are a few weeks behind in our actual location. Until next time, God bless you and keep you!
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