On Friday, July 30, 2021 Lisa and I departed Billings, Montana for a six hour drive to the small town of Anaconda, Montana. This was a one-night stay at the city's RV park that is located near their swimming pool and baseball field. The park has grass and you are allowed to drive up and park on the grass. It was a very pretty park and the cost was only $10. There were no services, but we are fully contained and this worked out very well for us. We drove around the town to get a feel for it and hiked near the park. There is a nice stream that flows right through the park and deer roam freely. We even got to within about ten feet of one. He (or she) was checking us out. We had a very comfortable night and departed the next morning for a three hour drive to Seeley Lake and Mel and Carol Power's home.

Saturday, July 31, 2021 - We drove to Mel and Carol Power's home in Seeley Lake, Montana. We arrived at Mel and Carol's at about 11:00 in the morning. They have a beautiful home and Mel made sure to have an RV station with full service capability installed as the house was being built. The site is level and even has 50 amp electrical service. We hooked up our RV and we were ready to visit. We stayed in the RV even though they invited us to stay in their guest room.

After hooking up the RV, we settled in to visiting with Mel and Carol. They are in the process of selling their home so that they can move to Fernley, Nevada. Someone is going to end up with a beautiful home in the heart of Montana's Seeley Lake community. They are packing and getting ready to make the move. Mel is in much better health and Carol is a "God-send" who helps Mel throughout the day. When we visited last year, Carol (how is one of the best hostesses I have ever seen) made a wonderful meatloaf dinner; I requested a replay. The meal that night started with a jello-salad with pears followed by the main course of meatloaf and scalloped potatoes. Yum-Yum!! After dinner we had a yellow cake with chocolate frosting for dessert. Had to make room for it because it was too delicious to pass up. After dinner it was more visiting and then we returned to our RV quite contented and ready to take a long nap.

Note: Lisa and I are both on diets, BUT we put them "on the back burner" during our stay at Mel and Carol's. The food is just too good to pass up and the socialization is so much fun too. We will "jump back on the bandwagon" once we get to Glacier.

One of Mel's good friends and fishing buddy is named Paul and he stopped by to show Mel the 12' aluminum fishing boat that he had purchased. He also has a six-horsepower motor to go on it that has been sitting idle over the winter. Paul made a commitment to Mel to bring his motor by the house on Saturday so that we could get the motor running properly.

Sunday, August 1, 2021 - Mel and Carol had recommended a bicycling route the went around Seeley Lake on a road called "Boy Scout." It turned out to be the best biking route in the area with very little traffic and great views of Seeley Lake. It also crossed several streams. We sighted deer along the road and had a great time on the ride. We crossed over a bridge on Seeley Lake that went over a long cove (about one and a half miles long ) that was fairly narrow with lilly-pads lining each side. We decided to come back to the lake and kayak on this cove before we leave. The bike route ended up being 21 miles round trip. That was a good distance and the maximum gradient was five percent for a short distance' most was four or less percent. Pretty easy.

Around 2:00 in the afternoon, we had a knock at the door and Carol had brought us some hot tea and clover honey to enjoy on the deck. Talk about thoughtful! Like I said, Carol is a fantastic hostess. The tea was one of her favorites and is now one of my favorites too. She even gave me two bags of the tea and a large bottle of the clover honey to go with it. Wow! That was such a nice gesture; Mel is a lucky guy.

Later in the afternoon, I decided to make another trip on the bike route, so I ended up with 42 miles for the day. Trying to lose a little weight and get better at climbing on my bike. After we got back to the RV, we made arrangements with Mel and Carol for me to cook my "world famous" (in my mind anyways) hot pot beef stew. I really like the Hot Pot that Mandy and William (my son and daughter) gave us before we started our journey.

Carol, being the great hostess that she is, volunteered to make the salad and bring bread for our dinner, so all I had to prepare was the stew. The meat selection at "Cory's" the main super-market in Seeley Lake was a little low, so I opted for Tri-Tip meat and it came out great. They came to our trailer during a thunderstorm with significant rain, but no wind. The temperature was a very pleasant 75 degrees too, so we at on the side-deck with the awning extended and the rain coming down. We were dry and comfortable and the meal was excellent. It was fun with the sound and smell of the rain while we ate and visited. My only regret was not taking a photo of Carol's salad. She had positioned the tomatoes, avocados, red onions, boiled/sliced eggs, and more all around the top and it looked great; what a hostess. When Lisa and I had been on our bike ride, we stopped in town at a Farmer's Market that is held weekly. I bought a huckleberry/blue berry pie. We warmed the pie for dessert and added whipped cream and vanilla ice cream on the side; to die for. It was one of the best pies that I have ever eaten. The crust was thin, flakey, full of flavor. We all really enjoyed it and planned to have the second half for dessert and tomorrow's evening meal.

Monday, August 2, 2021 - Mel's friend, Paul, had planned to come by with his boat and motor at around 9:00 AM, so I meandered out to visit with Mel and Paul showed up. Mel had a small tank that was perfect for running the motor, but we had trouble getting it running properly. We called a person in town who works on small motors, including boat motors named Woody. Woody is retired and in struggling health, but he agreed to take a look at the motor. When we arrived at his home, we found that he was on an oxygen system. He took it off and walked out to the motor. He drained the carburetor sump and forced some carb-cleaner into the engine from a can of spray. We did not run the motor there, but when we got back to Mel's, it ran perfectly. That was the problem; a "gunked up" carburetor from sitting idle over the winter.

We had some light rain as we were working on the motor, and after we were done, it began to rain more. Lisa had gone for a walk and Mel and I realized that she was caught in the rain, so I took the truck to look for her. I found her a short distance away and gave her a ride back to the house.

For dinner, Carol provide stuffed peppers and jello-salad. We also had garlic bread and vegetables. Wow! What a great meal! After dinner, we had more huckle-berry and blue-berry pie with whipped cream and vanilla ice cream; it doesn't get much better than this. During and after dinner, more visiting and then off to the RV for relaxation and sleep. This was a day well lived.

Tuesday, August 3, 2021 - We started the day with breakfast at the Double Arrow Lodge. Mel and Carol's home is not adjacent, but very close to the local golf course. They meet with several of their friends every Tuesday morning for breakfast and visiting. Today is a very special day because one of Mel's friends, Marcia, had organized their annual Prime Rib and Salmon dinner at the Grey Wolf Lodge for dinner. More on this later. We had a great visit and the conversation was so much fun. As we departed the lodge after breakfast, we saw a gorgeous Polaris Razor parked in the lot. A six-seater. We are considering a "side-by-side" and this was a fantastic one. We think it is a little too long for the RV garage though.

After breakfast, Lisa and I drove over to Seeley Lake with the kayaks for a few hours on the water. It was an awesome day with very little to no wind at all. We kayaked about a mile and a half down a cove to the point where the water in Seeley Lake exits the lake. It was so pretty with lots of lilly pads (an invasive species) along the way. Be sure to see the video that we have posted on this trip.

After the kayaking trip, we came back to the RV and got cleaned up for the evening's Prime Rib dinner. We started the trip to the Grey Wolf Lodge with a visit to Jim and Marcia's home for hors d'oeuvres before our drive to the Grey Wolf Lodge. Jim and Marcia are great hosts. We then drove to the obscure, well-off-the-road location of Grey Wolf Lodge. It is about 15 miles from Mel's home and nearly all of this distance is on dirt roads. It is extremely pretty and we were constantly looking for wild animals. Grey Wolf Lodge is a wedding facility well hidden in the woods. They will serve meals to large groups when there is not a wedding in progress. Marcia had set this dinner for twenty people, so it worked out well. The facility is quite rustic and the food was great. Be sure to see the video on our visit to Mell and Carol's home which includes shots of this dinner. We even got to tour the bridal suite and it was awesome. Apparently, the cost of having a wedding here is not too high. Very pretty. After dinner, we took a nice leisurely drive back home looking for animals all the way.

Wednesday, August 4, 2021 - After getting up and having a light breakfast, we did all the work necessary to get the rig ready to roll for our trip to the Glacier National Park area. Once it was all set up, we went up to visit with Mel and Carol. We had coffee and snacks on the deck of their home. At around 12:30, we, sadly, departed Mel and Carol's home for North American RV Park and Glacier National Park.