Wednesday June 21st 2017

This was my last full day in the Glacier National Park area. It was a sunny day with fairly strong winds late in the day. My activities today were a real mixed bag.

I started the day with a grocery store expedition. I drove thirty miles into Kalispell MT to the Walmart Supercenter. I passed one grocery store about 20 miles into my expedition, but other than that there are only general store and convenience store type places. Overall it took two and a half hours to get what I needed to restock the refrigerator and food storage cabinets. It was a needed task since there isn’t much commerce at my next stop in Deer Lodge MT for the weekend.

Later in the day I made a run into Glacier National Park to see if by dumb luck the Going to the Sun Road was open. When I entered the park the message board that had previously announced the road was closed had been turned off, so it was looking positive. Another positive sign was the traffic heading up the road. It was very heavy. As I approached the Avalanche visitor area were the road had been closed, I didn’t see any signs announcing the road was closed. Unfortunately, it was still closed. My guess is it will open tomorrow or Friday. The web site tracking the progress has shown the two snow removal crews having met at Logan Pass for the last two days.

On my way back out of Glacier NP the “Oil Life” indicator in my car came on. This happens when the sensors think there is only fifteen percent life left in the car’s oil. It was at thirty percent when I checked a week or so ago. I had passed a Jiffy Lube on my way for groceries this morning, so I headed fifteen miles down the road for an oil change. This place wasn’t into changing oil in a jiffy. It took more than half an hour even though they started right away.

The pictures in tonight’s blog are all from various plantings in the campground. It seems like someone is always tending the flower beds and hanging plants.