Kinga The Road

We had great weather until our second day near Glacier National Park. Then the rain came and seemed to follow us everywhere. More on that in separate posts from earlier days, some of which we'll backfill once we get to Calgary tomorrow. Right now we're enjoying a one night hotel stay in Edmonton. I'm taking this opportunity to talk about some of the serendipity that came our way while we waited out the rain. 

Our campsite near Glacier National Park, Leaning Tree, was about 8 miles outside the entrance of the park. It's run by a couple of Blackfeet woman (the place is on the Blackfeet Reservation just outside the park). After our morning drive to into the park to see pretty much nothing but clouds, we ended up spending the entire day in the cafe at Leaning Tree. Now, the cafe wasn't open. It was a Sunday. But the adjoining convenience store was. But the woman who was minding the store invited us to sit in the cafe. The place is a local hangout. Even though they weren't serving food that day, some regulars came in to sit around and pass the time. The woman minding the store served coffee gratis. When we got there, there were a couple of old Blackfeet guys playing cards and shooting the breeze. They gossiped about other people they knew, about one of their ex-wives (an alcoholic now deceased), and talked about the country songs playing on Pandora in the background. They asked us about our travels. One of the guys saved us some border hassle by letting us know that, besides our ID and COVID paperwork, we needed to fill out some online information about our trip before going to Canada the next day.

The best view we had on our first drive into Glacier National Park on a drab, rainy morning

The Leaning Tree Campground in Babb, Montana

The woman minding the store was watching a British baking show and beading some moccasins for her younger child. She and Vicky hit it off and talked about crafts and baking. We spent the entire day there. The drab weather was just not inviting us to do another drive in the mountains. As we headed back to our site, a couple of Blackfeet guys staying at a cabin next to our site invited us to the powwow the next morning. One of the guys was competing in a Warrior Games event involving running, canoeing, and swimming.

Our campground was home (temporary in some cases) to several dogs and a cat who pretty much had the run of the place. The owner's dog. Chief, was the most mixed breed dog I'd ever seen. Corgi, Chihuahua, and several other breeds. He ran around checking to see that everything was in order at all the sites. There was a mixed breed dog that looked like it had some border collie; a German shepherd mix with huge paws that wanted nothing but your attention, and would tug at your clothes if you tried to leave without giving it enough attention; and a black tabby cat, extremely friendly, extremely chill. They all made us feel welcome.

Vicky and Leaning Tree Menagerie

That evening, we went out to dinner in town. The resort restaurant was staffed, as usual, by out-of-towners on a summer gig. The girl who brought water to our table was named Kinga and I immediately recognized it as a Polish name. So I started chatting her up about her name, about Poland, about my Polish background and my limited Polish language skills. At first she seemed to be surprised about my interest in Poland, but opened up to the point where I thought the other tables might die of thirst while she stood at our table, water pitcher in hand. We told her that our plan to go to Poland last year had been upended by COVID. We told her where we were planning to go (maybe next year) and she gave us some pointers. She came back to our table frequently to make sure we had water. After dinner, I said "Do widzenia" (good-bye), which charmed her.

In the morning, we went back to the Rising Sun Restaurant five miles into Glacier Park before we took a final drive to see glaciers now that the weather had cleared a bit. We talked to Eloina, a middle aged woman from Georgia, who worked summer duty in National Parks rather than sit at home twiddling her thumbs. She and Vicky had similar taste in reading and chatted about books they'd read.

After coming off the mountain, we ran headlong into the Warrior Games. The traffic was slowed down to about 5 miles per hour for 4 or 5 miles near the road running part of the event. After we passed that, on our way to the border we passed the largest goat farm I'd ever seen. It looked like a good 20 acres or more of goats. Since it was still drab, it looked like a mystery land of goats in the mist. Goats standing on stumps. Goats standing on logs. Goats standing on other goats. I stopped to take a picture and a couple of dogs about 200 yards away started barking at me and coming my way. The goatherds. They wanted me to know who was in charge.

Below: The Goatherd in the Mist

We'll have time tomorrow in Calgary to backfill some posts on our days in Yellowstone, Glacier, and Banff.