Heading out...

Now that I'm back in the land of the holy Internet, I thought I'd catch you up on the last couple of days. I was in the non-fire section of Glacier, in fact they evacuated a campground north of us and a lot of those campers came down to ours.  Since I had THE most perfect camping spot at the end, I simply ignored the masses.  I was in # 95, at the end of the line, by the river, looking up at Rising Wolf mountain…I circled it in yellow on the map below:

Finally got a bit of the painting flow going.  Here's my studio set-up (T's in the dark background, lounging on his bed in Mac):

I also tried working in the tent for awhile, but that didn't work out - didn't like the view through the screen, but it was a good spot for Theo to hang out, and to store stuff and to hang laundry…

…and here are some of the WIP's (works in progress) - I was working in the bright light and forgot to compensate, so they came out a bit dark… will have to adjust later, but it felt good to try to capture the moment.

"Glacier on Fire - the last snow"

Later in the afternoon, I did see something that might have been some of the smoke from the north… but it was high up and didn't affect us.

Later in the afternoon a shower came through and made everything sparkly.

Just after the shower, a crew came in and set up a bunch of chairs and a table and there was a quick wedding down in the meadow…

I've been admiring this mountain "curve" - it seems almost figurative…and the changing light on it is nice.

So, I decided it was time to leave the MOST PERFECT camping spot and get on down the road again.  By leaving now I can keep the drives short, and have a few extra days in case I want to stay a few extra days somewhere else.

Theo and I took our early morning walk and on the return I was scanning Rising Wolf mountain.  Just as I was thinking "Gee, wouldn't it be nice to see the bears again…"  there they were - right on time too - at 6:20 am…  What a treat!  Yay!  A good send-off.

We headed on down the highway.  What a switch!  From the mountain views I've posted over the last few days, to this:

Now, that is Theo's kind of highway!  Luckily the view to the starboard side was still interesting for me:

The speed limit was 70, but we were comfortable at 60… after about an hour there was a sign that said "Road Work Ahead"  then a sign that said 35 mph.  Quite a switch!  I slowed down, and then the pavement just ended!  I went to a bumpy dirt road!  So wild.  That lasted for 5 miles and then it was back to 70 mph.  Go figure…

Winters must be pretty rough here!

Decided to check out Choteau.  Its the town where A.B. Guthrie lived and wrote The Big Sky.  I had decided that I needed 1) Internet and phone service, 2) electricity and 3) laundry facilities… that meant one of those gawd-awful RV parks which I avoid… But I crossed my fingers and pointed Mac to the Choteau Mountain View Campground.  The signs for it kept saying "Under New Management."  Is that a good thing???  Anyhow, low and behold it had been closed for awhile and just re-opened and NO ONE was there!  Yay!  I got the only shady spot, I have three loads of laundry going, and you see that I am able to blog.  There are some good points to civilization I suppose…

Theo & I love empty campgrounds...

Of course, as usual, I couldn't bear to use a dryer when the humidity is like 12%.  I swear the clothes dry faster in the air!  So once again, T had to put up with laundry in Mac.  He's getting used to it now…

I saw a bumper sticker on my way out of East Glacier:

   "Montana is full.  I heard North Dakota's nice."