Montana

Rich and I flew to Montana this past Sunday and then came back on Wednesday late. It was a short trip but we got a LOT done. It was originally supposed to be a house hunting trip but we are already under contract, so it was a “getting to see your house in person” trip. We spent a lot of time at the house getting a feel for where we want to put our furniture….colors, etc. We also did a lot of driving around the area to see what is close by and what we will have to drive to Kalispell for. The house we hope will be ours is 10 minutes’ drive outside of Columbia Falls, MT (population 5500). It is a small community of houses in a wooded area with each house having just under 2 acres each. There is a lot of wildlife. Each time we were there we saw mule deer. We have white tailed deer here in Nebraska…those mule deer are BIG! Our neighbors have been there for 13 years and have seen deer, black bear, cougar, moose, turkey, and a herd of elk. There is 18 acres of woods behind our house. The nearest bigger city is Kalispell, Montana, which has a brand new Kohls (opened while we were there), a Costco, the hospital, and Montana’s ONLY Chic-fil-A. I have never seen so many coffee places…they are everywhere. Evidently the Treasure State likes their coffee! We did some furniture shopping and ordered a washer and dryer. We had enough time to spend some time hiking in Glacier National Park and in three other state parks in the Flathead River Valley. The weather was in the 80’s everyday and then the 40’s at night. The locals were melting, saying they had a foot of snow just a week ago – they felt they never got a chance for spring, that summer had come straight after winter. We got all the good weather, I guess, because it was supposed to cool down to “normal” early May temps this weekend. The mountains were covered in snow but it was quickly vanishing by the time we left. Everyone is so friendly. I am so looking forward to moving there! We thought we would go into a local live sport drought moving there, but they have a semi pro farm baseball team called the Glacier Range Riders! How cool is that? Live baseball in the summer! Whoop whoo! Don’t be shocked, but I did not take my camera with me. I was traveling light. All of these are just shots with my phone. The ones from the plane are of Salt Lake City, which is so pretty from the air as you are coming in. We are anxious to get a closing date for the house so we can get moved up there and settled in so we can have visitors!