I'm now unpacked and ready to begin the 2009 Montana adventure. First thing I want to do is find some hiking trails so I can try to get myself into better shape than I am now. I know the Swan River and the "wild mile" oif rapids run through Bigfork. Luckily I came across the Swan River trailhead, and some nice folks told me it was 2 miles to the end -- and of course, 2 miles to walk back. So I'm on my first 4 mile hike, which is really a walk. Wide, stone path with walkers, joggers, and bike riders (and a few horse hoof prints along the way -- you can rid
e your horses on this nature trail as well).And what is the first thing to cross my path? LITERALLY?? A SNAKE!! Those of you who know me know how afraid of snakes I am -- just took my breath away to see it crawl across the path. But I did recognize that it wasn't poisonous -- just creepy. So I got a picture, and as soon as this blog is published, that picture is being deleted from my computer.
The river is beautiful, so I must photograph it. I also found out that this coming weekend, there is a Whitewater Festival with races down the "wild mile" rapids, so I plan to be in attendance.
The other big activity f
or the day is with my friends Jane and Jack Clapp. They wanted to come over to see my new place, and then I found out their son Grant was also coming with his girlfriend. Of course, I have no food, nor do I cook much. So they brought all the food with them -- hamburgers, buns, potato salad, pasta salad, asparagus. It was a feast, complete with condiments (she figured correctly that I wou
ldn't have mustard and ketchup). I don't have use of a grill here, but I did pack my little George Forman grill. So Jane brought her Forman as well, and we were grillin' hambugers.I do want to say what a great "owner" Mike Stoker has turned out to be. It is his house, and he's here in the summers with his wife (says he can't get her to stay here much longer than December). He used to live here full time, and his daughter graduated from Bigfish High School. He's owner a lot of real estate here and in California (where he has his full time residence), and he managers a number of rental homes around Flathead Lake.
He has been so helpful. When he sen
t out directions and instructions for the apartment, he said to respect his privacy, call him with problems before you come to the back door, etc. So I figured he really didn't want to see his renters -- no problem. So I figured, OMG, here come 4 visiters on my first night here -- I'll probably get kicked out before I can get settled in.But it has been just the opposite. He has invited me into his house, showed me around, helped me with the washing machine, etc. So I thought I should give him a "heads up" that I had friends coming over. Said we would try to be quiet and they would be gone before dark. Instead, he said to invite them up to the big deck on the house where he had lots of chairs, and we could enjoy ourselves. So I invited him to join us. He actually had a lot in common with Jack, as they were both firefighters. Mike retired after 30 years as a captain of a fire company in Los Angeles. So they had a great conversation.
Mike is also a card carrying member of the Screen Actors Guild, and he did commercials back in the 70's. His agent told him about a new TV show about firefighters and rescue called "Emergency". So he became a regular on the TV show while he was a full time firefighter. Said it worked out well as he got paid for every episode whether he was in it or not, and he still gets a few residual checks.
And here is something you won't believe -- he asked me if I had enough channels on the TV. Mike has Dish Network, and almost all the premium channels -- HBO, Starz, Cinemax, Encore, etc. But almost no regular channels other than local and shopping networks. So I mentioned that I usually watch things like SciFi, HGTV, BBC American, A&E, TNT, etc. Today I got an e-mail that he has upgraded Dish and added another 150 channels. This guy has customer service down to a science!!
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