To Glacier, but not without a pit-stop

Current mileage: 4522 miles

Current location: At Forde Johns Truck stop, Pocatello, Idaho
Day # 17 of the no expectation vacation

I had thought that I might Camp on the other side of Yellowstone, since it was my birthday, maybe build a campfire and relax, but when I arrived at that campground it was full, so I decided to keep on driving. It was not long before I realized that I was in Montana. There was no sign so I decided to stop and welcome myself! I spent most my birthday evening driving thru Montana.  I know why it gets the nickname "Big Sky" you could see forever and ever, and the sky was so beautiful especially the sun setting behind the mountains! I had so much fun just gazing at the stars!

I enjoyed the scenery thru Montana so much that I did not realize how low my gas had gotten. No problem, there seemed to be cities along the way. What I can tell you,  from experience is: between Butte, Montana and the capital Helena after 10pm there might be one gas station that is open on I-15. I was starting to stress out a little since I had no cell service, I was in the Mountains, and the cars were far and few between! I was starting to learn many things about the West particularly  rest stops and gas stations! I was pretty tired and since I had  a wonderful stay in the Lambright B&B the night before I was craving a bed.  The car was not sounding so appealing, I even went as far as to stop in Helena at a Toco John's (similar to Taco Bell) and pulled out my laptop to look up prices of hotel rooms. My pride got the better of me and I got on the road in search of a Wal-mart parking lot or anywhere safe to sleep. I finally saw a Flying J's and crawled to the back of the jeep. Funny enough I have begun to sleep really well in the back of my jeep.  Even thinking about moving out of my loft to save some rent....LOL I slept until almost 800am. The following morning I had my first experience with Trucker showers! I had consulted with a childhood friend about this situation. See, she and I have grown up together and I had reconnected with her thru either facebook or myspace or something of that matter and found out that she was a trucker. A female trucker (Cool) so I had exchanged some E-mails with her before my trip and she gave me some pointers! This place was actually really nice. For 10 dollars they give you as many towels as you like, a key to a private bathroom that has a good size shower and a toilet. Angi suggested a good pair of flip flops, which I also would suggest. So after all the horror stories that I had seen on Angi's blog, I started to think this wasn't so bad. Just kidding! I get into the shower to turn it on and there is no water.  Maybe there was something special you had to do, knock on the wall, insert a key? shout? But it looked like a normal shower, so I got out, got dressed and went to ask someone if there was something I needed to know about this shower. There was no water coming out when I turned it on. Crazy enough this must be a pretty common problem, cause they sent the guy that looked like a" mantience  man" to fix the water  problem. About five minutes later he came out and said there was now water. My next question, is this water gonna run out during my shower? The guy looked at me and said 'shouldn't'. AWESOME, he obviously does not know how hard it is to get shampoo out of my hair aka my fro! I need water to be available especially if I paid for it!  Besides the strong iron smell in the water the shower didn't end up being so bad. I had good shower pressure and hot water! After all, could I really be picky? What I do know,  Showers make everything BETTER! Thanks for all your info Angi!                                                                                                                      

After my shower I headed across the street to Denny's to have breakfast and catch up on my blog. I ended up staying three long enough to become friends with all the staff, and even some of the patrons. Sometimes it is just nice to stop and relax, after all this was my "no expectation" vacation and I really did not need to be in a hurry to get anywhere. When I did finally leave Denny's I was headed towards Glacier National Park, and man the wind was blowing.  I had stopped to get gas, and realized how windy it was. The whole trip to Glacier I was scared that my bike was going to come flying off my bike rack (good thing I brought along my cheapo yard sale bike) if it fell off, at least I would only be out $25 dollars. Besides the wind it was a GREAT day to drive the scenery was awesome!!!!

And then just as if the scenery could not get any better I arrived at Glacier National Park aka Heaven on Earth! It is the most beautiful place I have ever been to. I camped at Apgar Campground on the Southwest side of the park because it was one of the only campgrounds that had water. The campground was surrounded by  Lake McDonald and these are the views about a mile from my campground. Just simply AMAZING!

Since I was going to be camping alone I figured it best to start making friends with as many people as possible in the campground. All the bear signs were kind of intimidating, plus the food storage containers, and then the signs posted on the picnic table about the ranger giving you fines if you leave any food or anything that smells out in the open. Man, this bear thing is no joke! The first people I met were Kathy and Steve from the Washington area. We ended up hanging for the following two days and hiking together! and the next thing that happened is weird. Let me take you back about 4 days prior. I had just arrived in Wyoming and stopped at the welcome center. When I walked in the center there were these two guys that at first glance I thought they were hitchhikers, but then they were sitting with a laptop in their lap. Advanced hitchhikers I was thinking. Then as I pulled out I saw them in a red Dodge SUV with Massachusetts license plates. Hum I thought, they must be traveling out West too. Good for them. Now back to Apgar campground. Who do I see? Yes the two guys from the Wyoming rest stop. Of course at first I was cautious, as my mother would want me to be, but I started talking to them and they were both 25 from Israel, and traveling around the U.S. for 50 days. We all ended up camping near each other, having adult beverages and playing cards. Most importantly, I felt safe from the bears!