Category: RV Trips

It was love at first site. December of 1993, I was driving from Sandpoint, ID – having been making the rounds of mountain west towns from Taos, NM to Lake Tahoe, CA to Bend, OR to Sandpoint – looking for a new place to live. I was born in northwest Ohio and left to take a job in San Francisco area in 1979. In 1981 I moved south to Los Angeles where I lived, worked, started my consulting business – spending my young adult years in the “big city”.

The first time I saw the Flathead Valley and the mountains of the Swan Range, the Whitefish Range and the Bob Marshall Wilderness was after spending several days in Coeur d’Alene (south of Sandpoint) – liking that area enough to look at homes with a realtor. I was newly married at the time, 37, and we were looking for a family spot. As we drove west of Libby, MT and the road started flattening to the valley floor – with those ranges of the rockies rising out of the east side of the valley – that was it…I was in love and I knew that I had come home. It was NOT home for my husband and he departed Montana and the marriage. I stayed and have been there on my own since 1996.

Twice I have explored the U.S. to see if there was a spot I’d rather live – not out of unhappiness with Montana, but with the sheer love of adventure and exploration that is also part of me. Twice I got so homesick for Montana that I made a mad dash back.

This winter I left again – not for another place, but for another love – for a man. It is not a move that I regret, but that has hit a snag and I’m on my way to my home in Montana. Karl and I, in the Winnebago, are pointed west – we will take our time and enjoy the journey, but I will be glad to be back – home in Montana.

Above – Karl and I in Dillon,MT – first morning “back in Montana” – Dec, 2005 – after a month in Camp Verde, AZ. The interesting thing [to me] about this photo – I had the camera on a tripod and I intended to be looking at the camera with Karl next to me. As I walked out to where Karl was, he was looking toward the mountains in a way that drew me to look also forgetting entirely about the camera setup… I love this photo.

Yep, in Rockport they are speed humps …

Sunrise around Big D…

And around Rockport – Rockport Beach…

Once upon a time in an RV park full of fun people escaping Winter, there lived a Mr. and Mrs. in a 5th wheel trailer.  Neighbors of Mr. and Mrs. got a sweet little puppy and it made Mrs. want a sweet little puppy of her very own.  But Mr. did NOT want a dog and said “NO dog!!!” to his Mrs.  All of the RV park soon knew of this.

Then one day, Mr. and Mrs. went away for a few days.  When they returned, there was a little wooden dog on their doorstep!  Mr. set the dog to the side of the concrete parking pad. 

On another day, Mr. and Mrs. returned to find that the dog had a sign around his neck – “Woody” – so now the dog had a name.  Often when Mr. and Mrs. went away, they returned to find that Woody had more stuff…a collar, a leash, a water bowl, a bone, a kerchief.  Sometimes he moves to different places on the site – a dog needs a bit of variety.  One day there was a small pile of poop wood shavings and Mr. and Mrs. were in a bit of hot water for not picking up!  But the park forgave them after it got cleaned up.  And then this Christmas, when they were gone an entire week, Woody acquired a dog house…

Now, I don’t know if Mr. and Mrs. and Woody and all of the people at the rv park are going to live “happily ever after” but I do think that they know how to have fun! And, of course the moral of the story is that nothing stays “secret” in an rv park…

I took Karl for a morning walk next to the RV park and found a road that leads down to the water. Cloudy, cool and overcast but still beautiful.

Sea grass – what color up close!