Moving to West Glacier

As we leave North Fork, Idaho they finally got some much needed rain...which also caused some morning fog.

Our first stop was near Flathead Lake in Montana. Donna wanted some 

cherries so we stopped at the Bowman Orchards.

Here the workers are separating the cherries and packaging the results.

We were given a rare look at cherry wine in the making, by the owner. What you can not see in the photo is the bubbling as it ferments. 

Jerry Bowman, who owns the farm explains to Donna how the cherries ferment for about three days before they are bottled into a wine. The skin is then used to make wine cherry jam or jellies. Jerry also told stories of bears (more than one) raiding his cherry orchard as recently as yesterday.

This is some of Jerry's product that Donna is stealing. :-)

Our arrival at Sundance RV in Coram near Glacier was event free. Very woodsy and not what you'd call a resort, more like camping...but nice.

This is the first fire we have had since last December at Moabi Regional Park. Our Canadians neighbors came over to visit our fire and we learned quite a lot about farming from Paul and his son Braden.

We stopped in Essex, Montana, where the Izaak Walton Inn resides, a hotel I tried booking a few years ago but snow had squashed the trip.

Izaak Walton Inn was built in the 30's as a railroad hotel so if the sound of train horns or track bother you than my question would be...why would you book a "railroad" hotel?

As always, it seems with hotels built from 80 to over 100 years ago, the craftsmanship and wood work is phenomenal.

The Great Northern Railway started as the Minneapolis and St Cloud Railway in 1878 and changed to the Great Northern Railway in 1889 as the only privately funded railway that did not use federal funds or grants.

We saw this bar and grill in Whitefish and had to wonder how Great Northern Railway has not sued the pants off the bar for copyright infringement?

This is a "Bruck". A cross between a bus and truck. These vehicles were used between Whitefish, Kelispell and other outlining towns.  A total of 12 were built for the Great Northern Railway to ferry passengers and freight to a nearby rail town. The floor of the bruck was the same height as the rail car to make loading easier. 

This is the symbol of the Great Northern Railway.

Whitefish, Montana is an "artsy fartsy" town. Very nice shopping and good food but deep pockets are a necessity.

Big Mountain in Whitefish is a ski resort in the winter but in the summer it is a bike, scenic chairlift,  zip-line and alpine slide paradise.

Flathead County Courthouse building was awesome. Built in 1902 and renovated recently at a cost of 2.3 million.

The inside of the county building was all wood, glass and "plat" books. (plat books are books that map and show division of land) There were hundreds of these beautifully bound plat books in glass shelves.