Welcome Back to Kalispell

Well, well, well. We meet again. You, me, the Internet. With thanks to the La Quinta Inn & Suites' WiFi, I have news for you.

A new transmission!

But before we go there, let me bring you up to date on what happened to bring us where are today: Back in Kalispell.

We got the Volvo back on Friday, thanks to the Gang at Celtic Motors. Oh, that would be last Friday, like, um, the 9th or something like that. It was so long ago. (Reading our entries about the Lousiville Slugger factory make us long for July and its relative simplicity.) So, anyway, the folks at Celtic replaced two sensors, gave the car a few test drives, and pronounced it provisionally healthy. By 5 in the afternoon, we were driving through the entrance of Glacier National Park, happy to be reunited with our car. In the evening, we packed our things and put our bags by the door. At 6 a.m., we (H. and I) were loading the car and we departed Spoon Lake at 7:45-ish.

Keep in mind, we had driven the car about 45 miles the night before. All seemed right with the world.

Well, 45 minutes down the road from Columbia Falls we glided into the tiny hamlet of Lakeside, Montana, on the shores of enormous Flathead Lake. Coming into town, we slowed in traffic to about 10 mph, when the car started rumbling as if being driven over pavement rumbled strips.

"Is that the car or the road?" Asked Heather.

"I don't know," I replied.

But as soon as traffic picked up and I tried to accelerate, all the same old warning lights came on in the dash, and the car would barely move. Pedal to the metal, I was lucky to keep the beast rolling into the nearest parking lot. What ensued was the most disturbingly stressful and absurdly frustrating wait of my life (although the family was a bunch of troopers, thanks in no small part to a nearby elementary school and its sweet playground).

Ridiculously long story short, we were towed (on a flatbed) back into Kalispell about 70 minutes later. It was a Saturday morning and Celtic Motors was closed for the weekend, but we left the car there anyway and took the aforementioned Red VW Jetta from Enterprise.

By 1:45 in the afternoon, we were on the road once more, in borrowed car, headed for Livingston, MT, where we had previously booked a room for our intended passage through Yellowstone on our WAY HOME!

We spent Sunday tooling around the glorious roads and through the grand scenery of that most majestic of parks, Yellowstone. Haven't been there? Go. Now. Been there before? Go. Again. Think National Parks are a waste of time? Get your head examined.

Of course, Stuart earned another Junior Ranger badge at Yellowstone. We drove into the Grand Tetons National Park, too, which was just sickeningly gorgeous. Saw moose, elk, mule deer, and bison in Yellowstone, including one bison H. could have reached out and touched beside the Jetta. Saw Old Faithful (and her absurd hordes of observers), Yellowstone Lake, and so many awesome trout rivers. Trout rivers, trout rivers, trout rivers. Holy guacamole! My breathing is getting erratic just thinking about them. Let me pause here.

We decided to remain in Livingston another night (the hotel had a nicely heated swimming pool the kids LOVED) and spent Monday in and around beautiful (and affluent) Bozeman. This included a stop at the legendary Reproduction Fabrics Quilt Shop and the delightfully dinosaur-packed Museum of the Rockies. And another night in Livingston.

Tuesday morning, we packed the car with all our gear and headed into Yellowstone once more, for a few more hikes, a few more souvenirs, and a few more good times. And, oh, another look at all those trout rivers. (Gulp.) After all that, at about 3, we headed out of the area, along the back routes, and landed once more in Butte.

Ugh. Butte.

At least we made two good decisions this time: We stayed at the super-clean Days Inn and ate at the local MacKenzie River Pizza Company (a Montana chain highly recommended to you Montana visitors).

This morning we extracted ourselves from Butte and drove through the smoke and ashes on our way back here to Kalispell.

Oh. Yeah. I forgot. Back on Monday morning I called Celtic Motors. The words were, "You need a new transmission. We're getting one from Boise. It'll be here Wednesday, if all goes well."

I stopped by Celtic today when we rolled into Kalispell. The Volvo was up on the rack, its underbelly exposed, a new (used) transmission being transplanted. We hope it'll be done tomorrow afternoon.

In the morning? One more try for Logan Pass at the top of Glacier National Park. Hope the Jetta makes it.