A polished and spiffed up Red Jammer ready for passengers. I had to chuckle when I read a woman’s complaints about taking the red jammer bus tour of the Going to the Sun Road in Glacier National Park. She said it had taken about 9 1/2 hours round trip to travel from the hemlock forests of West Glacier over […]
Things We Find Interesting
Junk Art in Missoula
Creating junk art is a popular way of recycling trash. As the saying goes, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” The creations are quite unique and can vary from the simple recycling of a coffee can into an artsy planter to an elaborate sculpture made out of metal from the junkyard. Junk art […]
National Poetry Month
Bright Shining Mountains It’s national poetry month and I thought I’d share this sweet poem about growing up in the last best place. Growing Up in Montana For childhood excitement, For a life full of fun, Montana, Montana, truly is the one. Glorious sunsets over bright shining mountains, Strengthening hikes where the mountain lion […]
Free Week at National Parks
America’s Best Idea – the national parks – is getting better with another great idea this spring…FREE entrance to the parks during the week of April 17-25. That means you have a whole week to bring the family and explore these wild and scenic beauties without having to pay to get in. If you’ve never been to a national park, […]
Butterscotch or Vanilla?
Have you ever smelled a Ponderosa Pine tree? If you haven’t, you don’t know what you’re missing. Besides communing with nature and the sense of balance it gives, you’re missing their aromatic smell. Ponderosa Pines are the state tree of Montana and we’ve sniffed their bark for a couple of years now ever since we […]
It’s Fat Tuesday! Throw Me Somthin’ Mista!
Many things come to mind when thinking of Mardi Gras; floats, marching bands, king cakes, and public drunkenness to name a few. But without the beads, and the people who are willing to raise their hands high and shout, “Throw me somethin’ mista’!”, Mardi Gras just wouldn’t be the same. Everyone thinks of throws […]
Happy Groundhog Day 2010 – Phil Sees His Shadow
Phil saw his shadow this morning in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania forecasting 6 more weeks of winter. Last year on February 2, I wrote a blog post about Groundhog Day saying that the 2009 prediction was no surprise to me. It’s still no surprise to me this year and it’s kind of hard to imagine anyone seeing their shadow right now with […]
The History of Dutch Elm Disease
Pictured on the cover of this morning’s newspaper is a man in a bucket truck cutting tree limbs. It’s captioned that he is cutting branches from a tree infected with Dutch elm disease. Crews will have to destroy from 75 to 90 of these majestic trees by April. What is Dutch elm disease and why is it named “Dutch”? It seems […]
Where to Get Free Popcorn on National Popcorn Day
I was going to talk about the average snowfall statistics in Kalispell as well as tell you that our average annual snowfall is 64.9 inches, that our season to date has only been 29.9 inches, and that our average season to date should be around 36.3. Phew, that was a mouthful! Also, I was […]
King’s Day – It’s All About Tradition
Are you ready to celebrate? January 6 is King’s Day, or Twelfth night. It is 12 days after Christmas, and is the traditional day to take down the Christmas tree. To many New Orleanians, the most important thing about January 6th is that it is the start of the Carnival season. King’s Day, also called […]