Seeley Lake (Part 1)

The first thing that we did upon our arrival at our “Site” in Seeley Lake was to take a hose and scrub brush to both vehicles. We met up with Steve (one half of our friends and hosts, Steve, and Phillis) at a Sinclair Station, complete with a cool dinosaur, on the corner of Rt. 200 and Highway 83. He was on his way to Missoula to pick up Phillis and we were on our way to their place at Seely Lake Airport. As you may recall, the 200 was our route of choice to get to this part of Montana the other day. Highway 83 runs north and south connecting Swan Lake and Seeley Lake on its way to Glacier National Park.

                             Unfortunately, that same Montana DOT that has a penchant for ripping up roads willy-nilly and then spending a few years replacing them, had its eyes set on another section of our travels. Just after we met Steve at the dinosaur we headed north where this alleged improvement was being administered at a painfully slow pace. The need to open and close this section while this project is being worked on makes a trip that normally takes about twelve minutes, now clocking in at a minimum of twenty-five and can take well over an hour and a half.

                             Ouch!

                             We were fortunate that we came upon the line of stopped traffic just as the Signal Stopping Guy waved our side through.

What we found was a several mile long Ripping and Replacing Project that included some very nice Caking Mud Baths along the way as it had rained the night before.

                             Georgia Clay has got nothing on Montana Mud, hence the need to engage in a Wash Down as soon as we got to Steve and Phillis’s home.

                             And….. we needed to stop at the local NAPA dealer and procure two new Chassis Batteries. These are the batteries that are used in the starting and operating of all of the chassis related operations. (As opposed to the four House Batteries that keep us supplied with power when the generator is not running or when we’re not hooked up with power.

                             The need to replace these possibly offending guys became somewhat apparent two days before when were engaged in that Rt. 200 trip. Paula was driving when all of a sudden some of the Indicator/Warning lights on the dash began to flicker/blink and as we pulled to the side of the road the LCD screen that shows information began to act like it does when we first start the motor.

                             This is stuff that we just don’t need at any time never mind this far from “home”. The issue seemed to clear itself but now we’re waiting for the other shoe to drop and that definitely makes for some uneasy driving!

                             Nothing has happened ….. yet. But we all know that these events seldom fix themselves. The next morning, I called our “Guys” over at Campbell’s in Lafayette, where we have our work done while we’re in New Jersey. It is sooooo reassuring when we press “2 for Service” and the guy on the other end answers, “Hi Don, how’s it going?”

                             They obviously have a caller ID, and I couldn’t be happier to be on a first name basis with Bob and Corbin over there! After describing our issue to Bob, he asked how old our chassis batteries were and since I could not answer that and we’ve had the unit for almost three years, he said that MOST of these issues can be traced back to batteries acting wonky. So, since I definitely cannot trace wiring, or troubleshoot computer stuff, and since the age of our all-important batteries may be coming to an end, we decided to take the plunge and fork out the $400 shekels for two new ones. Installation, and hopefully peace of mind, to follow.

                             Our site here at the McNeill Family RV Park and Airport is quite nice! Steve and Phillis have made provisions for all of our hook-ups so we can stay here forever! And since it took us almost forever to get all of that caked-up mud off of the undersides of the vehicles, and that road project is scheduled for completion in several years, we may just do that!

                             We definitely could not find a more beautiful area to be in. We have yet to drive around the locale and see some of the area, but that is scheduled for today, so I should have some nice photos in the near future, especially since we booked ourselves for three nights up in Glacier National Park!  

But……. We were able to get that proverbial “Bird’s Eye View” of the area because we took a flight courtesy of McNeill Air based right here in Seeley Lake! The McNeill’s son, Matt, has the hanger/apartment directly next door and he lent us his Beechcraft Debonaire 285 which has plenty of room and power for four passengers. Steve and Phillis have their really cool 1946 Cub up here with them, which is a ton of fun to fly, but holds only two people at a time.

          Our destination was the town of Polson on the other side of the Mission Range, the local mountains that are related to the Rockies. We landed in Ronan and settled in amongst the many Fire Fighting Aircraft that are there because of some intense local forest fires. The conditions here are not dissimilar to those up in Canada, so hence the need. The smoke and haze from these fires got worse as the day went on but it was not too bad in the morning. These photos were taken then.

                             We had a really nice lunch at a place called The Shoe (as in horseshoe) on the shores of Flathead Lake, which is quite large and very picturesque. And….. as clear as you may expect Montana Lake to be! After a stop at the local bakery to pick up some pies, including a Huckleberry one) and a gift shop (where we got some interesting Huckleberry laced Chocolate (!) we went back to the airport for the flight back to Seeley Lake.

                             The Airstrip here is a meticulously maintained and manicured grass strip. It has runway lights and a rotating beacon for night use but there are no “facilities” here, so fuel needs to be obtained elsewhere. Landing on a grass strip is quite comfortable as there is a certain amount of ‘give’ when it is maintained correctly.

                   Of course, it helps to have a pilot with a zillion hours of experience at the controls!

Stay tuned for Seeley Lake (Part 2), coming soon!