Just remember the Red Bus valley

Magnet #610 - Glacier National Park Red Bus

Ya'll know how I have a habit of going to places, and missing the biggest things to do there? Like when I went to Dublin, and missed the Guinness tour? Or went to Philly and missed Benjamin Franklin's grave? Or when I went to New England and missed well, Vermont?

Yeah. Glacier National Park. Didn't do the Red Bus to travel the man-made, superamazing Going-to-the-Sun Road. I do kinda feel like a cheater with this magnet.

But, we did drive the Going-to-the-Sun Road - even saw a goat along the way. And a bear that was really a cow! But, we opted not to do the Red Bus. Mainly because we had rented a car (from the tackle shop!) for that part of our cross-country trip. So we skipped the Red Bus. Sigh.

And instead, ended up like 35 miles away from Canada, and making our way back in twilight and dark on some of the scariest (and most beautiful) roads ever. Scary. Especially when you're in the passenger seat with nothing but sheer drop-off to the ravines and canyons below.

It almost made me regret fulfilling the promise I made my grandmother years ago, about vising Montana before dropping everything and moving there.

Not too much regret though, because I did love Glacier Park Lodge, which is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Great Northern Railway built the lodge a century ago, when the west was still expanding, and people needed a place to stay along the way. Makes you wonder who else traveled the same rails. In our case, it was the same Amish guys on their rumspringa who shared the ride from Chicago, stayed in Montana, too, and then we saw them in Seattle (so. weird.). But I digress.

The Lodge. Loved it. The lobby was amazing, with its giant open atrium, and supercool gift shop where I bought one of the first magnets of this collection. The rooms were small and bunky. No television. The dining room and the food was terrific. Truly, this place was everything you'd expect from a lodge in Montana.

Well, I suppose if I did have to improve anything about the lodge...maybe have a television in the room. That's just unnatural right there.

They delivered for me

Magnet #255 - Glacier National Park

I talked about Montana before in this Wyoming magnetpost, plus I have a few magnets from Glacier National Park, with a few stories for those. This one sort of screams, America the Beautiful for me.

A roadtrip buddy and I went on a cross-country train trip, where we left from NY, stopped for lunch in Chicago, did an overnight in Minneapolis, then did two nights in Glacier, then an overnight to Portland. We spent a morning in Portland, then took another train up to Seattle, where we then rented a car and drove up to Vancouver for a couple of days, and then flew back out of Seattle.

Long trip. I could have used an extra suitcase just for the treasures I picked up a long the way.

Instead, I made use of the U.S. Postal Service - because they ROCK. They're everywhere. Heh. Which I knew, of course, but it was never so apparent than on this trip. I feel like every time we got off the train, I was off mailing a package back home to myself. And I'm not exaggerating that one - I seriously have USPS receipts from East Glacier and West Glacier.

Thanks, USPS!

Of course, all this mailing back and forth made it all the more ironic that when we got off the train in Portland, I inadvertently left a stack of stamped envelopes in our train car. We had to run back, only to find out that the wonderful guys at Amtrak mailed my bills for me.

Thanks, Amtrak guys!