Montana

We got out of the park as it was getting close to pitch dark, and had a very good dinner at some eating place in Gardiner, MT. I believe the place was called Rosie's. Their stuffed chicken breast is mouthwatering and their cheesecake... oh god...

Anyway, Tuesday morning we first drove into Butte to have breakfast at Denny's. I'd gotten on the email with Siri and asked her to bring some Norwegian chocolates and some trolls for Alex, and this was received with more squeals of delight.

Afterwards we set course for Glacier - again in my case. The drive was a pleasant one, with bright sunshine and Siri and I both loved the wonderful nature you can find in Montana. A long way up into the woods we passed a big cabin that had the Norwegian flag waving. Intrigued, we drove back to investigate.

At first I thought it might be a place that offered lodging, since there were several buildings of a decent size scattered around the grounds. However we didn't find any people around, and had gotten back in the car and were already on the highway when I spotted an elderly woman waving to us.

We turned around and pulled back in, and boy am I glad we did. We spent the next good hour or so in the company of the Nelsons and their friends the Petersons, a couple from Havre, to the northeast of Glacier. I've never witnessed hospitality such as what we found here. They invited us in to their cabin, which was decorated in a very cozy style; a mix between old American and old Norwegian. They had woodcarvings and handsome furniture and little trolls and "nisser" and it was just one of the nicest places I've been to.

We were sat in the sofa and given cookies and ice tea and had a long, rambling, pleasant conversation with them. Did I mention they were in their 70s? The Nelsons were retired teachers and had Norwegian ancestry, as did the Petersons; it turned out Mr Peterson's great sumfin' had come over from Hadeland, just north of my hometown.

The Nelsons explained that the place had once belonged to his parents, who'd had seven children and the family members were now using it as a holiday home. They all had their individual properties around the main cabin, the ones I'd taken to be for rent. Their proper home was in Seattle, but I had the feeling they owned several places around the country, or at least had access to them.

A younger lady, probably of around our age, came around and after the long talk we all drove across the road and up the hill to help her with a huge mattress she was having trouble with. She was staying in a much newer building on the Nelson grounds, and what a luxurious cabin that was. Pine floors, granite fireplace, big shower upstairs, patio with bbq, etc, etc.

They explained that it could only be rented out to family, but I pointed out that technically ALL Norwegians could be said to be family if you only went back far enough, so they could start advertizing in Norway right away...

Anyway, they were just the nicest, most hospitable people ever and I'm sure we would be sitting there still, talking about Norway and America, migration and property and family history and really everything under the sun. As it was, we were doing Glacier in a day, and had to say our goodbyes, but we were told to come again if we ever were in the area, something I'll definitely take them up on.

All Montana pics here.

I don't have a pic of the main cabin, as I was shooting when I thought there were no people around, and thought it might be unrespectful. But it was a very handsome building.


I think this old railway wagon was actually in use as living quarters. How cool is that?


They had this sign out front.


We stopped and filled up at this tiny place with ooooold gas pumps.


We stopped for dinner here, on the other side of Glacier park. I think maybe there's a place or two in Alaska that would disagree with this "fact". In other news, Charlie's does a mean pepperoni pizza, just sayin'.