Getting In Place

The flight to Paris went well. Barbara took me to the airport in Mantra (my BerlinGo van), which she'll drive now and then to keep it healthy. She wants me to go so she has me back, and shared that I've been already away even though my body is here. She is probably right...! Head full of so many logistics, alternate plans for snow, permits, days, food stores. We watched westerns from CDT country in the last few weeks, especially liking "Lonesome Dove," that story with richly drawn characters.

In Paris I say at a bar for an hour with a champion blacksmith headed to Calgary for a competition. He said he has to quickly make horseshoes to exact specifications. He and his assistant were amazed that I knew the town of Waterloo in Belgium. "You know the Ibis hotel?" Kenan asked? Turns out he and I both stayed there a lot! What a small world. I wish him luck...

Good plane ride over, and my pack arrived safely. I tried to watch the John Wick movie but it was too boring. I watched "Yes Man" with Jim Carrey from 2008... What a great film!

Chantel, who I found in the CDT group on Facebook would shuttle me to Waterton, about a three hour drive away. I met her and we left the airport. She does all kinds of interesting jobs, living in the country not far from the park. I was constantly impressed by the mountain scenery and the fresh snow up there. It felt cold after the blasted heat of Germany...

We stopped at Walmart and I was impressed by the Hutterite women who walked by in traditional dresses. Wow... Yay tradition! 😋 But seriously, we were talking about ever rising costs, the need for both parents to work, all that kind of stuff. These groups, like Amish, Hutterites, Quakers... They "solve" that problem by crafting their own template for daily existence rather than continually importing whatever society currently does. A great freedom is, perhaps, the freedom to fail to "keep up."

The mountains reacted a crescendo of beauty as we approached the park in early evening...


Chantel dropped me off at a motel...I went for a walk along the lake...

I found a pizza place for dinner, and settled in for a good rest. Tomorrow I'll see about permits to get me to East Glacier, where I'm finished with Glacier National Park. So far I've got permits only to Many Glacier, but I'm excited about that trip for some snow travel and short days, which lets me scramble up a peak or two.

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