The Return To Whitefish, Montana

The best part of life is that one never knows what will happen after waking up. Some of us have routines or schedules that we follow to help frame the day, but at any given moment plans could change and at the end of the day something could redefine a new routine or path for the rest of your life.

Nicole and I had a list of goals for our most recent trip to Whitefish:

1. Drive to Whitefish
2. Find a temporary (6 months or less) place to live
3. Follow up on job leads
4. Park car at new residence
5. Take the train back to Portland
   
6. Pack up everything (95% is ready to go)
7. Drive the truck with a U-Haul trailer to Whitefish
8. Start a new life in Montana.

We left early Labor Day morning (we were out the door around 6:30am) for our long drive to Whitefish, Montana. The trip according to Google maps is roughly 10 hours. We tend to take a break every 60 miles on windy roads and every 100 miles on interstates. Though it adds about an hour to every 4th hour of predicted time by Google, it really helps keep our energy up.

As with most road trips to someplace exciting, we were buzzing about our future in Whitefish. We talked about what we would like to do and I emphasized that we would probably make less money than the big city and that it would be COLD during the winter (think snow on the ground for 3 months.) Together we attempted to acclimatize each other so we could hit the ground running.

In the back of my mind, I was dreading the stretch between The Dalles and Spokane. I'm not sure if it's the lack of mountains or the permanent orange hue that blankets the landscape in fall. We borrowed the book on CD "Blink" (which I had read) and listened to it as a distraction to the bleakness. This stretch is four hours long, but felt longer than our entire trip across the country. If anyone knows of an alternate route to Spokane from Portland, please let us know!

We did finally make it through and we stopped just beyond Spokane in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho. We ate a couple of burgers from Red Robin and I took a little nap in the parking lot afterward. Feeling like we were falling behind schedule we stretched a little and headed out of Idaho.

One of the most beautiful places on earth is just off of I-90 in Montana. We turned off of the road at St Regis and drove north along the Clark Fork River. This river is what I imagined Norman Maclean was trying to convey about Montana in his book "A River Runs Through It." This river is so incredible and I instantly made plans in my head to go fly fishing with my father someday in the future. I could care less if I didn't catch anything.

After this turn off to the north, the scenery only got more beautiful. Towns like Paradise (aptly named) and Plains had me wondering if Nicole and I could ever retire in such a remote and beautiful river valley. We made our turn just short of Plains and drove through the Flathead Indian Reservation.

We finally arrived in Whitefish just before sundown. Just prior to checking into a hotel we drove all through town looking at shops, homes, and neighborhoods. There were deer everywhere on the road up to the mountain. It was 38 degrees outside (September 1st!). We found our hotel, checked in and went to bed excited to explore and check off the items on our list.

We woke up early the next morning (6am MDT) and quickly got ready to check out a cabin just outside of town. Nicole had found an ad in the paper or online (not sure which) that didn't describe the place at all and had no pictures. We drove out there after getting some directions from the real estate agent.

Immediately after seeing this cabin I knew I wanted to live there. Situated on 10 acres in the forest was a simple cabin on the top of a small rise with a pathway/staircase leading to it. Getting out of the car you could hear nothing but the wind in the tall trees and our feet scrunching on pine needles. This sturdy cabin (with a detached garage) was exactly what we were looking for.

We ran up to the log cabin (we didn't have keys nor was anyone living there) and looked in every available window to peek inside. We could see a stone fireplace, a kitchen, a large sun room, a guest room and a bathroom just from walking to each window.

Walking around the garage I spooked a large doe which ran around the garage and spooked Nicole. Given that the house was in a draw I suspect that a lot of wildlife would cut through this part of the woods. Nicole called up the rental agent to see what we needed to do to get an inside look.

After hearing that all we needed to do was get keys from the agent, we jumped in the car and drove back to town. On the trip to town, I timed how long it took to get from the cabin back to town. In just 14 short minutes we were in downtown Whitefish now with keys in hand.

This time I drove (to see if I could beat the 14 minutes) back up to the cabin. The whole way there I was trying to imagine how much longer it would take in snow. The roads didn't really allow for speeds greater than 35 so it wouldn't be too much longer if the roads were icy or snowy. It was important to us not to be too far out of town as we would have jobs that we would need to get to regardless of weather conditions.

I was blowing Nicole's time out of the water when I saw a dog sitting out in a field. It was a little bit bigger than our dog (of 65+ pounds) and had a black body and a white head. It looked like it was just sitting there waiting for his master.

As we got closer I slammed on the brakes. It was no dog. It was the biggest Bald Eagle I had ever seen in my life. I've seen Golden Eagles (which I believe are typically bigger than Bald Eagles) and it seemed to be even larger. Nicole gasped and I scrambled to put on the zoom lens for the camera. A couple of bicyclists rode by as I was taking pictures and nearly crashed when they saw this bird. Though there was nothing close by to show scale I took pictures of this mighty bird.

We drove away stunned, toward the cabin and Nicole's time to town would remain unbeaten for now. At the cabin, we ran up to the door and started taking pictures. The inside was more incredible than the outside. The house was made from whole logs and felt like a meteor could hit it and it would remain intact. Every room was amazing and felt like home. We went upstairs and playfully argued about which room would be the bedroom and which would be the craft/office room. My stomach ached I was so excited.

We drove back to town and filled out the application for this dream home. This rent was half of our former mortgage payment and we were excited to follow up on some jobs in the area now that we had figured out where we were going to be. We ate lunch nearby and I was a little edgy (tired mixed with stress of everything.) Nicole drove me back to the hotel and I took a needed nap.

After waking up we had still not heard back from the rental agency, so in the name of caution, we looked up some other properties and planned an afternoon of looking at other homes. Because of our time line we needed to have a place nailed down by the next day before noon (our train left that night.)

Nicole went back into the rental agency to get keys to another place in town when she got the news. The cabin that we loved . . . had been rented to another person who had filled out an application the Saturday before we arrived. The morning agent didn't know this because she had been out of town and thought we were the first to inquire and apply. The owner of the company had already shown the house to this person and the deal was 99% done.

Nicole and I did our best not to be upset over this setback and spent the remainder of the afternoon looking at places around town. Unfortunately we couldn't push the cabin out of our minds for many reasons. Seeing the cabin helped us realize that we really DO want to be out of town and in the woods. Also we were shown huge houses all within our price range (one even had a hot tub) and it felt like too much house for us. We wanted simple.

Nicole and I sat in the parking lot of another rental agency discussing the future. We talked about Whitefish and the concept of Small Town USA. We sat in that car for a very long time. We knew that it wasn't the right time for Whitefish. If you want to know specifics, I'd love to tell anyone in person what we talked about in the car, but I won't go into it here; I don't want to minimalize by posting it on a blog.

It was the end of the day on Tuesday and we had just gone from future residents of Whitefish to tourists! We went back to our hotel room, ate leftovers from the night before and sat in the hot tub still spinning from our sudden change of plans.

We woke up the next morning and hit the road out of town. As I mentioned earlier, the one who applied before us for the cabin had only completed 99% of the process to get the cabin which meant that there was a remote chance of getting it. Knowing this we still drove out of town, out of cell phone range, chattering all the way about what exciting things lay ahead for us.

We stopped at many roadside vistas. Thompson Lake was our first stop. Nicole I walked out to a small pier to look out into one of the clearest lakes I have ever seen. The lake was so clear that when you went out on the dock it felt like you were high off the ground (the underwater drop off was dramatic and visible probably 100 feet below!)

We stopped in Libby, Montana which is a really neat town with nothing going for it. It's a former logging town situated at the base of the Cabinet Mountains and has the feel of a resort location (minus the resort)with the skeleton of blue collar industry. The movie "Always" was filmed in the area of Libby and Bull Lake.

The local gas station attendant told us to stop by Kootenai Falls on our way out of the area. She mentioned a swing bridge near the falls and I really didn't think much of it. This swing bridge turned out to be pretty dramatic. After a short walk down the trail to the falls, we arrived at the bridge which hung 100 feet or so over the raging Kootenai River. I'm not scared of heights (anymore) but this bridge made me a little nervous.

Surprisingly, Nicole who is afraid of heights (or as she now says "has an appropriate respect for high places") climbed to the top of the stairs leading to the bridge and told me she would like to try to go out on the bridge.

We waited for a few people to cross because the bridge literally does swing and has a five person limit. Nicole then started across the bridge. I can't tell you what it was like to watch her face her fear like this. She stepped one cross beam at a time holding on to the rope railings pausing when the bridge would start to sway. Watching her I could see her actively fighting her fears (and winning) and at times it was as if she wasn't even on the bridge at all, but in some distant place defeating a faceless monster. She made it halfway across and felt satisfied (and a little exausted) and turned around and made her trip back to the cliff edge. I am so proud of her, not for crossing the bridge, but for facing her fear so willingly and with determination to set a new standard for herself.

Nicole had a spring in her step as we walked to the falls nearby. The falls were not a huge drop, but the volume of water that flowed down was amazing. Nicole mentioned that she expected to see a bear at the top of the falls swiping at jumping fish (it really looked like that scene from a wildlife video...minus any bears.)

Ironically, Nicole and I were looking down at the falls when a man and his wife (whom we had met on the bridge earlier and watched Nicole start her bridge crossing) came up from behind and nearly scared us off the cliff. The man was very embarrassed knowing that Nicole was a little acrofobic and apologized for giving her a heart attack; they had only wanted us to take their picture in front of the falls.

Eventually we got back on the road again and drove down to Sandpoint, Idaho stopping for lunch at the best potato restaurant in the world. We walked by real estate offices and dreamed of owning a small piece of land in the area.

Just west of Sandpoint we managed to stop by two animal shelters/stores (one in Priest River and the other in Oldtown, Idaho.) At the first shelter we played in a cat room for half an hour then hung out with the local stray and rescued dogs for another 30 minutes. Nicole and I wanted to take them all home, but for a variety of reasons, we didn't. Similarly in Newport we visited all the exotic animals (including a Bengal Tiger that I made friends with) for another hour. As much I wanted to, I couldn't bring myself to buy the Vietnamese potbelly pig, emu, and two pug/dachshund puppies that Nicole so desperately needed.

We eventually spent the night in Spokane and ordered Red Robin (again) this time as a "to go" order. We got back to our room and found that they had gotten both of our orders wrong so Nicole called the manager. Though our orders were not that far off from what we had wanted (meaning I ate mine anyway) the manager insisted that he brought us the food that we originally had ordered and delivered it to our hotel! Joe (the manager at this particular location) said to Nicole, "Red Robin is known for 'Gourmet' burgers and if that isn't what you get then they aren't doing their jobs." Our revised order came 15 minutes later and he threw in two cokes free of charge. It's nice to see customer service taken to that level in a day and age where it's tough to get a cashier just to make eye contact with you.

The next morning we drove home (again through the painful orange dreary between Spokane and the Gorge) and were happy to be 'home.'

We are going to spend the next week or so working on a new plan and hope to share it with everyone really soon!

PHOTOS FROM THE TRIP: http://picasaweb.google.com/NicoleandJeff/AnotherTripToWhitefishMontana#