On The Road Again

Well we finished our "bucket list" for this trip so we are making our way back to Minnesota.  We trailered our trike up to our friends house in Spring Lake Park, so now we are on our way back.  We left Glacier N P on Hwy 2 and actually stayed on that road all the way across Montana and North Dakota.  We were in the grain field states again, and the oil field state.  I was amazed at all the industry in North Dakota, lots and lots of oil and grain.   It's hard to believe a state that has -50 degrees in the winter can be so green and productive in the summer.  ND is truly a beautiful state.  But All these plain states have high winds and that's a killer day on the back of the trike.  I literally have to hold on to my helmet to keep my head on.😮  We drove around 400 miles(a day) the last couple of days and stopped for the night.  Into Minnesota we were still on highway 2 and it's still windy.  We stopped for breakfast this morning in Devils Lake ND.  We asked them for walleye (a northeastern fish) and they fried it up for us.  😋😋 The server said she couldn't remember anyone having eggs with them before, then said, there's a first time for everything.  We couldn't have grits though, NO GRITS around these parts.  Kinda strange they grow so much grain and no one eats grits.
Did I say before how many ducks there are in these lakes and ponds..hundreds in every lake.
Also today we crossed the Mississippi River, (just a stream) we were at Itasca State Park where The Mighty Mississippi River begins.  We went there last year, pictures on facebook or Instagram from last years trip.   I hope to go back on The Great River Road for a while and try to see more Bald 🦅 🦅 Eagles.  I haven't got to see the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) and I'm sad about that.  One day I hope to see them.  I plan on adding some captions on some of the pictures when I get to my laptop.  Will add pictures from my phone. Forgive blurred ones..my phone pics are hard to see they are so small when adding them.

Glacier National Park

So today was Glacier and Going to The Sun Road.  We left Kalispell and headed to West Glacier, we saw a sign for Hungry Horse Dam and decided to take a little detour.  The dam was huge and the road in was a wooded country road.  I wasn't expecting such a big dam in such a small town.  Will try to post a picture.  Headed to West Glacier and drove in, got in free cause Jan's a Senior citizen now, lol....so that's one good thing about being old.  The first few miles were along Lake McDonald, a huge lake and it was wooded and really nice.  There was a really pretty bridge over a waterfall that was gorgeous, and we drove along looking at all the beautiful scenery.  There was a smokey haze up high but you could still see the jagged Glacier outlines.  It was climbing, but it wasn't cold and there really wasn't any switch backs and wasn't scary.   It was high and had great views, plenty of cars and people.
https://www.nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/gtsrinfo.htm
There are lots of places to pull of and take pictures.  I would like to go back some day.   It took us about 3 hours to drive through.  Near the end is another beautiful lake, St. Mary Lake, reminded me of Crater Lake in Oregon.  We spent a while there and walked down a short trail to take a lot of pictures.   There were signs warning of bear and wildlife, but again, didn't see 👀 any.   I would choose this Park over the ones in 🇨🇦 Canada.  I am glad we went to Banff and Jasper to see all that, but if you were making a choice as which one to go to, I would go here first.   This park also has several ⛺️ campgrounds.  There are always hiking trails and lots of people hiking.  We are still in Montana tonight and drove through more wheat fields on the way to where we stopped.  It was really hot today.  I thought the North was cooler, today was 93.

From Hinton back through Jasper on to Radium Hot Springs via 95

8-27-17. We stayed in Hinton, AB last night at the Econo Lodge, had a good night.  Left this morning around 8am and stopped in Jasper for breakfast at The Wicked Cup restaurant.  They did have some GOOD coffee ☕️☕️☕️ and good food.  It was a little different menu that we have been use to, but it was really good.  You just have to try "different" sometime and live life with a little excitement.
We left Jasper on Hwy. 93, the same way we came in but even when you're on the same road and headed in the opposite direction you see different views and the sun is in a different position so it's just pretty no matter which way.  The lakes and ice fields are just beautiful.  We traveled on 93 to TC 1 until we got to Golden and got on highway 95 headed south to Radium Springs.  The temperature got in the 80's so we had to start shedding clothes.  Also had a traffic jam that held us up for an hour or so.  The scenery was a change from the parks, it was beautiful and was farming country with high mountains in the background.  It has been warm so there wasn't any snow ❄️❄️anywhere now.  We made it to Radium Hot Springs and ate at Riko's Radium Family Restaurant.  They have good food and I ate too much. Relaxing in our hotel room now watching Blue Bloods.   Pictures will be posted soon. This internet isn't very good here so it may be tomorrow.   We will be back in the Good ole' USA 🇺🇸 tomorrow.   Plan on riding through Glacier National Park day after tomorrow.