Thursday eve, Aug 25

We are beginning to feel like whatever could go wrong on this trip...WILL!  ;) It is the third day of not being on schedule but we are all weathering it pretty well. Weather continues to be warm and beautiful. Could not order it any better.*** We left West Glacier this morning by a 'new bus' because our bus was back in Minot being fixed. We went to Lake McDonald where we boarded the historic red coaches for a guided tour of the  Going to the Sun Road.  WOW! That was an incredible ride  'up the hill'. Glad Bill was on the outside for the most part. They told us not to lean against the door though as it has been known to èpopè open when hitting a bump! The scenery was incredible up to Logan Pass where we crossed the continental divide. The views were breath taking. We cuddled together with a blanket in the back seat as we drove as the air was crisp!*** From there we were transported to St Maryès Lake where we enjoyed an hour cruise to the mouth of the Lake where we saw hanging cliffs and glaciers as they came into view.  After the cruise we had lunch at St Maryès Lodge-got to be 2 p.m. before we got lunch and then our food took forever to come. Had to try some huckleberry icecream as they have been bragging about their huckleberries now being in season. We then reunited with (our) motor coach and driver for a trip into Canada.  ***Our escort wanted to take us through a remote border crossing into Alberta and remote it was - windy narrow road up up up, cows on the road at  many a turn - from a distance we thought maybe they were moose or bear but no such luck. Weère just glad we got no beef steak through our windshield.  The Canadian authorities detained us quite some time and had us all fill out paper work instead of  looking at our passports!! They made us turn off the bus motor and no one was to get off. Some in the bus got a little hot. Then when we began again the AC no longer worked on the bus so drove a ways into Canada and stopped on a street corner of a little town to do some telephoning to get some suggestions. It was getting later and places were closing etc. - no bathrooms, etc. :-)  Finally all the vents were able to be opened and we pulled the window screens down and went on. Our destination was to drive through Frank Slide Catastrophie Rockslide of 1903. That was pretty amazing to see all those bolders that slid down the mountain and covered a highway and a town.***Moving on we meandered through and cross the Crows Nest Pass into British Columbia.  That was a very scenic drive all along. Our overnight stay tonight is in Ferne, a resort ski town. Weère staying at teh Park Place Lodge.As we drove into town they seemed to have sort of a power outage as some stop lights were out and the door to our hotel could not be opened!!! We again arrived very much later than we were suppose to and again tomorrow we are to have luggage out by 6:30 and gone by 7.We are headed to Kimberly to take a ride on a mining train at the Kimberly Mine. We will spend the afternoon roaming the quaint German town.  Well, Bill and I are off to find ourselves some supper. Bill, have fun at the fair. Youèll  probably run into Howie Krienke. He LOVES the state fair. Jan, we havenèt seen a lot of flowers yet but our hotel tonight looks like a German chalet with flowers hanging from the windows and around Lake McDonald Lodge this morning, they were beautiful in pots all around the lodge. All for today!