About That Polson II (June 9 - 15)

Dear Family and Friends,

Hello from Polson, Montana! This has been our second week in this gorgeous area of the country. One of the best things about RVing is meeting people and renewing friendships. Last week you saw pics of Skyla (Polson RV owners' daughter) with her double doodle (Molly) playing with Bear. On Saturday we drove to Kalispell (an hour north of Polson), to watch her participate in a horse show. Skyla owns Sprite, a seventeen year old pony, whom she rode in the Jumper and Hunter classes. This riding event lasted all day and was held at one of two world class horse show grounds in the nation.

 Skyla with Sprite before the Jumper event.

Skyla and Sprite doing a canter.

 Hooray, Skyla and Sprite won a ribbon for Jumper Class.
Proud mom, Carlissa, is on the right.

 Skyla is now riding in the Hunter event.

Skyla and Sprite had several hurdles to jump.

Another ribbon for Hunter Class.

More ribbons for doing such a great job in the Hunter class.

On Sunday morning, we went mountain biking with pros: Wayne and Kim. They live in the Polson area and agreed to take us for a true mountain bike ride in the Jette area. After meeting us at 9, we followed Wayne and Kim to an Indian reservation area that overlooked Flathead Lake. We started our ride and 3 1/2 hours later finished. The mountain wildflowers were lovely. We had plenty of practice climbing, riding on single and double trails, and downhill work. Keeping both feet clipped in and avoiding rocks gave me lots of challenges. Wayne and Kim were wonderful teachers. 

An interesting sidebar is that Wayne invented the gravity seat post that goes up and down on the mountain bike with a press of a button. His company is located in Polson.  Roger has a variation of it on his bike. I have to move my seat manually. It is important to change seat positions as you ride down hill on a mountain bike because it makes it much easier.

Double Trail

We finally made it to the top. Kim is in front of me.
Yes, it is really that beautiful.

Roger

"That which goes up, must come down."  Roger walking the bike down Bloody D (the nickname for a short, steep, narrow path). It was a short walk and then we were back on the bikes for the rest of the ride.

My turn down Bloody D

 More beautiful views at another stop.

We are still smiling, but oh, are we tired. We went straight to lunch!

We do love those new mountain bikes as we can go places that are off of the cement roads. Another plus is the lack of any kind of vehicular traffic which is always a concern with road bikes.

We said goodbye to new friends from Oklahoma (huge Sooner fans), Brenda and Dale. We also said goodbye to new friends from Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Clay, Alissa and Jan) this week. Clay, an avid cyclist, rode with us several times.

Wednesday found us in Missoula picking up our new glasses, new tires for the Terrain and running other errands. What a busy day!

We look forward to our granddaughter, Abby, flying in to stay with us for several weeks on Wednesday, so be prepared for lots of pictures. Thank you for checking in with us. We appreciate your interest in our travels.