Oct 6th - 8th. Shelby,Montana to Home

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Woke up in Shelby to heavy rain and cold wind. Richard and Linde had wisely put their top up the night before, but Steve and I hadn't, and were soaking wet and freezing by the time we did. Half the stuff in the car was wet too. There was no breakfast at the motel so we packed up hurriedly and took off, cold, wet, and hungry. We hadn't put our side curtains in because they were at the bottom of the trunk and more stuff would get wet getting them out. The wind was blowing rain into the car and we were very cold and miserable.

When we stopped for breakfast a couple of hours later we had to drag the side curtains out anyway. After breakfast at a dubious greasy spoon, we continued and things got better. We were heading for Logan Pass through Glacier Park and the Going to the Sun Road.

 Hwy 89 approaching Glacier Park is very pretty this time of year with the leaves changing colour. Most of my pictures were taken through a rain spattered windshield so a lot of them had to be deleted. The side curtain is plastic and has to be opened with a zipper, so that way was not good either.

 There were no signs or warnings that Logan Pass was closed, and we were stopped here by one little sign. We asked in the store at the turnoff to the park and was told that the road had been closed since Labour Day. You would think there should have been a sign 30 miles back in Browning! So we had to turn around and go back almost to where we had breakfast.  None of us was really too sorry that we had come as the route was very beautiful.

Twin Medicine Lake  

All through Montana, Idaho and into Washington, people had a lot of beautiful horses in all colours. Not sure what this one is doing on the side of the road.

Now after all this wilderness, we had another case of horseshoes!!! In the town of Kalispell, we were stopped by a red light and Richard pulled oer to wait for us. He thought he might as well check the noise he was hearing in the engine. Turned out it was the generator, and as it happened he was stopped in front of a mechanical shop. The owner had the time to take it out, and knew someone who could replace the bushing. Steve and Richard took the generator to the other shop and though that guy didn't have the parts he needed he was able to figure out what to do to get us back on the road. Within an hour and a half the car was up and running again. And--and as luck would have it there was a Kmart 2 blocks away so Linde and I didn't have to sit and be bored!!! Amazing eh?

 So we drove on again to Libby for the night. Turns out we'd stayed here before on another trip, at the same motel. We had a nice dinner, had a good night's sleep, and got everything dried out. The next morning, Friday, was drizzly but not so cold.  We crossed into Idaho and then into Washington. Back into the very beautiful Pacific North West.  

Tonight we are in Winthrop, at a very nice hotel right on the river bank. Tomorrow we will be in our own beds.

Saturday October 8th -  we woke up to frost on the cars! Time to get home! All four of us feel a cold coming on, sore throats, sinuses, coughs, headaches, etc. Unbelievable, we've been fine all this time and on the last day we all get sick. The drive through the Cascades was phenomenal. The higher mountains already have a skiff of new snow. We saw two beautiful lakes, Ross Lake which is deep blue and Diablo Lake which is jade green.



Diablo Lake



Ross Lake



This is the odometer of the MGA. In case you can't read it, it says 55645. At the start of this trip it was at 37160. The odometer is not perfect, so the corrected distance done by the MGA is 17745 miles. The MGB probably did more.





A few fun facts:

• We (Steve and Sheila) have slept in 89 different beds on the trip
• At between 10 to 20 bridges a day we figure we have crossed between 1400 to 1800 bridges
• Towels from hand size to beach size are multi functional tools to have on any trip. They serve as hats, jackets, pillows, blankets, draft stoppers, leak soakers, table cloths, sun shields, air conditioners, seating cushions, umbrellas, and even as a pool or beach towel.
• We've been away 123 days, or 4 months and one day. We left on the 8th and returned on the 8th.
• We decided that God must love MGs, because we have so many cases of amazing good luck or 'Serendipity'.
• We travelled through parts of 33 States and 5 Provinces, some more than once

So here we are back home again, glad to be here, but a little sad that it is over. We all feel that Driving the Dream was a success. The cars performed amazingly. We had a great adventure. Would we do it again? YOU BET!!!