Two days in one

by Jeff · September 11, 2016

So, we spent Wednesday and Thursday discovering the area around Kalispell and Flathead Lake.

Wednesday was a shopping day. We needed to restock on some sundries and I had blown out a tennis shoe. We headed Beastie Boy to Bigfork first as we had totally forgotten to pay our bar bill from the night before…..they were totally cool with it and the bill was all of 16 bucks. The bar manager, Rebecca, was very friendly and became one of our daily stable of “friends” at the Marina Cay resort.

So, we headed into Kalispell which still has a small town feel to it. The downtown area is very much alive and has thriving businesses. The on street parking in downtown would have been great 20 years ago but now is a little less than adequate. We found parking for the Beast one block off main street in front of a genuine old time barber and shave place. It had two chairs and I almost regretted having shaved that morning as the chairs were inviting. RP headed for the nail salon to get some work done and I headed to the western store. 2 floors of country wear just like the stores were when I was young. Perhaps it’s just because we live in such an urbane area that I have not seen these stores in a long time. Honest to god racks of western shirts, fitted hats hanging from the walls and beams and racks full of men’s and women’s boots and shoes. There was actually a clerk on duty in the men’s section who knew what she was doing fitting boots. Needless to say, I walked out with a great looking, great fitting pair of Justin boots. RP showed up and we got some postcards to send out. Then walked across the street where I bought good tennis shoes (the original reason for shoe shopping). RP says I am a shoe snob, I say I just want good fitting shoes that feel great on my feet and can be worn a while before breaking down.

We hit the local supermarket and then back out to Piper. We got stuff put away and then went to Bigfork.

Bigfork became our evening routine for this stay. Our plan for this trip has always been to come through Montana and just travel with no time restrictions. We have a couple of dates we have promised to be places towards then end but for now, no deadlines. When we got to looking at this trip, we noticed that the days we wanted to be around Glacier National Park happened to coincide with the Todd Brunson Montana Challenge Poker tournament. So we checked it out on Tuesday and discovered the live cash games after the daily tournament ended. We made the cash games our nightly relaxation event. We decided that how long we stayed in Lakeside would determine the rest of the trip.

the Beast in a Montana meadow

We found that the weather was not cooperating with our plan to drive up into Glacier (rain, wind and clouds) and would not clear until Friday. So we decided to stay in the area and go to Glacier on Friday. In the meantime we spent Thursday driving around Swan and Flathead lakes. This is a great area for exploring, State Parks everywhere and great access to local attractions. You can go for a boat tour on Flathead Lake for a reasonable price. There are fishing charter boats that will take you out for targets such as Mackinac trout, and other species of fish. During the harvest season the local Cherries are a crazy treat (we were too late for them) and there are orchards all around the lake with the heaviest concentration on the east side of the lake. We investigated some great campgrounds, both state park and private. This area is rich in excursions and is very handy to fishing, hunting and of course Glacier National park.

As I have mentioned, we made Marina Cay our evening home for the week. Neither of us play tournament poker much but Todd had live cash games starting in the evenings all week. We met some folks who were really nice and way cool. This evening cash game was more like a home game. There was no pressure from anyone to be too serious. Once we got introduced around and after the first hour of the cash game we were included in this club of folks who often play together. The laughing and joking was non stop along with the good natured ribbing and insults that were passed back and forth between long time friends. By Wednesday night we were being included in the ribbing and insults, we had been accepted by the group. Todd and his wife Anjela (Brunson) were way stressed out and weren’t really having a lot of fun as the hosts and administration for the week. After Wednesday they also included us in the crew. A shout out to the group; Becca, Sissy, Dany(Georges) and his dad, Double D (Darren), Canadian Darren (@washdude) and Brett. The game was fun and playing with you was great. I learned a lot and heard some fun facts about folks I know. I can’t wait to see each of you again in the future.