Bucket List – Mission Accomplished

Well we did it!

We marked off the top thing on our bucket list…. a trip to Glacier National Park in Montana!

I am still grinning from ear to ear! It was nothing short of amazing. My heart is still overwhelmed at it all.

Don’t get me wrong, we LOVE our home state. Arkansas has some of the most beautiful places you will ever see, but there’s just something special about Montana.

We can’t wait to return, as we didn’t get to see all the places we’d planned to. Yes, I am already planning the next trip. And, in my heart, I think there will be more after that.

Over the next few blogs, I will recount each day of our trip to share with you. I will try my best to highlight the things you wouldn’t want to miss if you ever get the chance to go…. and you really should go. If you love the outdoors at all… you should go. If you marvel at God’s creation and its beauty…. you should go. You. Should. Go.

But, hey… why wait until the next blog to start sharing… let’s do it now!

Here we go!

Before we get into the day to day itinerary, let me share some things about our 11 day trip:

• Research. I am a “digger” when it comes to finding out information. I blame this on having girls. As teenagers, when they began to like a boy, I became CIA/FBI/ATFE. I can laugh about it now that they are grown, but it was a serious matter at the time. Anyhow, it’s just how I am. Before we do any kind of major thing like purchase a vehicle, home, take a trip, invest in something, buy an appliance, etc I will spend hours upon hours upon days and weeks researching. I want to know every detail. I literally spent 3-4 days a week for about 6 months doing research for anything from directions, stops, where to stay, what to do in each town we went thru, construction on roadways, weather, what to wear, etc. I want to enter into anything with as much knowledge as possible and it paid off big time for us. There are always “unknowns” that can’t be helped, but being as prepared as you can be makes a trip (and anything else) go so smoothly.
• We drove. We discussed flying but we could not bear the thought of leaving our best boy, Blue, behind. When we made the decision to make Blue a part of our family, we did so knowing we wanted him with us wherever we went. So, the discussion wasn’t long, we knew we had to drive. And we didn’t mind. I had never been out west, by car, past Fayetteville, Arkansas… so there was a lot I wanted to see and experience. Brian, previously an over the road truck driver for years, didn’t mind the driving so we moved forward with our plan to hit the road and rack up some miles. We took Brian’s truck so we could fold up the seat in the extended cab and give Blue lots of room. He had his toys and his bed in there and was able to get up and move around when he wanted to. It worked out great for all of us, as the truck is much more comfortable than my small SUV. Speaking of, we were sure glad we weren’t in my SUV when at 2:00am one morning in South Dakota we hit a coyote doing 85mph. It broke my heart, but we couldn’t have avoided it. Thankfully, we didn’t have any damage, but had we been in my vehicle, it would have been very bad. Overall tho, we don’t regret driving at all. Matter of fact, I highly recommend it.
• No hotels. We have tried to stay in hotels with our furbabies, but we usually wind up on a upper floor which makes it hard to take them out to potty, and hotels just don’t seem to be diligent about deep cleaning pet friendly rooms. There are almost always stained carpets and bad odor. We quickly learned that Airbnb is the way to go (we’ve done VRBO once or twice too). For us, and especially with dogs, it’s just nice to have privacy. You don’t have to worry about noise from a room next to, above, or below you like in a hotel. There is also the fact that you have a whole house. A kitchen is always nice to have, as we usually cook meals when traveling to save money. And people who own Airbnbs tend take pride in having good reviews and take great care of their properties. We have never really had a bad experience at an Airbnb, but I read every review before booking one. Also, these days, if you do your research, you can find a great Airbnb/VRBO for the price of a hotel. Of course there’s been some things that maybe weren’t quiet ideal, or that we didn’t prefer but we don’t have any horror stories or anything of the sort. We haven’t stayed at a hotel in years, and don’t plan to start.
• One destination. When we first started planning our vacation, we thought about hitting several national parks and towns out west, since I had never been. But we knew we had a limited number of days, and the more we detailed planning we did, we discovered we wouldn’t be in one place more than one day. For us, that’s not a vacation…. being so busy that you don’t get to see everything. We wanted a vacation that included some down time. That’s what we did and it was the best decision. We set our sights on Glacier National Park, then mapped out stops along our route. In total we spent roughly 4 1/2 days driving, 1/2 day at Mount Rushmore/Custer State Park, 5 days at Glacier National park, and 1 day in Rocky Mountain National Park. 4800 miles total, and we loved every minute.

So, put on your seatbelt and follow along with us over the next several blog posts and maybe by the end you’ll be planning your own trip!

If I can help out in any way, don’t hesitate to reach out! I’d love to help you!

Until next time,

Cami & Blue