Happysad Goodbyes and Glacier National Park

"Look deep into nature and then you will understand everything better."  ~ Albert Einstein


     We finished off our time in Red Deer having great fun in +Paul Howard's studio with Paul decking me with wigs and props, +Kathleen Milks making me crack up and Mischief shoving balls into everyone's hands, legs, and elsewhere.  Then in the morning it was time to get back on the road (with allergies all around) and head north to spend a brief but wonderful afternoon delivering a monster to, and catching up with the incredible +Chrysta Rae.

Only to turn back around and head south and out of Canada.

And that's where life caught up with me.


My reemergence into the US, just north of Glacier National Park, was met with a text containing information that I was expecting but was nonetheless a billion times more painful than I had anticipated.  It took me some time to stuff my insides back in and put my heart back in place enough so that I could make the short drive down to Glacier.  It was late and almost everyplace at the entrance to the park was closed and dark, but I was not prepared to be alone that night and I started searching for anyone anywhere who could point me toward some kind of comfort.  Amazingly and completely unexpectedly I was rescued, first by the two women who had just closed the bar at the lodge who very kindly and patiently listened as I burst into tears and told them what had just occurred and then pointed me at the one place that was still open that time of night:

It's like in Beetlejuice when they created the whorehouse as a distraction at just the right moment...except, ya know, different.

...and then second by a traveler like myself who also listened as I (slightly more drunkenly) told my story.  It turns out he just happened to have an extra bed in the room he had at the lodge and didn't see why it should go to waste.  So far I had been having fairly good luck in the not-sleeping-in-my-car department!

In the morning we went to breakfast at an adorable little local joint called Johnson's of St Mary.
http://www.johnsonsofstmary.com/index.html  The food was good, filling, exactly what I needed, and the company was friendly, pleasant, exactly what I needed.  Then it was time to continue my journey, fed, rested, and ready once more to go forward.

Glacier National Park, as seen from Going-to-the-Sun Road:

Evidence of a past act of kindness:

I was a little concerned by the intensity of the message....

 Heh heh heh hoary marmot...