third time lucky....

Finally made it to Glacier National Park and the Going to the Sun Road after our two previous visits to Montana last spring and autumn when the park was mostly closed due to snow....and it was worth the wait. Cloudy and very hazy, partly from smoke blowing south east from wildfires in BC according to the ranger station, but it's still an impressive landscape and referred to as the Crown of the Continent as from here water can flow to the Pacific, Gulf of Mexico or Hudsons Bay....

They let us back into the US Saturday with no hassles, and the guy even chose to give us a year on the visas, which takes the pressure off getting rid of Badger and Toad - we still hope to sell as soon as possible but if we haven't sold by the end of the year we can still try for another month or so privately and then still make it to Hawaii before heading to Mexico and the south.

Badger seems to have survived his 10 months in storage quite well - had to change the wiper blades and service a microswitch on the kitchen slider but apart from that he started ok and everything still seems to be working. Tarpaulins did their job keeping any water and snow ingress at bay, although they have rubbed the paintwork in a few patches flapping in the wind, but I need to finish a couple of fibreglass repairs and get an airbrush for those anyway, so a few more touch ups will not be a big deal.

Flight back was a bit of a pain - sat on the tarmac at Gatwick for almost 90 minutes due to a late arriving plane and then missing their take off slot, and Calgary seems a very slow airport for approach and baggage handling, but again they let us in with no hassles. And the flight will always be memorable as it overflew the Greenland eastern coast with clear skies so I could see the icebergs becoming more frequent and crowded and then a couple of the glaciers that flow down into the fjords and calve them, and then up into the icesheet.... magical.

Enjoyed the time back in the UK catching up with everyone. Thanks to all who put us up and put up with us ( well, me) - especially Chris and Philip for the use of their places. Next trip we are hopefully planning a bit better and we will actually have the use of our own home for the duration....but lots to do before then.