Montana Trip

We decided to go to Montana to see my dad. He hadn’t seen Breckston since he was almost 2 months old. We left Friday the 18th at 5 o’clock and rode with Logan and Jenna. It is normally a 6 hour ride but it took us a little longer because we drove in the dark. From Butte to Helena there are a lot of animals and Logan didn’t want to hit any so he drove MUCH slower than the speed limit. So it took a little over 7 hours to get there. (We didn’t even see an animal until we got to Helena and a cat, of all things, crossed in front of the car.)

Saturday Logan and I got up to go help my dad haul hay. All 4 of us planned on taking no more than an hour, it ended up taking 3 because we underestimated how much hay we needed to haul. After wards we all decided to go for an ATV ride on the public property behind my dad’s house. I drove and Tracy held on to Breckston between us. We also visited a few closed up mines.We were out about 2 hours and then headed back; on the way back Breckston buried his head into my back and fell asleep about 15 minutes from the house. Poor little tike was all tuckered out. Tracy stayed with him while Logan, Dad, Misty and I stayed out on the ATV’s for a little while longer. There were a few trails that were kinda hairy but the 4Wheeler that I was on handled them fine. After ATVing we went to McKenzie River Pizza Company to get some dinner. IT was sooo good. Tracy and I ordered a whole pizza and a plate of pasta. We finished the pasta and took half the pizza home; Breckston really likes pizza too.

Sunday morning met us with some Dutch oven breakfast. We then went and visited family on the other side of the valley. After that we were off to go fishing at Park Lake. It was a long 17 mile ride on dirt road. I was the first person to catch a fish from the lake that day, it was an arctic grayling. The fishing was kinda slow and we only caught a couple. While I was holding Breckston we got a bite and ended up catching a 3” cut-bow. It was technically Breckston’s first fish. He also caught a cut-bow even before I ever did. We ended up leaving fairly late. Since we had ridden up with Logan we decided to have a contest to see who could spot the most deer. I was the first to find one and it was the biggest buck of the trip (he took off before I could snap a picture). We saw so many more deer that we ended up loosing count and never anointed a contest king. We finished up the day with dinner and much needed sleep back at my Dad’s.

Monday morning we got up to pancakes. We left to go fishing again (it costs $25 a person for a 2-day license so we wanted to make the best of it.) We went back to the same lake again and fished for a couple hours. It was slow up until the point that we were ready to leave. I had tied a fly behind a bubble and was starting to catch a lot of fish. We left to go home because most of us were getting tired. When we got back all of us crashed and took about a 3 hour nap. After waking up we got back in the car and went to get some things for dinner and night fishing. We went to the lake right there in Helena. It is similar to how Pine View, except they don’t have tiger musky they have 30 inch trout. Fishing was almost non-existent. We didn’t even get a bite. It was relaxing, none-the-less, to be right next to the water, roasting hotdogs, and enjoying the fire in the dark. IT was a much more baby friendly beach for Breckston. Logan and his wife, Jenna, went with Logan’s friends to a different part of the lake. Only one of them caught a fish. They said it was tiny for that lake and it was 23” long. That is huge in my book.

Tuesday we left to go home. We stopped in Dillon Montana for some food at McDonald’s (just like on the ride up.) We then drove all the way to Idaho Falls where Logan needed me to drive because he was getting tired. We played the A-Z game; we had to spot all the letters of the alphabet on signs (not license plates.) Tracy missed seeing 3 Z’s and we ended up loosing to Logan and Jenna after we were up by 6 or 7 letters. Just outside of Malad Idaho Breckston had a blow-out and we had to change him on the trunk of the car on some random on-ramp. This was Breckstons first real road trip. He was such a good boy the whole time we were in the car.We then made it home after 4 stops and this time it only took us 6 hours and change. It was a fun trip and we really loved being outdoors; and we appreciated spending time with my dad, Misty, and Eve.