5 weeks is a long time

Tuesday eve.
'Ever think about how much stuff you use in 5 weeks? How much deodorant? How much toothpaste? I tend to overthink and over-research things so this is a bit of Scott purgatory. We were told to bring a week's worth of clothes.  Do shorts last for 3 days or 4?  Makes a difference in how many you take.  And t-shirts.
If it's 85 every day do you wear 1 or 2 each day? Overthinking, again, right?

Anyway, decisions were made and we are packed up for tomorrow early am takeoff.

Halfway packed. The guitar and Zoe's life vest are the only non-negotiable essentials.

Wednesday eve.

Well, we got off early and hopped on the 6:20 ferry.  Needed to stop at several rest stops for Zoe (and for Marie and me, if the truth be known). Zoe has never been on a long trip like this, so we really didn't know what to expect. She was very restless until we finally decided to give her some Benadryl.  I know, I know...drugging our dog.  But she was much calmer and happier after the drugs kicked in.

Had to stop at the Couer d'Alene Costco to buy a bag of dog food and some Balsimic vinegar for Laurel.  Cramming a 40 pound bag of dog food into an already stuffed trunk was quite a trick.

We are writing this entry from our hotel in Wallace Idaho.  Always wanted to stay a night in Wallace.  In college at WSU in the early 70s, Wallace was every college boy's dream.  Town has changed a lot since then and it's quite a tourist town now.  Lots of cool history especially mining and, of course brothels.

Marie enjoying a well deserved Margarita in Wallace.

Here's a little Wallace oddity. We have seen at least 20 people or groups of people traveling around in street legal 4runners they call side by sides.  Very cool. I want one.

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What to do, what to do

So how to plan for a month of solitude in the wilds of Montana? Sadly, I have had to do a lot of thinking about how not to be bored, as that would not be much of an adventure, would it? At home I have tons of tools, projects not to mention the boob tube, to while away the hours.  Marie is taking a slew of books, although there are probably a slew of them there waiting for her left by previous tenants who took a slew of them themselves...  Plus she will be doing a lot of cooking, so she surely won't be getting bored.

Definitely need a guitar, but not the Martin or any of my good guitars.  I already ruined one guitar around the oil' campfire, back in the days of John Denver and P, P and M.  So I ordered a baby Taylor which is smaller than a regular guitar and that's a good thing.  Do you know how much stuff you think you need for a month away from home?

Here is the baby Taylor next to a full grown Taylor.

And then it hit me.  What does everybody do in Montana.  They fish.  They fly fish!  Hell, I am not that much of a fisherguy.  Done a little Salmon fishing, some trolling for trout, but I am not very good.  I have always wanted to learn to fly fish.  My daughter Maia went on her first fly fishing adventure last May and now she is tying her own flies.  That's pretty cool.  Has to be the ultimate accomplishment to catch a beautiful trout on a fly you,tied yourself. "A river runs through it" was a pretty good movie. I am not sure this rises to the bucket list level of accomplishment, but it's at least a life skill I would like to have.  So that's it.  Fly fishing.

I tend to over research stuff.  I have been known to spend hours reading reviews and searching for the best price for something as mundane as an IPad stylus.  Do you have any idea how many YouTube videos there are on learning to fly fish? Thousands.  Millions.  And I have watched a boatload. How to cast.  What flies to use. Big streams, little streams, lakes, ocean.  The 20 knots you need to learn. And then there's the equipment.  7.5 to 9 foot poles. Line weights, floating versus sinking lines, leader sizes ( both length and weight). Hell, who measures the weight of a leader?  Then there's backing and tippets.  Well, you get the idea.

And how much of this stuff do I have to buy, just to fish for a couple of hours a day?  And then you don't even get to keep the fish!

Here's a key to life I am going to share.  As guys get old(er) they accumulate stuff (I am using the nice word here). Lots of stuff. I put the word out that I was going to learn to fly fish and I was inundated with a plethora of paraphernalia related to the noble sport.  Here's a photo of the vest, tackle and over 1000 flies I now have in my possession.

Some of the beautiful flies

Lots o' stuff

On Saturday I will go in to the local sports store to find out what I have and what I still need.  The expert in fly fishing only works on Saturday.  Not a bad job.  He is probably out fishing the rest of the week.  Many thanks to my fly fishing friends, as I am sure my list of stuff to buy went down measurably.

Introduction to the adventure

I have one last board meeting with Kitsap Humane Society before we start to get serious about getting ready to leave for a month in Montana.  As board president it's pretty much a professional preparation for this meeting which seems like a fitting send off to head out for the remote wilderness in Montana. Great contrast in worlds.

So why this Montana trip? It goes back several years when our friends, Laurel and Jake DeLong decided to give up the city life (or as city as Kitsap County is), rent out their house and travel the country living out of their camper for a year.  Along the way they learned about the world of caretaking, where you could earn a living by taking care of very cool properties owned by other people.

They ended up care taking an old silver mine ghost town in Idaho for the winter and a fly fishing resort in Montana for the summer. You can read about their adventures at Laurel's "Eating up the road" blog.

So after several years of care taking the opportunity presented itself to purchase the Montana resort...and they did a few months ago.

A couple of weeks after the deal closed, we called the Delongs at their new resort ( at least new to them) to ask how things were going, did they need anything, etc. After a few minutes, Laurel said that some of their employees were leaving in August and they needed more help for the month and, I am sure because she knows Marie is gifted at cookery, asked if we wanted to come and work at the resort for the month.  I am sure that I was an afterthought but I am not a bad cooker (sic) and a pretty good handyman, so I think I can make myself useful.  Maybe I will be cleaning bathrooms, but that would be okay too.

So here's the deal.  The work will be no more that 20 hours per week, We will stay in the lodge, eat with the staff (of course, we ARE the staff), get Sundays and Mondays off and we can take Zoe, our 75 lb, 6 feet long rescue dog who the head geneticist from the company where we sent her DNA test insists is at least half traditional Chinese Shar Pei - not the wrinkly face kind. And we thought she was a lab when we adopted her... Jake and Laurel have a very cool dog, Cannella who is already friends with Zoe.

Tomorrow we start getting ready. One week to go.