Stuck in a Herd of Moose (and More Montana Adventures) w/ special guest

Episode 15 November 18, 2023 00:30:47
Stuck in a Herd of Moose (and More Montana Adventures) w/ special guest
2TravelDads Podcast
Stuck in a Herd of Moose (and More Montana Adventures) w/ special guest

Nov 18 2023 | 00:30:47

/

Hosted By

Rob Taylor Chris Taylor

Show Notes

Where to begin?! Glacier Country, Montana is always fun and interesting, but you should hear our youngest talk about it. In this episode of 2TravelDads Podcast we've got Elliott, our 8 year old, recounting his favorite highlights from our trip to Missoula, MT and Glacier National Park. My favorite part is listening to him talk about how we got stuck in a herd of moose. Yes, a herd.

Give a listen and hear all the details according to an 8 year old. Elliott shares what he enjoyed in Missoula and his favorite moments from hiking in Glacier National Park. I love how his personality shines through as he tells his version of our trip to Glacier Country. It warms my 40s something heart.

For more information and the specifics of our autumn travel to Montana, check out the blog. We're got guides for Glacier NP, planning tips, and more of what you'll find all around Glacier Country!

View Full Transcript

Episode Transcript

[00:00:13] Speaker A: Welcome to two Travel Dads podcast. Here we share our favorite destinations, travel tips, stories from our adventures, and bring on awesome guests to share insights into their travelsome lives. Be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and check out our detailed show notes at Dash episode. Hey, welcome back to another episode of two Travel Dads podcast. I'm Rob, and today I have a super duper special guest, my little bestie, Elliot. Say hello. [00:00:45] Speaker B: Hello. [00:00:47] Speaker A: And what are we going to talk about today, bud? [00:00:50] Speaker B: So we're going to talk about a place where we stayed, Montana. And we are going to talk about Missoula and different places and where we stayed. [00:01:05] Speaker A: And then I think we're going to finish by talking about the most magical wildlife experience any of us has ever had. [00:01:11] Speaker C: Yep. [00:01:12] Speaker A: Sound good? [00:01:12] Speaker B: Okay. [00:01:14] Speaker A: So, yeah. So Elliot and I took an adventure, just the two of us, to Montana in October. So we got to be there for fall colors. Was it prettier in Montana than Florida for fall? [00:01:29] Speaker B: I would say yes. [00:01:32] Speaker A: Do you like the fall leaves more than you like the beach? [00:01:34] Speaker B: No, I just feel like it had more follish. [00:01:42] Speaker A: Yep. [00:01:42] Speaker B: Than Florida. And. [00:01:45] Speaker A: Yeah, I agree. I agree. Super fun. But we started in Missoula, and we stayed at a really cool little hotel. Remember the hotel with your favorite piece of. [00:01:57] Speaker B: Yes, yes. [00:01:58] Speaker A: What was the piece of art that we walked by every day? [00:02:02] Speaker B: So every day at a hotel called the Ren in where we went up, it showed a piece of art that was a baby bear climbing. What? [00:02:19] Speaker A: He was like, climbing like a fire lookout tower or something like that. Yeah, it was like a baby smokey the bear. Super cute. [00:02:25] Speaker B: But with no hat. [00:02:26] Speaker A: But with no hat. Exactly. No. And the ren was perfect for us. It's a cool. Was, like, outdoorsy, industrial, fun sort of place with state park and national park stuff and smokey the bear and all that stuff. Perfect for a little family trip to Missoula. But, gosh, we did all kinds of stuff. We went to the Montana Museum of. [00:02:48] Speaker B: Natural History, and it had, like, different animals that were alive, but now they're dead. [00:02:56] Speaker A: Do you remember what that's called when they preserve an animal like that? [00:02:59] Speaker C: No. [00:03:00] Speaker A: It's called taxidermy. Yeah, it was actually kind of an amazing taxidermy collection, if you ask me. [00:03:07] Speaker B: And there were, like, baby bison, bears. [00:03:13] Speaker A: Cougars, mountain goats, all that stuff, which we ended up seeing some of those things later. And there was cool microscope stuff, too. [00:03:22] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:03:23] Speaker A: Always a hit, but, yeah. No, Missoula was super duper fun for us. Lots of cool things. The Missoula library was definitely great. [00:03:32] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:03:33] Speaker A: It felt more like a children's museum than a library. Right. [00:03:36] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:03:37] Speaker A: There's all kinds of interactive stuff that you could do. And, yeah, Missoula was lots of fun, lots of art. Farmers market. Ooh. I know what I think one of your favorite things was. Do you have a guess? [00:03:49] Speaker B: My favorite thing in Missoula was a playground that had one ride, and it was. I forgot what it was called. [00:04:01] Speaker A: The carousel. [00:04:02] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:04:03] Speaker A: So the carousel at Keras park in Missoula. It's beautiful. And each horse is very different. Each one kind of has, like, a different theme. [00:04:14] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:04:15] Speaker A: A different story. Yep. And they're all carved by local carvers, and they all kind of reflect something else. Montana ish. And besides that, it's beautiful. It's the fastest carousel I've ever seen. Like, it's pretty fast. Pretty fast. It was crazy. Very. I'm glad I didn't ride it with you. I'm so glad you were fine riding it by yourself because watching you kind of made me a little nauseous. [00:04:41] Speaker B: Really? [00:04:41] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:04:42] Speaker A: Because spinny things make me not feel so. But that's okay, because that's what you're a champ at. What else did we do in Missoula? [00:04:49] Speaker B: We did some hiking, and we went to a place called Hidden Lake. And it's right by going to the road. [00:05:02] Speaker A: Ah, so you're jumping up to glacier national park. That's okay. [00:05:05] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:05:06] Speaker A: We could talk about that, and we'll come back and talk about some of the other stuff we did. That's totally fine. [00:05:11] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:05:11] Speaker A: So tell us about hidden Lake, because we were just going to do the short version of the hike, and then you got inspired. [00:05:19] Speaker B: And we hiked all the way down to hidden Lake, and I spotted the most biggest Bighorn sheep that dad has ever seen. [00:05:35] Speaker A: He was amazing. Oh, there's a picture of him just as a little refresher for us on this side. [00:05:40] Speaker B: It was, like, bigger than dad. [00:05:42] Speaker A: He was the tallest bighorn sheep and the most muscular bighorn sheep I've ever seen. And do you remember what that's called when their horns do that thing? [00:05:51] Speaker B: A curl. [00:05:52] Speaker A: A curl. He had a full curl, like, starting to do another one. Such a cool animal. [00:05:59] Speaker B: And I had to hide right behind dad. [00:06:03] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:06:03] Speaker A: You're really good at staying safe when there's lots of wildlife. And we definitely had our share of wildlife experiences when we got up to glacier. But, yeah, I think one of my favorite things about doing this hike with you was that we were just going to do the little overlook, and you're like, let's go down to the lake. And you just marched yourself right on ahead. And it was so cool to see you do stuff like that. [00:06:28] Speaker B: Dad, I only wanted to do it because it's where you saw that baby mountain goat. [00:06:35] Speaker A: I know. [00:06:36] Speaker B: And then right above you. [00:06:38] Speaker A: But. So it's funny, because for all the times I've done that hike, when me and Elliot did it, that's the first time I haven't seen a mountain goat on that trail. But, hey, we saw one later, right? [00:06:48] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:06:50] Speaker B: More than one. [00:06:51] Speaker A: Yeah, we saw two later. It's true. [00:06:53] Speaker B: No mountain goats. We saw more than two. [00:06:57] Speaker A: No, we saw lots of bighorn sheep. But remember, we saw the mountain goats at night. They were in the parking lot, walking around, licking the pavement. [00:07:06] Speaker B: That was more than two. [00:07:08] Speaker A: Oh, okay. [00:07:09] Speaker B: It was like, I don't know, four. [00:07:11] Speaker A: Well, there you go. So you have better eyes than I do, but no, that was a super duper fun hike, and I'm so glad we got to do that. But before we did that hike, and it might not have been feel as special to you as it did to me, but we got up really, really early. We had stayed in big fork the night before, and we drove into the park before sunrise, and we got to watch the sun come up two times. Two times. It was the craziest thing, because we made it up to Logan pass in the middle of Glacier National park, and we were at the. What would that be? I guess it was like the south end of the parking lot. [00:07:43] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:07:44] Speaker A: And we saw the sun come up behind one mountain, and then we ran to the other end of the parking lot, and we watched the sun come up behind another mountain. [00:07:51] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:07:51] Speaker A: It was pretty crafty. It was magical. Yeah. What else did you love about Glacier National park? Oh, you want to talk about that? [00:07:58] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:07:59] Speaker A: Okay, I'll let you tell the story. So I'll set the scene. How about that? [00:08:03] Speaker C: Okay. [00:08:04] Speaker A: So, on day two in glacier, we went to an area of the park called two medicine, which is not the easiest to get to if you're based over in west Glacier. But it's a little drive, like an hour's drive. [00:08:16] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:08:16] Speaker A: So we got there nice and early to start our day. We saw the lake, and it was beautiful. And then we were just going for a short little hike, and then Elliot will tell the story. [00:08:26] Speaker B: So once we set off on the hike, we got surrounded by. Was it two bull moose? [00:08:37] Speaker A: Initially, we saw two bull moose, and so we made it past them safely and thought we were in the clear. Were we in the clear? [00:08:46] Speaker B: No, we got surrounded by one family. [00:08:51] Speaker A: Of moose, so there were four more. [00:08:54] Speaker B: And there was a mama and a baby, and we had to huddle up with two more families. And my dad and another person had out their bear spray if they were going to charge. [00:09:15] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:09:15] Speaker A: Which I imagine it would have been effective if they came at us. But luckily we didn't have to because the other safety thing that we did was all of us got off the trail and kind of moved into the woods a little bit to put some trees between us and the six moose because, yeah, we came past the two bowl, and then there was the family with the mama and the baby, and then two juvenile moose. [00:09:38] Speaker D: Right. [00:09:38] Speaker A: And then those other two bowl moose came out of the woods. So then we've got six of us, so that's why we had to hide in the woods. And then, gosh, how did we get out of there? [00:09:48] Speaker B: The moose just walked on the other way we were going. So we just speed walked. [00:09:58] Speaker A: Yeah, we got. We got out of there once it was clear, but it was kind of crazy because. Do you remember the sounds they were making? [00:10:04] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:10:04] Speaker A: Can you make a sound? [00:10:06] Speaker B: No. [00:10:06] Speaker A: I'll try. It was like. That's my impression. But it was funny because before we saw the big group of them, we could hear them deep in the woods, and we thought they were far away because they were doing this honking thing at each other. But turns out, no, they were just around the corner. So we did that, and we did the rest of our hike. We saw a pretty waterfall. Astrofall is where we were at. [00:10:26] Speaker B: And we met another person that was also a travel writer. [00:10:34] Speaker A: Oh, that's true. Because you're so good at introductions. [00:10:36] Speaker B: And she also got to the same place as we were going. [00:10:41] Speaker A: It's true. It's true. Yeah. We met somebody else who was also in Glacier National park writing about it, and they got to have the same sort of experience as us, but. So then we walked with them up to the waterfall. Right. And then on the way back, we're like, no. Do you think that the moose will be gone? And we were kind of hoping, and they weren't. They were off the trail, though, so that was okay. So we made it past them safely, and then do you remember what we saw after we passed the six moose again? [00:11:07] Speaker B: So there was like a pond, or was it. [00:11:12] Speaker A: Yeah, it was a pond. [00:11:15] Speaker B: So there were one baby moose following a mama in the pond, drinking. And on the right side of us, there were. What? [00:11:30] Speaker A: Were there two more? [00:11:32] Speaker B: Yeah, I think there were two more bull moose. [00:11:34] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:11:35] Speaker A: So if you're keeping track. If you're counting it. That's ten moose on one hike. Was it crazy? [00:11:44] Speaker B: So after we got out. Wait, was it like, what's that place when we were driving back when we saw the mountain goats? [00:11:55] Speaker A: Oh, that was later that night. [00:11:57] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:11:57] Speaker A: Oh, actually, no. You're talking about the bighorn sheep in the parking lot. Was that what you're talking about? [00:12:01] Speaker B: Those were mountain goats? [00:12:03] Speaker A: No. Okay, now I see why we're confused. So after we did our hike with the ten moose, we got in our car and we were going to leave that part of the park, leave two medicine, and then I was like, let's go over and just roll through the picnic area. And that's when there was a herd of bighorn sheep. [00:12:20] Speaker B: No, a lady told us that there. [00:12:23] Speaker A: Were mountain goats, but she was incorrect because those were indeed bighorn sheep. I know they were, because here's a picture. Here's a picture. I took a picture of them. [00:12:33] Speaker D: Voila. [00:12:34] Speaker A: Even though those are little horns, those are big horn sheep. Right? Because mountain goats, they've got the scruffy beard and they're white, and mountain goat horns are black instead of creamy grayish brown. But look at that. Oh, so cool. And be sure to check out the show notes on twotraveldads.com because we've got pictures of all of this amazing wildlife that we saw. But after we saw the bighorn sheep in the parking lot and we were heading to our next destination, what do we see? [00:13:04] Speaker B: We saw three more. [00:13:07] Speaker A: We did. We saw three more moves. It's true. So we went to the many glacier area, which many glacier is my favorite part of the park. And do you remember the name of the hike we were doing? [00:13:19] Speaker B: No. [00:13:20] Speaker A: We were doing the bullhead lake hike. It's the start of the swift current pass trail. And, I mean, swift current pass is amazing, but the two of us weren't going to conquer that in a day. So we were just doing the bullhead lake hike, and we got to see three moose on that one. There was the. Which was your favorite? Was your favorite the cow moose who was by herself? Or did you like the really big bull moose that was hanging out? That was just kind of like chilling out on that little kind of island that we saw. Let me find a picture of him so that you can kind of refresh your memory about it. Oh, here he is right here. There was this guy who was an amazing bull moose. And then we saw that other one. There was a third moose, and he was a juvenile bull moose, and he was farther away, so he was a little bit more difficult for us to watch. But I think my favorite thing about it was when we were watching the cow moose, you were so patient, and I'm so thankful. [00:14:25] Speaker B: And you could see the tracks that she was making in the water. [00:14:31] Speaker A: It's true. [00:14:32] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:14:32] Speaker A: That was really. Because it was a really shallow lake she was in. [00:14:35] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:14:36] Speaker A: And what was she doing? She was just kind of, like, walking around. It was kind of like a lake based salad bar. [00:14:43] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:14:44] Speaker A: There was just so much. And she would go in the water, and then she'd come, like, rise back up, and she'd shake. And it was pretty special. It was, I think, one of my favorite moments. But really, I was so thankful that you were so patient with me, because especially with that cow moose. Do you know how many pictures I ended up taking? [00:15:01] Speaker B: How many? [00:15:01] Speaker A: Over 600. [00:15:04] Speaker B: Are you serious? [00:15:05] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:15:06] Speaker A: It was amazing. And the sun was shining on her, and she was in that beautiful turquoise lake. How could I not? I had to do it. I had to do it. It was too amazing to not take pictures. [00:15:18] Speaker B: Why it took so long. [00:15:19] Speaker A: That is why it took so long. Oh, and then here you go. Here's a picture of the little juvenile bull moose that we saw, too. And again, I put all these pictures in the podcast episode show notes on our website so you can see what we're talking about. But, yeah. Gosh, another thing that I wanted to make sure we talked about in Glacier National park, because it's actually one of the most popular hikes. And, Elliot, you conquered it. You did so great. And this was the day that we got 28,000 steps. [00:15:45] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:15:46] Speaker A: Do you remember what that really pretty lake was called? [00:15:50] Speaker B: Not avalanche. [00:15:51] Speaker D: Yes. [00:15:52] Speaker A: Avalanche Lake. Good job. [00:15:54] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:15:55] Speaker A: See? Avalanche Lake. Did you think that was a hard hike, an easy hike? Or do you think we were just tired because we'd already done a big hike? What's your thought? [00:16:06] Speaker B: I was tired, but I'm guessing dad was not. [00:16:10] Speaker A: I was tired, too. But just like, you made it through it. I made it through it, too. It was just buckling in and doing the hike because it was so pretty. [00:16:19] Speaker B: Look, the first hike that we did there, I kind of regret going down, but also, I kind of don't regret it. [00:16:28] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:16:29] Speaker A: And remember we talked about regret and what that means? And that regret means. Oh, I wish we wouldn't have done that. But I'm so glad we did. [00:16:38] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:16:38] Speaker A: I thought it was amazing. And then getting to go and do that avalanche lake hike with you. You were so good about throwing rocks when people were not taking pictures because the reflection was so nice. And then you threw your rocks when people were ready for you. I appreciated that because it's one of the prettiest places. So what other fun stuff did we do in Glacier National park? Do you remember? We did some short little hikes, just like, to check out McDonald Creek because it's so pretty. What color would you call the water of McDonald Creek? Is it icy blue? Is it turquoise? Is it green? [00:17:18] Speaker B: I would say turquoise and greenish yellow. [00:17:24] Speaker A: Yeah. The water in McDonald Creek is so pretty, and especially because it's got all those red. Oh, and that was something else we saw was red rock Falls. [00:17:32] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:17:33] Speaker A: Oh, and the other thing that I thought was so cool, do you remember running eagle Falls? [00:17:37] Speaker B: Yes. [00:17:38] Speaker A: Tell us about running eagle Falls. [00:17:41] Speaker B: So, fun fact about a tribe. Was it the Blackfoot? Well, one of their tribe members was the only girl to get a warrior name. [00:17:54] Speaker A: And what was her name? [00:17:56] Speaker B: Running eagle. [00:17:57] Speaker D: Yes. [00:17:57] Speaker A: And this waterfall, which they call it. [00:18:00] Speaker B: A trick falls, is called running Eagle Falls. [00:18:03] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:18:03] Speaker A: Can you explain why it's called trick falls, like a trick waterfall? [00:18:08] Speaker B: I'm guessing because you can't see where the water comes from. [00:18:12] Speaker A: Exactly. Yeah. Because the creek starts somewhere up high, and then it pours through the rock and it exits a cave as a waterfall. Super cool. It reminds me of when we were in Wyoming earlier this summer, and we went to that place, the sinks, where the water also went down into the earth and then came out on the other side of the highway, just kind of like coming out of a hillside, out of a little cave. But they don't know what happens when it's underground. Very interesting. Strange. Yeah. Gosh, I could talk about Glacier National park all day. I had so much fun with you. We did five hikes in two days. We got to drive all of going to the sun road, which is really special because I think this was your third or fourth trip to glacier. [00:19:02] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:19:03] Speaker A: And the first time you were a baby and you were so cute. But we got. I will shush. But we got stuck on that trip in the many glacier area where we saw the three moose. We got stuck there because there was a huge forest fire and they had closed the rest of the park. So that was your first trip. On your next trip, we rode the train to glacier, and that was fun. And it was fall. It was actually the same week that we were here this year, but there was already snow, and so we didn't get to drive going to the sun. But this time the snow had already melted and it was all the way open for us, which was really special. [00:19:38] Speaker B: And on the way to going to the sun road, we saw mini waterfalls. [00:19:49] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Lots and lots of waterfalls. [00:19:51] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:19:52] Speaker B: And at one place, I believe. What place did we see that grizzly? [00:20:00] Speaker A: Oh, the grizzly. [00:20:01] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:20:02] Speaker A: No. So we saw a grizzly at the start of going to the sun road. When we entered, it was on the St. Mary side. That was the name. [00:20:09] Speaker B: There was a grizzly, wasn't it, at night? [00:20:11] Speaker A: It was at night. It was at dusk, we like to say right before sunset. And he kind of emerged from the bushes and he was eating something, but he was super cute. [00:20:23] Speaker B: Also, we saw two black bears. [00:20:24] Speaker A: And we saw two black bears, too. [00:20:26] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:20:26] Speaker A: So we saw one black bear at two medicine and then one black bear at mini glacier. We saw the big old grizzly in St. Mary. [00:20:33] Speaker B: I didn't get to see it in real life because you didn't want to. [00:20:38] Speaker A: Get out of the car because you were cold, which I don't blame you. It was chilly. [00:20:41] Speaker B: Also, I didn't want to get attacked. [00:20:44] Speaker A: That's true. And you are always safety first, which I appreciate. I think that's it for what I wanted to talk about with Glacier National park. Do you have any other last thoughts on glacier? [00:20:53] Speaker B: Well, never go on too many hikes in two days. [00:20:56] Speaker A: Never go on too many hikes in two days. [00:20:57] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:20:58] Speaker A: Your feet do start to hurt after a little while. Oh, you know what? We should talk just a little bit about the really cool. The chalet that we stayed at. Oh, Cec, Cec. Do you remember what it was called? Do you want to hint? [00:21:11] Speaker C: Yes. [00:21:11] Speaker A: The Belton. [00:21:12] Speaker B: The Belton chalet. [00:21:13] Speaker A: The Belton chalet. [00:21:14] Speaker B: It was first a train stop. [00:21:18] Speaker D: Yes. [00:21:19] Speaker A: It was an original Railroad hotel, and. [00:21:23] Speaker B: They didn't have much for breakfast. [00:21:27] Speaker A: That's true. They just had some muffins and coffee, peanut butter cookies. Yeah. Things like that. But it was really cool because it was very vintage. It was kind of antiquy, would you say? Yeah, we had cute little room with two twin beds. And can you imagine, though, that this room that 100 years ago, that was kind of like the highest luxury you could imagine in a national park, and. [00:21:53] Speaker B: We were the only ones to get onto the porch right by our room. [00:21:59] Speaker A: You're right. We had our own private balcony to watch the trains go by and to appreciate the fall colors. It was beautiful. I would happily stay there again. Yeah, probably in the summer when the rest of the stuff in West Glacier is open. Like, what's the place that you wanted. [00:22:14] Speaker B: To go where we went? Horseback riding. [00:22:18] Speaker A: Oh, that was fun, too. You did want to go see skittles again. Yeah, that was in whitefish, but no. Golfing to the sun. [00:22:24] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:22:25] Speaker A: In West Glacier, there's a cool little mini golf course called golfing to the sun. [00:22:29] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:22:29] Speaker A: Next time, got to do it. Next time. [00:22:31] Speaker C: Yep. [00:22:33] Speaker A: Thinking about anything else? Oh, you know what else we did that was really cool? So we're going back down towards the Missoula area. We had that really lovely float on the Clark fork River. [00:22:45] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:22:46] Speaker A: Remember how you ate that entire charcuterie board? It was super fun. We got to go on this beautiful wooden drift boat. Huh? And we were on the Clark Fork river. We started, and it was really foggy because it's this weird spot where the fog just starts, and it was really cold. And then when the sun broke through, it got extra pretty. And what did we see along the river? [00:23:14] Speaker B: Do you remember? We saw a fish called pike. And if you live in Florida, you might see a fish that's similar to a pike. [00:23:28] Speaker A: Do you remember what it's called? [00:23:29] Speaker C: No. [00:23:29] Speaker A: It's the gar. Pike. Looks a lot like gar, we decided. But pike were kind of cool because they didn't seem really active. They just kind of. I don't know, they kind of float in place. So as you're drifting on the river. [00:23:40] Speaker B: They'Re just kind of like a floating statue. [00:23:43] Speaker A: Kind of. Yeah, like a fish statue. Yeah. That was cool. And then the other thing we saw on our river float, we saw one of the most impressive bald eagles. [00:23:52] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:23:53] Speaker A: He was really beautiful. [00:23:54] Speaker B: It was just standing on top of a tree that had no leaves, right at the tip of a branch. [00:24:03] Speaker D: Yes. [00:24:03] Speaker A: It was really pretty. It was really cool. We got to do some really fun stuff on that trip. [00:24:07] Speaker D: Oh. [00:24:08] Speaker A: One other thing that we got to do that I thought was super special was, do you remember getting to feed the pigs? [00:24:15] Speaker B: Oh, yes. [00:24:16] Speaker A: So it was kind of like a random, weird spot for us to end up, but we went to the moon Randolph homestead is what it was called. [00:24:26] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:24:27] Speaker B: And they had a coal mine, chicken coop. Chickens, pigs. [00:24:36] Speaker A: You really liked the pigs. [00:24:39] Speaker B: One thing about the pigs, always feed them something a little bit rotten. [00:24:45] Speaker A: Yeah. They like things that are starting to go rotting. [00:24:48] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:24:48] Speaker B: The chickens, not so much. [00:24:50] Speaker A: Yeah. They like their corn and grain and stuff. [00:24:53] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:24:53] Speaker A: But it was great because we picked apples to feed the pigs. [00:24:56] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:24:57] Speaker B: Also, we picked apples to feed the chickens. [00:25:00] Speaker A: That's true. And the chickens like to peck at them. [00:25:02] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:25:03] Speaker A: That was a really fun little stop, and it was great. I was excited to see you getting so excited about farming type things, because we used to have chickens a long time ago, and now we don't, and now we can't where we live. But it was nice to see you communing with the chickens like you used to when you were little. Oh, good times. I'll stop being gushy. [00:25:21] Speaker B: And what place did I have the huckleberry? [00:25:26] Speaker A: That was back at the belt in chalet, up at. [00:25:29] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:25:30] Speaker A: So. But do you want to talk about huckleberry and what you think about? [00:25:33] Speaker B: Of course. [00:25:34] Speaker A: Okay. Tell us about huckleberry. [00:25:36] Speaker B: So Montana should not be called the glacier country. It should be called the Huckleberry country. [00:25:44] Speaker A: Tell us why. [00:25:47] Speaker B: Just, like anywhere you go, there's, like, at least one thing of huckleberry things. [00:25:53] Speaker A: Yeah, there's so much huckleberry. [00:25:54] Speaker B: I got huckleberry ice cream. Wasn't there, like, huckleberry beer? [00:26:00] Speaker A: You could get huckleberry soda. [00:26:02] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:26:03] Speaker B: Huckleberry licorice. [00:26:05] Speaker A: Oh, I like the Huckleberry licorice a lot. And huckleberry chocolate. Yeah, everything Huckleberry. And if you're there in summer when everything's open, you find even more huckleberry stuff. Everything is Huckleberry jam and Huckleberry syrup and. Love it. Gosh, I don't know if you want to talk about anything else. It's up to you, because we can also just call it a day. We covered a lot of territories. [00:26:27] Speaker B: I would like to talk about more stuff. [00:26:29] Speaker A: Okay, tell me. [00:26:31] Speaker B: So we went to a great arcade. [00:26:34] Speaker A: That's true. [00:26:35] Speaker B: On the hip strip, and there were, like, pinball games. There was this super fun game called Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and it had, like, I don't know, 100 characters. [00:26:50] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:26:50] Speaker A: Because I think that's a game that you played other times, right? [00:26:53] Speaker B: No. [00:26:53] Speaker A: Oh, you hadn't played it before? [00:26:55] Speaker B: No, that was only super Smash Bros. And Super Smash bros. Me. [00:26:59] Speaker A: Gotcha. So the place that we did that, it was a place called Guild brewing. It's in Missoula, and it's across the river from the main downtown area. In the area they kind of call the hip strip, where there's cool shops and restaurants and all this. So we had yummy dinner upstairs, and I had beer, cider, all that stuff. And then downstairs is this whole arcade with vintage video games, new video games, some sort of Nintendo setup on a projector. [00:27:29] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:27:30] Speaker A: Really cool. [00:27:30] Speaker B: And on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, I only won once with a Pokemon named Skir Ninja. [00:27:39] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:27:40] Speaker B: And the attacks that I kept on using was, like, this super powerful punch, and I defeated like a peach type person. [00:27:53] Speaker A: Kind of looked like Princess Peach. [00:27:55] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:27:55] Speaker B: Like a star, buddy. [00:27:57] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:28:00] Speaker A: I would say that was a highlight of the trip. Not the highlight, but definitely a highlight. Super fun. I think that. Oh, you have something else. [00:28:08] Speaker B: What was the big river that we saw almost every single day? [00:28:12] Speaker A: The Clark fork River. [00:28:14] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:28:15] Speaker A: You cross it a bazillion times when you are in western Montana. [00:28:19] Speaker B: Yeah. Like if you go to mazula, you cross it. If you come back from the airport, you cross it. [00:28:27] Speaker A: It's funny. And then if you're driving on the freeway, like doing a cross country road trip. I think. So when me and Auntie Kelly did their big move across the country, we counted. We crossed the Clark Fork River 21 times. [00:28:39] Speaker B: 21 times. [00:28:41] Speaker A: I know, because it's this beautiful, windy river, and that's why it's so pretty. There is. Because this river makes sure everything has water and it kind of carves the hill. [00:28:50] Speaker B: Where does it start and where does it end? [00:28:52] Speaker A: Well, that's a question I'm not prepared to answer. I don't know where it starts and ends, but it's pretty long. Let's do a quick google and we'll find out. All right, so the Clark Fork river, it begins in Butte. Oh, we love butte. That's a different podcast for a different day. But Butte was that really cool mining town with all the mine stuff and the really cool water park. [00:29:17] Speaker B: Did we cross it? [00:29:19] Speaker A: Yeah, and we crossed the Clark fork River a bunch. But then it flows from Butte through western Montana, and then it joins up with the Columbia river, which. The Columbia river is what flows past Hood river and Lyle and where our friends and family all used to live right next to. Oh, I know. So that river just keeps on going until it hits the Pacific Ocean. [00:29:42] Speaker B: The more you know which side of the. [00:29:45] Speaker A: The. It would be called the eastern Pacific, which is funny because it's the west coast of the US, but it's the Pacific, so. Well, I think that's it for now. We can definitely record another podcast episode about even more stuff. Probably after we go to Hawai, we'll have to record at least one or two. So thank you so much for being on here today, Elliot. I love getting to chat with you, and if you would like to subscribe, go ahead and hit that subscribe button wherever you get your podcasts. And don't forget to check out the [email protected] and give us a follow over on Instagram at two travel dads. Have a great day. Adios, two travel dads. Podcast is created by Rob and Chris Taylor in St. Augustine, Florida. We'd love to answer your questions here on the podcast, providing both our experience and stories. To share our own insights into whatever you're wondering about, visit twotraveldads.com slash podcast episodes to leave your questions and to check out past episodes and show notes. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button and have an awesome day.

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