June 9 - Gramps and Granny Ride Adventure Cycling's Great Divide

A Side-Trip to Holland Lake

Condon to Seeley Lake MT

Mileage 38.03
We enjoy the good hearty breakfast Bud prepares for us, and enjoy seeing the photography gallery he has.  He and his wife give photography workshops there, and their students leave some of their work there to display.  A very interesting place and person.  And a beautiful location, as you can see from this picture we took before breakfast.

It takes us a while to get on the road.  CC has warned Kitty about misplacing things, and this morning we both learn how frustrating this can be.  Kitty can't find her bike computer and wastes time looking everywhere for it before she finally finds it buried in the bed covers.  Then CC can't find his gloves.  He took them off when he discovered that the garlic oil we have brought along for camp meals has leaked.  He got the oil cleaned up, but now his gloves have disappeared.  Again, we both spend time looking before we finally give up and CC gets out his fingerless gloves for today's ride.

We enjoy the scenery along Route 83, and the traffic is still not too bad.  We come to the entrance to Holland Lake and decide to go on in, hoping to have lunch at the Resort there.  It is Saturday, so we figure they should be open.  It is a long 4 miles in on a dirt road with a hill, and it seems to get colder as we head in.  But the pay-off is the beauty of the lake.  As we pull up to the resort, three friendly dogs come out to meet us, but they seem to be the only living creatures there.  Another car pulls up just as we are finding that the door to the restaurant is locked.  We are all disappointed to miss lunch.  But we have the good fortune to meet Mary Lynn, who puts her arms around us and invites us to bow our heads in prayer as she asks for the blessing of safe travel for us.  The blessing, the beauty - a trip well worth it even if we do leave with empty bellies!

Back on the highway, we are eager to get to Seeley Lake, our destination for the night.  The weather seems to be getting worse, colder and the clouds closing in.  We have our rain jackets on to deal with the occasional sprinkles that we are riding through.  We actually get sleeted on for about 15 seconds, and are very happy when it stops.

 We have a room for the night at the Seeley Lake Motor Lodge, and it is a real relief to finally arrive there.  The rooms are clean, the people are friendly.  We find a safe place to leave our Surly Long Haul Truckers, and unload everything into our room.  We decide to use the microwave in the room to cook dinner.  We have been hauling around too much food, thinking we would be doing more camping out, but the weather has been cold and wet.  So we lighten our load and fill our bellies with camp food, and then head out for ice cream just down the road.  Cold and wet outside, warm and comfy inside.