July 8-9-10, 2012 Lost Moose Bend Rd, Whitehall, Montana

July 8-9-10, 2012 ~~~ The days just seemed to slip away, and way too soon it was time to get back on the road today.  We spent a few days watching the wood cutter thingy, then I forgot to get the AFTER photos!  Tuffy and Merlin have several mountains of cut and split wood in their side yard.... enough for 3 years or more!  Wow!  How great is that?!

Yesterday we went for a ride to find the Ringing Rocks... up and up and up on a single track four-wheelin road and all of a sudden there was a HUGE pile of rocks jutting out from the side of the hill.  They don't look like anything special, just a pile of rocks.  But start pecking at different ones with a hammer and some will ping, or clang, or sing to you!  Amazing!  Some just go "clunk" like any ordinary rock... others make the sounds of bells.  Of course I didn't get a photo of them... I was too busy video taping so we could hear the sounds they make.  If you're ever near Whitehall, it's well worth finding them and pecking away with your hammer to see if you can play a melody!

Here's another Lost Moose Bend sunrise that I watched this morning.

Neighbor Jim Powers stopped by to visit and brought his granddaughter Megan with him, and Tuffy and Merlin came up too for coffee and a visit before we had to hit the road.  Tuffy and Jim are in a deep conversation.  Jim is a REAL Montana cowboy!  And he and Tuffy never run out of stories to tell. 

Marla Fay (aka Merlin the Magical One) is not a cowgirl, but she grows a mean garden, and raises some handsome chickens who lay lots of eggs! 

So we left this "morning"... after coffee, and several rounds of story tellin'... was sad to go!  We had such a great time.

We stopped by Big Hole, Montana.... another US Cavalry massacre, but minus Custer this time... then went on down the highway to Challis, Idaho to spend the night. Sure is beautiful country.  Mountains, trees, rivers, deer, huge rocky bluffs... and it was one of the routes Lewis and Clark took.  Here's one of the osprey nests we saw... a little while later we spotted one with 4 "babies", but couldn't get a photo in time.

One more night on the road after tonight... and we'll be HOME!  Geez... wonder what that will be like??   :-)