K’den. Time foa go back to Montana!

In Part Fourteen, Nolemana and I had just arrived at the Ranger Station at Lolo Pass. Now we’re about to head down hill. We’d barely driven any distance at all, and there was the sign we’d been looking for!

Yep! Welcome to Montana! I still can’t really explain the attraction I have for this incredible state. I am an island girl through and through, yet Montana beckons me over and over again. Maybe it’s because I’m an island girl. Dunno.

At any rate, we were about to head downhill, and by the looks of things, it was going to be a curvy ride. I wondered if truckers really do go 25 mph on curvy downgrades.

So far so good. And again I loved the anticipation of wondering what we’d see around the next bend in the road.

Ooooh! Will we see any?? That would be so neat if we did.

Hee hee. I just can’t help it! I know Lolo doesn’t mean “lolo”. Well wait. It does. Just not in Hawaiian.

Ho, so interesting these rocks! I can see two heads!

Now we’re down off the mountain and into flat countryside.

This historical marker talks about how Lewis and Clark were instructed to bring back a lot of information on the different species of plants and wildlife they encountered on their Voyage of Discovery.

Wow!!! Moose crossing!! Oh, how I hoped we’d be able to see one; neither one of us had ever seen a moose in our lives.

Lolo Creek ran alongside Highway 12. We’re heading east towards Lolo. No can be mauka cuz get mauka all around us!

Try look!! Never seen one of these before!! Had one in our direction but we missed it cuz it wen come up so fass.

Wat? U no can read? K’den. Try dis.

Now how often u going one crosswalk lidat!!!

This sign talked about how differently haole peoples and Indians thought about land ownership. and how there was a “checkerboard” kind of land owners in this area, including the National Forest, private timber/landowners. At one point a railroad was planned for this forested place, but it never happened. I loved reading about the history of the land we were traveling through.

Of course, Nolemana wondered if there were fish in the river.

Getting closer! We were aware that we needed to get to Bozeman pretty quickly, and Missoula is still quite a ways away from it. So we kinda hurried along.

Aha! We get an explanation of the name Lolo. Garanz ball bearinz it’s not Hawaiian.

I hope you can read this. Fascinating stuff. And it’s really interesting that in the Salish language the “R” and “L” sounds are very similar. Just like between Tahitian and Hawaiian.

Here’s more about it.

After driving through the mountains for such a long time with all the twists and turns, we were kinda glad to be on straight highway for awhile.

Oh! Try look! Another historical sign on the left! Are we gonna stop?

I guess not. But get pīpī foa AFK!

Looks like a brand-new calf, too. Itty bitty pīpī. LOL.

Plenny pīpī!

And more! Just for you, AFK!

The green of the hills was so pretty, but I bet it’s not that way in summer.

We found another sign, too. All about the Nez Perce people. “Sikum” is the Nez Perce word for horse. The tribe was introduced to the horse in the 1730s ( think that’s what the sign says), and they used selective breeding to produce a breed that was uniquely suited to their homeland and the country around here where they frequently traveled. The word “appaloosa” was created by the settlers in this region.

I love horses, so this was fascinating information for me.

And guess what this is? I mean, yeah, a mountain, but which one? Hint: It’s not Mauna Kea.

Give up? It’s Lolo Peak!

See? I told you.

These trees were just starting to leaf out.

We’ve been heading north towards Missoula, and yeah, I kinda could say we’re heading mauka, except for the fact that it’s mauka behind us, too. Those are another part of the Rocky Mountains up ahead.

Missoula! This is the first major city we’ve been in for at least a day. Hmmm… I guess the last major city we were in was Lewiston, Idaho.

By this time we were really tired, and it was pretty obvious that we weren’t going to get to Bozeman by dinnertime. We still had another three hours to go! We stopped at a coffee shop for a break, and I called my cousin to let her know that we weren’t gonna make it for a few hours yet. And as we walked towards the shop, guess wat I wen see!! It was so good to see that, even though we never found out who owned the car. It wasn’t like I was going to holler out, “Eh! Whose kawila dis?”

K’den. Rest stop. Back on da road in a bit.