#42 Glacier National Park and the Nugents

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Our next stop was to head north towards Whitefish Montana to see our friends called Tom and Lori Nugent with their two kids Port and Marina. When we met the Nugent’s Port was just a squirt and Marina was in womb. We met them at our church, Wesleyan Chapel UMC in Wilmington. My first impression of Lori was a very pregnant young woman who had a quiet look that said I am so ready to deliver this baby. Now Marina is 12 and in the 6th grade. Port is an accomplished guitarist and will probably be a rock star someday. Marina is also really talented in creativity and voice. When she sings she is so confident and seems like she could work for Disney doing movie ballads like the one from frozen. They are all around nice people. Last year they moved to Whitefish Montana to make a new life for themselves. They like to ski and love the wildness of the area. They were pretty occupied with a new home they are having built out in the woods near a lake. We had reserved a site at Glacier about a half hour away. The park at Glacier was a boondock situation. We realized we would have to rethink this because we would be without a vehicle for a while. That would be a problem because the truck allows us to go to a dump station every 3 days ish it also houses the generator. We started looking for an affordable place with a full hook up and there wasn’t a whole lot of availability. We found RV place called Mountain View and it was 32.00 for a full hook up and WIFI. We stayed there for 2 weeks visiting with the Nugent’s, getting the truck worked on at the diesel place and doing multiple trips to Glacier.

Port was unable to make this photo shoot as he is a busy teenager. He was still at Big Fork Montana at the Crown Guitar center. I still may photo shop him in later.

Here is one of Ports U Tube videos If you don't see the video Click on the blank square to start it

Port Nugent has always had fun playing his electric guitar and he very advanced in skill to be to be his age or any age. While we were visiting he was participating at something called the Crown of the continent guitar week at Big Fork Montana. A lot of people gather in Montana to be mentored by professional types and to improve the guitar skills. It’s a bit pricey before but was a able to get a scholarship because he is quite good. I've always been a Frank Zappa fan and his son Dweezel Zappa, a really great guitarist mentored Port directly for a week. Jim Messina was also there from the 60's and it was just a very enjoyable thing to see students up on stage to show what they had learned. To be mentored by all of these really cool people was really a rare opportunity. At lot of the teachers were local and I didn't know who they were but they're all very good to give their time to this cause.

Mountain goats at Logan pass

While we were visiting the Nugents we needed to get the truck fixed. I saw a fair amount of smoke all the time and whenever we were under a load it would actually blow out black smoke which is just disturbing if you don't want to be seen as a polluter The performance was a little off it shifted kind of rough and it was overheating also I thought it bounced a little bit so I was going to have them put on some new shocks if need be. They took a good look at all and they fixed an oil leak and tighten up some loose bolts did a compression check and the fuel injector testing. They determined I needed new fuel injectors so I said so what are they ? maybe $100 a piece. He said they’re closer to $500 a piece and we needed 6 so I had to kind of strapped myself down in a safe place and used the portable AED machine thing and kept moving forward. We took care of the fuel injectors and there was some major leaks in the exhaust system and they took care of everything got it back to me and I have to admit it runs wonderfully and all of the performance problems and smoke problems went away. They ordered the shock absorbers and so I was to come back in about a week for them to install the shocks. It was decided I needed a new clutch fan and cleaning the radiators should solve the overheating problems. Tom was always helpful giving me several rides back and forth to the mechanic shop.

Lori had helped me with getting to a dentist and a med ac. My foot was giving me pain like I had some glass or something in it. I like going around barefoot a lot band I assumed I had picked up something as it felt like something was infected like very tender. I decided a little prior to the med ac visit to do a little exploratory surgery on myself with some toenail clippers. The area was on the ball part of my foot in the metatarsal area. I made sure they were dirty with a hint of rust and cut way all the built up callus but couldn’t locate any shards of anything. When I got past the callus and down to the tender skin it was really to painful to keep going and there was some bleeding so I decided I was in over my head. At the least I would need novacaine and I don’t have any of that in my bucket of electrical tools.

While visiting the Nugent’s I felt like it would be good to be courteous and not be at their front door every morning at 8 a.m. They have two young children and they are having a house built. It occurred to me that the best way to do it is on their terms because they’re the ones that are working and being busy and we're on vacation. After getting the truck to the shop and my medical stuff done I just let them do their own thing until the weekend.

Lori had said that Saturday would be a good day to go for a hike and so we went and went on a nice hike to a lake they knew about and it was probably about a mile hike through some rough terrain.

I enjoyed it and India struggled the little but she did it and the kids went cliff diving off these rocks that were maybe 20 feet high. Savannah nor I just could quite do it but that's all good and we jumped off the one that was about 1 foot high. I swam across the lake and that was fun. After that I laid out in the sun like a lizard. It was just a good day and we went to dinner afterwards that was nice.

Giggling Girls

Giggling Flowers

This sign was actually in the Black Hills of South Dakota. I couldn't resist sneaking it in here at the logan pass parking area. The next video will explain.

Click on the blank square to start the video if you don't see a Ram

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