Columbia Falls, Montana

We went to Columbia Falls to attend the Bailey Family Reunion.  They are a family who has adopted Mike and I as honorary family members.  It's Rene Farias' family consisting of her 2 sisters and her brother and various cousins and her mother.  This year the reunion was her mother's house in Columbia Falls which is where we stayed three years ago when we toured the Pacific NW.  We set up our "pup tent" as Rene's mother calls the RV, off to the side of the driveway.  We couldn't set up in the back yard like last time because they have had so much rain our wheels kept sinking and I was afraid we would have to call a tow truck to get us out!!  Here is a picture of our "site."  Great Views!!!

Friday, June 21, that morning we made several phone calls to local RV service places to see if anyone could repair our tow bar and/or sell us a used tow bar.  No luck.  I spoke to the Demco dealer in Missoula and he said he didn't have a tech who could repair it.  What??  I then called Demco direct and spoke to a man named Jerry.  He said you don't really repair them because there is nothing in them to break.  You just have to clean them and then they will work again.  He emailed me the directions and with the help of Rene's brother Eric we got the tow bar disassembled, cleaned and reassembled and it WORKED!!  Thank you, Eric!!  Whew, we now feel better about the rest of the trip.

Rene's family has made us feel quite welcome and comfortable and has included us in their family reunion traditions and plans.  On Saturday we took a trip into Glacier National Park to have a picnic on the shore of Lake MacDonald.  Here are pics from that outing:

This is the whole gang on the shore having lunch.        Pete, Jenny, Eric (Rene's bro) & Shannon

More of the family.                          Tina (sis), Rene (sis), Suzie (sis), Nola (Mom) & Eric (bro)

Tina's birthday was on Friday and she turned 55, my birthday was yesterday (Saturday) and I turned 55 also.  They had birthday parties each day for us and I'm not sure who celebrated more, me or Tina!  Today we are going on a hike up to another lake and have lunch.  I'm sure there will be more pictures later.