Montana adventure

Hi everyone

If you have looked at the pictures on our web site you may have noticed that we had some awesome times after leaving Canada and before our breakdown north of Salt Lake City. There is a gap in our blogs and we want to fill that in for you.

Ever since we came close to the mountains we were talking about outdoors activities we wanted to try. We did some of them, horseback riding and whitewater rafting in British Columbia but still had a big one on our bucket-list: ZIP-lining. Though we have come across some ZIP-lines we never actually did it and in hindsight we are glad about that because none of them would have come even close to the ones we found in Montana!

After crossing the border we found a nice campground in Columbia Falls which we made our home base for a week. It was very conveniently located to go visit Glacier National Park and only a day's drive from Bozeman where we planned to stop again. Bozeman again is perfectly located for yet two more national parks: Yellowstone and Grand Teton. But these would come a little later and we'll tell you about them in another blog.

So we're in Columbia Falls and had seen Glacier National Park. I had expected a little more of it based on the name. There was no ice or even snow to be found anywhere and honestly I'd recommend the Icefield Parkway in British Columbia over Glacier to anyone who is looking for an alpine scenery. All in all it was still worth seeing though. And we did the same thing as we had done last year for Canada, we bought an annual pass valid for all the national parks in the U.S. so we can visit them without spending too much money on admission fees and then asking ourselves: was it worth it?

Montana, as you might know, has some mountainous regions and so we were not surprised to find an outfit offering ZIP-line tours. I called and after talking to them booked both of us on a 7-ZIP-line tour. You could also go for 5 lines only and leave the two longest and fastest ones out. But what would the fun be in that? So two days later we were at the resort, getting geared up and instructed on how things were going to work. A safety video and the comments of our two guides later we were out the door and walked to the first line. It is a short one and kind of a test if one got the different positions you're supposed to use while on the line. You can go "pencil" (lay back and stretch out) to go as fast as possible. You don't actually have to do this if you don't want to (we did of course). The 'Starfish" (sit up and spread-Eagle) and the landing positions are crucial though to slow down and come in for a save landing at the end of the lines. Actually the spread-Eagle gives you maximum air-resistance, the only way to slow down. There are no breaks here.

After the guides decided we all knew what to do, our 14-person group headed out to have some fun. We zipped down a total of 7 lines, 8750 feet / 2669 meters (the longest ones 1900 feet / 580 meters each) in total, at speeds of over 50 miles/hour (80 km/hour) and as high as 300 feet / 91 meters above ground. WOW! What fantastic fun we had! We wouldn't miss this experience for the world. I actually envy the guides for their job. They get to zip those lines every day! Now that's a dream job as far as I'm concerned. See the pictures and watch the video on our web site and you will understand how much fun this was.

Some of you might know the song "Live like you were dying" by Tim McGraw. We kind of put our own spin on the chorus of that song:
We went ZIP-lining
We went horseback riding
We went 3.7 hours on a whitewater raft
And we went farther
And we played harder
And never before has life been this much fun
And we hope
Some day you too will get a chance to do what we have done

With this we say goodbye for now. Please com back for more new.

André and Sue

@ home on the road

PS: Don't forget to read our other blogs (listed on the side) and to follow us on facebook and our Google Map. You can also check our web site for new pictures.