I had some matters to attend to in Montana over the weekend. So i figured I would leave Wednesday morning.. No plan in mind on what to do with those extra days.. I just knew that i didnt want to have a plan. I wanted to just wander around for a few days.

I ended up leaving my house at 10:40am (yeah I know a late start) and met Grouse in Snoqualmie for lunch. He suggested some fun roads to hit up and a meat shop on the west side of flat head lake if I should find myself over that way.

I took I90 all the way into Idaho, and let me tell you.. 4th of July pass is amazing! I didnt have time, but def wanted to turn around and run it a few more times! What a fun road!!

from there I headed towards Missoula and hooked a left (to go north) just before hitting town. I was now in route to Kalispell (and to search out this meat shop that is supposed to be amazing) The roads were very open and in pretty decent shape on the whole drive. It was very serene to just go driving with nowhere to go.

I cruised around Flathead lake and found the shop, plugged it into the nav so i could remember to go back to it later, and continued driving (the shop was closed it was late)

I rolled into Kalispell at about 10:30pm and grabbed a hotel.. and found a local bar. "Scotty's" neat little place, the locals can drink, and the drinks were cheap as hell!!
(I had ordered about 12-14 drinks and my Tab was only $29!)

The next day was another late start, but thats ok, I wasnt trying to rush myself. I looked at a map and saw that Glacier National Park was fairly close. So i decided to head up that way and hit up "Going to the Sun Road".

To my demise the road had washed out over the winter, and was closed about halfway up. The parts that were open were still absolutely breath taking! Wish i could have had an oppurtunity to drive that road all the way!

So having extra time in the day, I noticed a sign on the way back out of the park that read "Horse Rentals"
Hmm I thought to myself.. I havent been on a horse since i was a little kid.

Off I went, and a few minutes later I found myself signing a few waivers.. yada yada yada.. and a waiver not to have to wear a helmet. (its a horse what could happen?)

It ended up being just a guide and I on a 1 1/2 hour back country ride through some parts of Glacier NP. She told me that the horse I was on was fairly stupid and would need extra hard kicks every once and a while. I said ok, and acted like i had no problem kicking a horse that was bigger than me (im 6'1" and practically needed help to climb on this mammoth beast)
In reality, i was thinking wow.. what if i kick this horse and it doesnt like it?
I brushed those thoughts to the side and we were on our merry litle way.
As we started through the woods, she told me that the horse had problems and towards the end of the season he would like to sit down on the trail. She assured me there shouldnt be a problem, and that it was only 1 week into the "season". Well low and behold.. About halfway through the ride this big dumb mammoth beast decides to stop and sit down in the middle of the trail. I tried to get him to stand up and BAM!!! The horse decided it would be a good idea to dive on its side from the sitting position with me still attached. (I guess the horse wanted to scratch its back)
Now by this time, im almost in hysterics laughing at the stupid 1200 lb horse squashing my leg, because it was trying to scratch its back against the ground with me still attached.
I managed to get my leg out after a minute, and off we went. Managed to see a moose and a deer on the last half of the ride.

Thursday Night, I met up with some people back in Kalispell and partied it up quite nicely.

Friday, I headed back down to Flat head lake to get grouse his jerky that he wanted, and mostly to drive the awesome roads there in the daytime.

I ended up going down one side of the lake, then back up, and down the other side of the lake and back up.

While on the East side of the Lake, I visited some friends, and bottomed out on there gravel driveway. I cringed and didnt think anything was damaged.

Later that evening I found an amazing road that wound into the mountains with lots of twisties. I hit that road pretty hard, and pushed the car pretty hard. When I got to the top I noticed my engine was slightly louder, and that I had an exhaust leak somewhere coming from the engine bay.
I popped the hood and looked around, I automatically suspected it to be the manifold, but it wasnt. It was the test pipe that cracked. It cracked right on the weld to the flange that was bolted onto the turbo.

I thought.. well enough hard driving, but this should be able to limp me home so I can get it fixed.

Well I thought wrong..

Sunday I was headed out to Libby/Troy (in the NW corner of the state) for a hike up a mountain. After stopping for breakfast and leaving the breakfast spot, I got on the road and POP!!! BWOP BWOP BWOP BWOP, I knew right away I was running a fully open exhaust system.

As I looked to my right I noticed that this conveniently happened right in front of a napa.
(thank god because I didnt bring a 8mm allen with me) So a friend and I pulled it off, and planned on welding it after we returned from the hike up the mountain.

After returning we decided to weld it up and re install it. It didnt take long, but the time sure flew by. I finally hit the road at 8:30pm knowing that I had to make it home that night to go to work the next day (thankgod for swing shift) So I headed back home, and made it from Libby MT, to Kent WA, in just a hair of 5 1/2 hours

It was a fun road trip, and it was nice to just go out and drive with no plans of where you are driving to..

Just thought I would share, and NO i didnt proof read this, and yes its guaranteed to be full of mistakes both in spelling and grammar

 

Sounsd like you had a great time Karl! I love taking drives that lead to nowhere (even yours kind of lead to somewhere[8D]). Oh and the spelling and grammar wasn't too bad

 

SPAM!

 

I believe thats a 2 point deduct according to the rulebook there chef

 

total spam but we as a nation of peoples with different languages and habits are equal and all our @ds are one so remember that when you cut some buggers head off in your ftf

 

my appols I was angry

 

LOL

Where did that come from???

Anyway, I was looking for the 2 point deduction.