Today was one of the rare rainy days we've had on our trip. It started raining during the night last night, rained lightly almost all day, and is still raining now as I write. From what I hear, the area needs the rain to help put out some forest fires, but we're hoping that they taper off before tomorrow so that they won't interfere with our big sightseeing day in Glacier NP. We're camped tonight in a commercial RV park in Hungry Horse, MT (the name is much more exotic than the town appears to be) 10 or 15 miles from the park entrance. In the morning, we're planning on driving the motor home to the park and catching the park shuttle bus for the route over the "Going to the Sun Highway", which is touted by some as one of the most beautiful drives in the world. We have to take the shuttle bus because our motor home is prohibited from driving the narrow, winding mountain road.
Today was a fairly routine driving day, punctuated by an experience that we won't soon forget. Because it's Sunday (hence the clever title "Rainy Days and Sundays"), we planned to look for a Methodist church along the way so that we could attend services. We were on the northeast outskirts of Spokane, WA, about 9:45 when we had to stop for gas. Since it takes a while to fill a 55 gallon gas tank, I thought I would multitask and see if our GPS could find a Methodist Church in the vicinity. So I got back in the motor home and typed Methodist Church. It returned a whole list of Methodist churches, including one which was on our route about five miles from the gas station. It even gave us the church's phone number. I asked Lois to call the number to see if they were having a 10:00 a.m. service. She called, and according to their phone message, they were having a 10:00 a.m. service. After I completed filling the gas tank, I asked the GPS for directions, and we were on our merry way. We followed the directions to the letter, pulled into the church's parking lot a few minutes after ten and parked in the rear.
We didn't notice a sign outside the church but didn't think much about it. We walked quickly through the rain into the narthex, asked some young people we saw where the services were being held, walked into the sanctuary and, like all good Methodists, took a seat on the back row. We both noticed that the congregation was dressed much more formally than we were accustomed to seeing, especially in the West, but thought perhaps it was a Spokane thing. When we sat down, a young woman was standing at the pulpit giving a tearful testimony. Behind her, in what appeared to be the choir loft, several men, dressed in coats and ties, were sitting. This struck us as somewhat unusual, but again, we didn't think too much about it. However, when the young woman was followed by a man in a business suit who began to talk about "greetings from the Bishop", and "how well the stake was doing", we began to get suspicious. What really gave it away, however, was when he talked about reading from the Book of Morman. I whispered to Lois, "We're in a Mormon service." She asked if I wanted to leave, and I said yes. We quietly, but quickly exited. When we drove around in front of the church. sure enough, the engraved sign on the corner of the church building read, "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints."
For the next couple of hours, we chuckled about Niles, the voice of our GPS, leading us astray. I concluded that perhaps Niles is Morman and intentionally led us to his church in an effort to convert us. I think I'll offer Niles a cup of coffee in the morning just to check him out.
The rest of today's trip was less exciting but more scenic. Almost all the way across the panhandle of Idaho and for over 100 miles into Montana, the road follows scenic river valleys. The rain followed us most of the way, but we still saw some gorgeous sights and even got out to take a short hike from the highway to Kootenai Falls on the Kootenai River. The view of the falls and the walk across a narrow swinging bridge suspended 50 feet over the river were definitely worth the short hike in the rain.
Tonight we stopped in Kalispell, MT, for groceries, took advantage of the first RV park that we came to, had a nice spaghetti dinner in the motor home and will turn in early. If the weather cooperates, we're hoping tomorrow will be one of those memorable days spent admiring God's handiwork.
More later.
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