Independence Day...

***Miles travelled today: Absolutely none!!!

***Total Miles:

***States travelled through: Still in Montana...

So this morning started off with various failed attempts to talk to family back home... the further into the mountains we are heading the more temperamental internet and wi-fi connections are becoming!!! Uploading to the blog is taking numerous attempts... but we are persevering... and the place that we are staying just outside Glacier National Park for two days, when we leave here tomorrow doesn't even have the internet!!!

...anyway, after a lovely breakfast, we headed into the town of Polson, just a few minutes walk up the road to watch the Independence Day parade - no matter what town we found ourselves in for this day, there would no doubt have been a parade... there were lots of people out on the streets watching the parade... which was very community orientated... the weather held out this morning, although was a bit over cast... on getting back to the hotel Jay was adamant that she was going to sit out by the pool, although she lasted less than an hour becuase although we had decided to take a few days rest, and sit by the pool, the weather has had other plans... and clearly sitting at the pool was rather chilly this afternoon!!!

Anyway - whilst Jay was at the pool I decided to do some research... thank goodness for the laptop... one of the best sayings from this holiday has been, "We'll Google it!!!" If we have been driving along, or reading a paper or in a store and wondered what something might be, we have looked it up in the evening... even going so far as having a list going during the day and writing down various issues that we needed to look up!!!

Well, I have been interested in the fact that where we are currently is part of an Indian Reservation... however there are a significant number of non Native Americans who clearly live here... at the parade this morning we were surprised to see very few Native Americans, and nothing in the parade reflected their culture or community... well, in my research I discovered that this town of Polson, although on an Indian reservation is actually 78% White and 16% Native American... and I'm not quite sure why... although some of the information that I have found suggests that if non Native Americans were living here prior to the land being made a reservation, they stayed, and the tribal leaders are only able to buy the land back as and when it becomes available...

We have just been out for supper, and asked our waitress about the fact that whilst at the parade we saw nothing referencing Native Americans, and she said that there had been a Pow Wow at a town about an hour away, and that the Native Americans were there... we asked if this happens every year and she said that it did... but reiterated that there was no segregation...

... anyway, this was all very interesting to us...

we had planned to go out and see the fire works later on, but it looks like rain... and so we decided against it...

...we are on the move again tomorrow... actually going into our 10th week... we cannot quite believe how close we are to our trip coming to an end... we have had and continue to have such an amazing time...

...as noted earlier, unless we are able to find a wi-fi place for the next few days there may be a few days we will need to catch up on later in the week... although I'm sure that there will be wi-fi somewhere!!!