Fletcher’s home with the Mission Mountain range in the background.
He’s selling his house if anyone is interested.
When Chris planned their summer itinerary, she had no knowledge of fall weather conditions near the 49th parallel and made their stop at Glacier the last reservation which turned out to be one of the best decisions of the year, at least as far as Fletcher was concerned. He had just bought a brand new Airstream trailer and had ordered all the components needed to make it electrically self-sufficient. Six solar panels, four ninety-three pound, deep cycle, six volt storage batteries, high power DC to AC inverter and boxes full of wires, connectors and screws had arrived about the same time as his guests.
Jay’s Coast Guard enlisted time as an Electronics Technician and all the modifications he did to his sailboat came in handy as they set about tearing out the sofa and settee and installing the wires and other electrical devices. What Fletcher anticipated would take a couple of days turned into at least two full weeks of long days sitting in awkward positions on the floor, figuring out how to run wires, installing remote control panels and having to rework the battery and inverter positions when Chris pointed out that she didn’t think the sofa would fit over the existing arrangement. At last the bugs were worked out and all functioned as expected. Based on all they learned, via the numerous trials and errors, the great technical wizards figured the next Airstream they convert really will only take two days.
The best part of the whole project for Jay was being able to spend some special time with Fletch. When they were stationed together, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, they were both helicopter pilots and though they often worked together they never could “play” together – one of them was always on duty. This was the first time Jay could truly enjoy Fletch’s great sense of humor and really get to know him on a more personal level. We suspect there will be more adventures together in the future.
The view out their back window – a typical Montana sunset.
About a week into their visit, Chris visited the “man cave” garage to inform the guys of dinner arrangements. While leaving, she turned to close the garage door behind her and suddenly heard a loud pop and felt excruciating pain. Her right foot had slipped sideways off the step and she’d twisted her ankle. Unable to stand under her own power, she called for Jay. No response. She called louder. No response. A final scream brought him and Fletcher to the door. Expressions of concern, hands lifting and queries as to what had happened followed as Jay helped her hobble home to Sonny. Hmmmmm, how to get up the steps? Of course, on all fours. Yan was inside, having lingered after their dinner preparations conversation. More expressions of concern and a quick dart into the house to retrieve a Chinese remedy which was slathered over the ankle and then wrapped in plastic wrap. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) calls for heat on muscle strains but the expected warmth never occurred and it was chalked up to the age of the fluid. Chris resorted to the microwavable heat pack, and lay down wondering why this, somewhat major inconvenience, had occurred after all the strenuous hiking of the summer and experiencing trail conditions that were far more conducive to such an accident. Jay had started to completely wax the RV and she’d helped the day before. But, it required standing on a ladder; something she now doubted she could do.
The pop she heard was of concern, but then again her ankle popped all the time; especially in the morning coming down the two steps from her bedroom. She considered going to the local hospital for x-rays but after a few days of improvement, studying anatomical charts of bone and muscle and feeling the affected area for points of pain, decided it was unnecessary. Although still hobbling, within three days she was driving Yan to Kalispell for some jewelry shopping and to find a birthday gift for Fletcher.
Meanwhile Jay continued his efforts to spruce up Sonny. The first time Sonny got a complete waxing was the winter of 2009 during a six week rest in Bushnell, FL. The year before had been packed with accomplishing all the minute details required to embark on a two-year cross-country odyssey and RV cosmetics was at the bottom of the list. At the time, Jay insisted that the first wax be a base coat of paste. He and Chris worked for several days waxing on and waxing off until the job was done and the muscle exhaustion in their arms and shoulders put them out of commission. To avoid a similar toll on their bodies during future tasks, Jay purchased a buffer which he utilized in Polson. It cut the time to complete the job in half and the toll on their bodies 90%!
Jay with buffer during a day of waxing.
Fletcher’s “country estate” is replete with a small orchard of cherry, peach, pear and apple trees. About mid-September, the peaches ripened all at once and Yan and Chris scrambled to salvage them from becoming food for the many deer that roamed the nearby hills. Two five gallon buckets of the succulent orbs could not be consumed by the four residents before they spoiled, so a method of storage was sought. Yan was against canning them so Chris found instructions on the internet for freezing peaches and they set about the task of sorting the fully ripe from the not quite yets. Water was boiled, spheres blanched, skins slipped off, fruit sliced, pits removed and hemispheres arranged individually on trays to freeze. Two such sessions, a few days apart, were required to salvage the harvest.
Yan packed Chris’ freezer with Ziploc bags of the booty that would become fodder for future smoothies. But, before she could partake, a pear tree ripened. Removing skins to freeze pears was akin to apples and required hand peeling with paring knives or using a combination corer/peeler device. Neither was acceptable to Chris or Yan and the peaches sat in their freezers while freshly picked pears became the main smoothie ingredient over the next week. Just as the pear supply dwindled, several apple trees began dropping their bounty and Chris was beginning to feel like a pioneer living off of the land.
Fletcher and Yan were beginning the final preparations for their departure to San Diego where they would be closer to his mother who was in the final stages of recovering from a stroke she’d suffered earlier in the summer. They would take the Airstream and live in it until a house was secured and adequately furnished for them to stay with his mother. Therefore, the volume of apples from three trees would be impossible to consume before they left and storage space in the trailer would be utilized by far more important belongings. Chris gathered as much of the ripened crop that she could store and switched to apple smoothies.
Chris didn’t like the noisiness of the ATV, but it was fun to ride.
She used it to pick up the mail after spraining her ankle.
One might ask why so many smoothies? The answer is simple: They are one of the yummiest foods on the planet, they are one of the most nutritious and filling “light” meals one can consume, they are easy to make and since Chris is on a vegan diet, they make a wonderful mid-day meal sans meat. While most commercial smoothies are made from a little bit of fruit and lots of ice, she adds flax meal, fiber and protein powders to some form of juice, and the rest is primarily fruit. Sometimes she’ll add yogurt or coconut milk. She’s even thrown in shredded coconut which sweetens and thickens the concoction. She also started adding grass – Wheat Grass that is. Over the summer she’d learned about super foods like Goji berries, Cacao beans and Wheat Grass. Spying containers of the grass in the grocery store one day, she bought one and immediately began adding it to the smoothies. An added bonus to making smoothies is that the blender they brought, originally to make Jay’s tropical adult beverages (which he never does), is justifying its weight in the RV and is utilized almost every day!
During their month at the “Brown RV Park”, Chris expanded her cooking repertoire by learning to make yogurt. It is the one dairy item that she cheats with on her vegan diet to add a little more protein to her nutritional regimen. Plus, she just likes the taste! When she started adding up the cost of the yogurt she and Jay consumed, it was getting a little pricy, especially since she liked to buy the more expensive organic brands when she could find them. To help the budget, she investigated making her own and the cost of a yogurt maker but couldn’t figure out where she would store the appliance when not in use. Then she learned how to make it in an oven - gas or electric - and decided to give it a try.
Since most yogurts are low fat or fat free, she also wanted to boost the Omega 3 fatty acids in their diet and decided to use organic, whole milk. With instructions from several websites, a candy thermometer, eight-ounce jelly jars, a couple of pots, milk and yogurt starter, she gave it a go. After overcooking once, a runny batch, and another mishap, on the fourth try – SUCCESS!!! Rich and creamy!!
They don’t call it Big Sky Country for nothing.
A view of Polson from a nearby hill.
Her culinary repertoire was further expanded by learning how Yan made some of her delicious meals. She and Yan took turns making dinners and Chris would offer assistance on her night off while watching and learning. A favorite meal was broth soup with dumplings or noodles, cilantro, some seasonings and usually some other vegetable like bok choy. Chris made such a fuss over how good the dumplings were that Yan bought the ingredients on their next shopping excursion and spent the afternoon showing her how to make them. Once made, Yan freezes the dumplings then pulls out what she needs for each meal. By the evening, Yan was attempting to stuff Chris’ freezer with the day’s results. Unfortunately it was still full of peaches and other frozen items. It was obvious to Chris that her meals would need to utilize more existing frozen items to make room for the dumplings.
An unexpected skill the visitors learned was the adept use of chopsticks. They were the primary utensils used by Yan, not only for eating, but also for cooking, mixing the dough and stuffing for dumplings and even removing cooked noodles from a pan! They were like an extension of her fingers. Jay and Chris didn’t become as skilled as Yan but after a couple of weeks they could pick up single grains of rice from their dinner bowls.
Yan on the ATV after a run to the mailbox.
Fletcher had met Yan on a trip to China seven years before. He was learning the Chinese language via a Rosetta Stone program but was told that the best way to understand it was to visit the country. The rest of the story is history, but they were recently married and Yan moved to America speaking almost no English. Fletcher has worked with her to learn the language and combined with a Chinese to English version of Rosetta Stone she can carry on a simple conversation but could not understand a conversation between Jay and Fletcher.
Chris grasped Yan’s range of the language when they would go shopping together and she coached her on some words and their correct pronunciations. Before long they could communicate pretty well, using a combination of speech and body/hand signs and Chris felt like she was a tourist in a foreign land trying to get directions from a native. But, they could not have in depth discussions except on the computer. Yan had a translation program on her laptop and Fletcher showed Chris the Google Translate website that he used to communicate with her. When discussions became too involved, Chris or Yan would signal to use the computer and they talked through the issues. By the end of their stay, Chris and Jay learned to say hello in Chinese. The phonetic pronunciation is “nee how” or 您好.
Montana’s warm September weather lulled the travelers into a comfortable, relaxed routine and a month slipped past them practically un-noticed. October arrived and cold, rainy weather set in. Knowing a departure was imminent, Jay purchased several mail order items and they planned to leave when they arrived. During their last week in Polson, Fletcher treated everyone to dinner for Yan’s birthday, Chris and Jay outlined their route south, a batch of yogurt was made and laundry washed. On a cool, rainy, Friday, October 7th, they said their goodbyes to their gracious hosts and pulled Sonny down the driveway while contemplating Fletcher’s offer to house sit over the winter.
Yan and Fletcher at the restaurant in Big Fork during Yan’s birthday dinner.
