Sunshine, but not for long

©2012 Lydia Hinshaw

Early morning blue skies at Tally Lake

 WHITEFISH, MT -- Monday afternoon we completed a dreaded part of our trip, only to find that it wasn't worth dreading at all.

 We drove 140 miles from Bull Creek into Kalispell to check in for our summer jobs.  We don't report for work until Monday, June 18, but as bus drivers we must complete a pre-employment drug screening.  It takes several days for the test results to come back.

 We wanted to make sure we gave the lab plenty of time so we can start collecting paychecks next week.

 Also, checking in for jobs is often a lengthy and boring session of filling out forms.  Sometimes we find ourselves hand-writing the very same forms that we have already submitted electronically to the very same employer months ago.  It can be absolutely maddening.

 Happily, we learned that as returning employees we had to fill out only two forms, a consent to request our driving records, and a W-4 form.

 So we showed up at the office at 2 p.m., did the two forms, headed for the drug test facility where there was no line, and were done with everything by 2:30.

 After some grocery shopping we drove 23 miles north of Whitefish to the Forest Service campground at Tally Lake, where we arrived in a rainstorm, and got wet putting up our new tarp.

 Said tarp did its job again, since by the time we finished stringing it up, the rain had left and it didn't come back.  

 Tuesday morning dawned bright and sunny with mist rising off the lake.  We packed up and left to spend the day in Whitefish before continuing to West Glacier, where we would check in to the campground where we will be living all summer.

 By the time we got to West Glacier, it was raining again.