Sunday, July 7, 2013 (White Sulphur Springs, MT)

Today was a pretty laid back day.  We got up to sunshine and did our walk/jog routine, had a nice leisurely breakfast and then headed to church.  We attended the same church we did last week, Mountainview Community Church and we liked it as much this week as we did last week.  They had a young high school girl that was water baptised during the service which was pretty cool.  The church was really packed today, they had to set up some folding chairs, I don't know if the young lady had a lot of family attending to celebrate her decision or if there were just a lot of travelers passing through because of the 4th of July holiday.  We saw a couple of folks from our campground at church.

After church, we came home had some lunch and relaxed for awhile.  Rich talked to his sister Connie on the phone - (hi Connie) and then plan was to head over to tour the "Castle House".  We had started to do this tour a couple days after we first got here but that was the day that we had the funnel cloud storm and so headed back to the 5er instead of taking the tour. 

We have no pictures of the tour because they don't allow photography - not sure why, but they don't.  If we would have done this tour first, I probably would have been more impressed.  The house was amazing with the oak woodwork and moulding, but it's story is kind of sad.  The gentleman that built it only lived in it 10 years before moving to California for health reasons.  His son sold it for $500 in the early 1900's to a local ranching family and they only lived in it for 5 years and then they turned it into a boarding house.  In the 1960's they turned it into a museum.  The house just feels sad and still kind of neglected, it needs some major care and love.  The house is furnished with miscellaneous local Meagher County antiques - so there is lots of "stuff" in it and some of the rooms are not set up as they were originally intended - like the bathroom is no longer a bathroom - it just had some antique stuff in it that didn't even relate to bathrooms.  Our tour guide seemed a bit distracted - her cell phone kept ringing and she kept answering it and going off and having a conversation with her sister.  I'm glad we took the time to visit, but it wasn't as amazing as I thought it was going to be.  Here's a picture of the exterior that we took a couple weeks ago.  The house has a basement which is the first level of windows you see, and then the main floor and the second floor which had 4 bedrooms, the bathroom which is no longer a bathroom and a music room.  The entry way into the house was beautiful, the woodwork was cherry and had a beautiful staircase to the second floor.  The bones of the house were still there, it just needed some love inside.

Castle House

After the tour, we came back and Rich got a few things put away outside in anticipation of our move tomorrow.  We can't believe we've been here so long - it's been our longest stay in one spot since we left Bend.  It's been fun exploring the area but we are ready to move on.  We'll leave you with some shots of the scenery from the campground.  The wood cut outs the owner makes in the winter time and has them all around the campground. 

We were trying to capture the sunbeams shining through the clouds

And one last sunset picture - the sunsets here are incredible - this one was so luminous, it looked like it was lit up within - it was amazing - the picture doesn't do it justice.

Sunset over the Big Belt Mountains

Sunset reflecting off the clouds

Our next stop is a state park so I'm pretty sure we will be without a WiFi connection so it will probably be later in the week before we post more of our adventures.   Until then, be safe and God Bless.