Day nine

Woke up an hour later than planned and then it takes at least an hour to break camp. We still have those two bundles of firewood I bought at the Minneapolis KOA but never had a fire. When we left there the office was closed so I just brought it with us here but there’s a burn ban here and I expect there will be one every where we are going to be for the rest of this trip, at least until we get a ways back east. I left the two bundles of firewood with the Medora Campground. 
I really wanted the children to have fun so we went to the playground that looks to be the same designer as the original laurel hills all children’s park and the Morehead city park.  

Once on the road we stopped to cut some sage.  I had meant to do that on the Cross Country Trip of 2017 but forgot. Then several more, actually so many more stops along the way to Glacier.
 

We went from a predicted arrival of 8pm to 10 to Midnight.  I knew this was going to be a difficult leg of our trip. The children handled it great but  I was getting worn down by about 10 p.m.
Finally I was ready throw in the towel and  to get off the road. I Stopped at a hotel in Browning Montana somewhere east of Glacier and they’re booked. The nice girl working the desk there said there is only two hotels in the town and they’re both booked. The other was attached to a casino. I had intended to get a room and sleep until like 5 then knock out the last hour of this trip and get to the campground by sixish. The website showed that the sites had been filling up by about 7a.m. in recent days so that should have been enough buffer. No rooms available though so we  push on. Another hour goes by, and no one is awake.  Loralea is semi-conscious, basically fighting sleep off. Finally we arrive at the West Glacier entrance. Although we were coming from the east the campsite that was first come was located closer to the west side of the park and its faster to down around the south side of the park than to try to go through because of the winding  "Going to the Sun Road".   By the time we finally arrived at Glacier it was about 12:45-1a.m. Loralea really needed to pee. With her out of the car I started rearranging all the interior contents of the back seat. I mean moving everything, it looked like a hoarders vehicle when I finished. Then I set up and inflated the new seat converting sleeping pad and the three girls climbed on. Sleeping on the car bed in the back seat worked great. We took the short trip from the restroom at the Apgar boat inspection station on Apgar Loop up to the Sprague Creek Campground, nice and slow. 
 We got there at probably about 1a.m., cut the headlights and pulled in, I got out at started looking at the signs and information boards and as I was reading the part about the 36th bear sighting in that campground this season having happened today, I heard a heavy cracking sound of timber from the shadows 50 -60 feet away, I guess I'll read the rest tomorrow.  I initially parked there then though maybe I'd be in the way and repositioned across the street to the bus stop that said it was not being used in 2021. After about an hour when someone else came they parked where I had been so we moved behind them. We got there at 1:20 in the morning and still and were second in line for 6 sites. I tried to get some rest but it was pretty spotty with driver seat reclined and George sleeping on my chest. The host came and passed out 6 packets at 5-6 am. There were more than 6 cars in line by 4AM so on this day the available spots filled by 4am. Funny how things always work out exactly the way they are supposed to be, imagine the predicament I'd be in if they had a room for us in Browning.