Our Foster Parents at Seeley Lake

After days on the highway dodging wildfires, last Saturday we rolled into Seeley Lake, absolutely wrecked after 120kms that day, and 100km the day before.  Arriving at the Big Larch campground, we found our fellow cycling buddy Brian, who told us we could set up next to the camp host RV and camp for free.  Always keen to save $10, we jumped at the chance....then we met the camp hosts, Dan and Bev Foster.  These guys hail from Florida, and have spent their summer by the lake in Montana, volunteering as camp hosts, and generally looking after cyclists as they pass through town.

First thing first...Bev is on it, "Can I get y'all a beer?".  Then with his cheeky grin, Dan tells us that the girls, Marg and Rita popped by earlier, would I like to meet them?  I looked at him cluelessly, what was this bloke on about?  Who were these girls?  Sniggering he strung me on for a few mins before he revealed that he was offering me a margarita!  Haha we were definitely gonna be friends!

And that was only the start....not just offering free camping, they gave us chairs (real comfy ones with backs!), a place to charge our stuff and let us store our food in the RV.  Then they took us to town for burgers!  Yum! Then it was breakfast time...wow! Dans famous homefries, scrambled eggs, sausages and toast with homemade huckleberry jam!  All in the comfort of their super comfy RV.  Yum!  Brian literally rolled out of the campsite as he hit the road.  Shane and i were having a rest day there, and well, it was raining, so what to do on a rainy day?  Sit around in the warm and cosy RV talking rubbish with our new best friends, and watching back to back episodes of Reba and CSI on their cable TV of course!

Oh look here, it's dinner time, and well our protestations of no, you have fed us enough, fell on deaf ears.  For Dan had had his BBQ Pulled Chicken in the pressure cooker all arvo, and Bev had been to the market for fresh corn on the cob....well if we have to!  So much yum, that chicken was to die for!  We will be the first bike tourer's to get fat on tour I think!

By then it was pretty chilly, but in case they hadn't spoilt us enough, they very kindly offered us showers inside their RV..with real towels! Bliss!  We did manage to put our foot down however when we were offered their sofa bed to sleep on!  Our tent keeps us plenty toasty!

Their generosity surely knows no ends!  And on our last morning we were sent off with French toast with sausages, plus leftover sausages for out on the trail.  Man we were so spoilt!

It's really the little bits of help we get here and there that we appreciate, but Dan and Bev blew that out of the water.  Our time with them was truly one of the highlights of our trip so far, we felt part of the family.  We had heard about trail Angels, and that's exactly what these guys were.

We were so so sad to leave them...hopefully we can keep in touch....Bev and Dan you are one in a million!!!