Whitefish, MT - Build Day, Day Off

Whitefish, MT – Day Off

Yesterday, after we left Glacier National Park, we stopped in West Glacier and treated ourselves to lunch since we had lots of time to get to Whitefish and deserved something special for just climbing over the Rockies. It was an odd lunch place, the waitress and hostess were two older woman that were nice in a creepy, I’m going to poison your food, kind of way. Well, throughout the meal we kept swapping cameras and looking at pictures and making a riot of noise and laughter. The table next to us, just happened to notice our jerseys and came over to ask about what we’re doing. It turns out that the gentleman, Dave Newell, is also the president of the Habitat chapter that includes Whitefish, MT, how fortuitous. We got to talking and Christopher, one of the four leaders, traded phone numbers and would follow up later that day for the potential for a build site tomorrow, on our day off. It was a great interaction and Dave and his friend were generous enough to pick up our meal for us, score. I know it’s not right, but I was waiting for that meal to be picked up by a complete stranger after hearing about what we’re doing.

Now, I mention this incident since it was the catalyst for events later that day and the next day. While the 9 of us spent our time in Whitefish, cleaning up and lounging around, the rest of the group was making their way through Glacier biking to Whitefish, trying to beat the sun. Well, once everyone had arrived and dinner leftovers had been eaten, the rest of the group learned about the impromptu build day for tomorrow. This was not well received. They were still in their bike clothes, tired from tough ride and long day, dirty with no hope of a shower (the health club had closed), and just learning that they would be spending their day off at a build site. The aftermath was not pretty and the topic of discussion for the rest of the night, even trailing for a few days afterwards. Oh man, it was tense. Everyone was hanging on by a thread. It was all resolved and the build day became a half-day and on a volunteer basis. While working on the affordable housing cause is the reason for our trek, many people had been looking forward to a day off, with no obligations of biking or building, since we had just spent the past 11 days riding; our bodies needed the break.

For the build day, the next day, about half the group volunteered their day-off to help out. The site was in a neighboring town, Kalispell. It’s a much larger town than Whitefish, which I gleaned since on a map of Montana, the font is bolder and darker. The site included two homes, on adjacent lots, with plenty of work for us to do. We were divided working on either roofing, caulking the exterior, painting the exterior window trim, or helping with sheetrock. It was the most organized build site that we’ve been to; all their tools clearly had their place and they had a refrigerator plugged in outside for their lunch.

I was on the caulking crew, filling the gaps created between the roofline and the soffit. I was only allowed to use the white caulk, since brown caulking supposedly takes more skill. Well, at least that’s what Dottie told me. Who is Dottie? A character and on my back the entire morning.

Dottie is part of a group called the Care-A-Vanners. Basically, it’s retired people that drive in groups to Habitat sites across the country to help out. They set up shop, help out during the week and have the weekends to explore the area. It’s a cool idea and the geriatric version of Bike and Build. Dottie was joking that in 50 years, we’d be ideal candidates to be a Care-A-Vanner. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves Dottie; I hate RVs, but that’s for a different post.

The main reason Dottie is so memorable is because she kept hounding Isaiah and myself (the two white caulkers) about “feathering” the caulk. When just placed, the caulk is often to bit and needs to be “feathered” with your finger to spread and smooth it outh, so that when it’s painted over, it’s not unsightly. Well, our feathering technique just wasn’t up to snuff, so much so that Dottie even questioned Isaiah whether he had ever seen a bird’s feather before, interlocking her fingers as an example. Thankfully, it was only a half day.

Regardless of all that, it was a great build day and we were all doing productive tasks, which means not filling in a hole with dirt. I was back at the church by 12:30 to get my day-off started.

Whitefish is a ski town and has plenty of fun shops and restaurants on it’s main street. Our church was just at the end of main street, an ideal location. The leaders/trip have been very good about having our host locations be near all the action. I spent my afternoon at the Red Caboose Diner with a bowl of chili, plate of fries and my computer and wireless internet. It was some needed time off from the rest of the group. From there, I headed over to an outdoor shop to get a new bite valve for my camelbak (there’s a hole in it and frequently drips onto my shorts, making me think that I temporarily lost control of my bladder while riding). Attached was a coffee shop where I met up with Kate, Anson and Dae for some coffee/tea/ The coffee place had two separate stations, one for ordering and one for the barista, to send the order from one to the other, there was a metal wire hanging from the ceiling between the two where they’d shoot back the orders clipped to carabiners, how outdoorsy and relevant. Kate mentioned that there’s a farmer’s market in the evening, so we walked over there and browsed the stalls. I split a huckleberry, lemon and powder sugar crepe with Erik then wandered the stalls admiring various woodwork and longingly eyeing the baked goods.

Keep in mind that the town is rather small and you can’t help but run into other fellow riders. The half, day-off was perfect. When I arrived back at the church for a dinner of burgers and such, Kathy noticed how content I looked walking in: a clean polo on, flip flops, computer bag over one shoulder, cardigan tied onto the computer bag, sunglasses, and to-go cup of tea in one hand.

After dinner, we headed to a bar to watch Olympics. A good end to the day, though I headed back to the church early since I needed to pack up my bag in preparation for the next day. You should see our bags when we arrive at a church, they tend to just explode open with items spilling everywhere.