“Hey Sam, how’s it going?” My standard greeting to my best friend Sam was not returned with the usual, “I’m good, what are doing?” response, I instead heard, “I’m volunteering at The Rising Sun Bistro (a local restaurant) as a bartender while they are filming ‘Restaurant Impossible,’ want to be my barback and make some money?” My first response was, ‘What under the sun is Restaurant Impossible,’ quickly followed by, ‘Money? Did you say money? Yes!’ That is how I happened to be spending a Friday evening pouring drinks, avoiding video cameras and a yelling TV personality instead of preparing for our trip (tune in December 19th on the Food Network to see if I am going to be that extra that gets catapulted to fame based on her excellent beer pouring skills).
This Restaurant Impossible experience is only one of the many things we’ve managed to cram into the three weeks since we have left Alaska, not to mention trying to cross everything off the many pre departure lists we have somehow created.
After an amazing day on Flathead Lake, filled with boating, lots of good wine, puppy snuggling, and good friends (thanks Jamie and Ryan!)…
Ken and Louis
Flathead Lake sunset
…we stopped and relaxed for a few days at my family’s cabin on the Smith River in Montana for some sun and fishing.
Papa Fraser and Izzie trying to prove something
A side note about the Smith River, one of if not the all time favorite place in the world for me. Being there always brings me a sense of peace and a reminder to slow down and enjoy ever little incredible second that life has to offer us, something that I definitely needed as the stress of getting ready was starting to get to me.
And I guess he proved it with an 18 inch rainbow.
We then booked it to Aspen, CO to attend Kathryn and Adam’s beautiful outdoor mountain wedding. 
We were wined, dined, and generally pampered and thoroughly enjoyed ever second of it especially with months of Skamper travel ahead of us.
For the past week and half we have been back in Kalispell at my parent’s. Ken has been killing it on a very long list of upgrades and alterations to the truck and camper (post to come soon) while I’ve been busy taking two recertification classes and getting together all the last minute paperwork and random details. We are planning on hitting the road in a few days, by October 3rd at the latest, to head to Seattle for a few days then down the coast. We are more then ready!
30 For Thirty 
I saw that Sam was involved with that show. That’s a crazy turn of events that you were able to do that while in Kalispell. I’ll definitely stay tuned to Food Network to see the episode later this year. I hope the restaurant has a positive change… sounds like things only went downhill when they moved from Whitefish to Kali.
That’s awesome that you got to enjoy some smoke-free days on the Smith River. (I feel like we’ve been breathing wildfire smoke for the last month here in Missoula. gross.) What a beautiful place to go fishing– you’re so lucky you have access to a cabin there!
It was a lot of fun! Hopefully someone records it so I can catch the episode when we get back. We drove through Missoula briefly on the way back from Colorado, it was super smokey. Today was actually the first day it hasn’t been really smokey in Kalispell, I forget about the fire season.
I honestly don’t remember fire seasons being so bad when we were growing up. But then again, we were growing up & probably not paying attention to what was going on! Oh well.
Hopefully once you guys head out of Montana, the smoke will disappear.