Montana

We left Seattle on Thursday under the same overcast skies that we experienced the 3 days we were there.  Some of you may have seen that a bridge on I-5 in Washington State collapsed.  We traveled I-5 each of those 3 days, but not the stretch with that bridge.  That was north of us. 

When we got on I-90 heading EAST, my heart smiled.  I-90 is an interstate we recognize as we travel it back home when going to Chicago.  If I was excited seeing something familiar that is that small, imagine what I will do when we actually cross the Michigan border!

We had mountain driving for a while, then eastern Washington gave way to rolling farmland.  It was raining (hard to believe, huh?) and so Mike turned on the windshield wipers.  You may remember they didn’t work very well, and we spent an entire morning back in St. George, Utah looking for replacements with no luck.  In California, we found a large RV dealership that had some, so we bought them.  We made the mistake of not putting them on until we were hundreds of miles away in northern California and they didn’t fit!  (they will be listed on Craig’s List as soon as we get home!)  When we went to Sandy, Oregon to get the latch fixed, they had the correct ones and installed them for us.  Perfect!

Not quite.  When Mike turned them on the new ones did the exact same thing as the old ones – left an 8 inch path that didn’t wipe clear.  So it wasn’t that the old wipers were bad!  We would have put up with it if the area was on my side of the windshield, but it was on Mike’s.  We pulled over at the next rest stop and Mike tried to bed the arm to make better contact with the windshield.   You guessed it – the wiper broke.  I know I haven’t thanked God enough for his protection on this trip, and I realized it when we had to continue on and it stopped raining and we made it to Bozeman, Montana the next day without it EVER raining again! (and we found several times that we locked our car when sight-seeing, but when we got back to it, it wasn’t locked because my set of keys were in it.  A safety feature.  But you should see the stuff we have packed in that Jeep!)

We continued on and I got on the phone trying to find locations ahead of us that may be able to put on a new wiper.  I started with Spokane first, as we were about 175 miles from there.  3 hours later, after trying RV dealerships from Spokane to Bozeman, we called our dealership back in Michigan and made arrangements to have them ship the new wiper to a Cummins dealership in Billings, Montana and we will go there when we leave Yellowstone.  So you can keep praying for no rain on our travel days until next Friday!  This will be our second trip to a Cummins shop for repairs since we began.

The farmland ended when we crossed over into Idaho.  Back to mountainous driving.  We were only in Idaho for about 3 hours, so I don’t count it as a state we visited.   When we stopped in Missoula, Montana for the night, it makes Montana our 13^th state.  It was a LONG day and we stayed in a Wal-Mart parking lot (sorry, Josh), pulling in about 8:30.  This was our first stay not in a campground.  Mike strongly dislikes not being in a campground.  And when he saw 8 other RV’s all ready there and space limited, he said it is the last time we will do it.  We didn’t put any slides out (most people do) and were out of there at 7am. 

Friday’s drive continued east and took us through Butte, MT.  We started noticing snow on the vehicles passing us and snow in the back of pick-up trucks we saw.

IT IS THE END OF MAY!  I’m not talking about a light dusting or spitting snow.  This was snow, and lots of it on the side of the road.  We saw a family having a snowball fight at a rest area.

Another little hiccup – a passing truck threw up a stone and we now have a crack in our windshield.  That will wait until we get home to get fixed (along with the awning that we had removed back in the Arizona windstorm.  As our friend Emma said, “Ah, the joys of RVing!)  None of these things have stopped our progress, so we are thankful for the BIG things.. . .

We got to Bozeman around noon on Friday.  A nice, family run campground that gets our stamp of approval because a) we could fill up our propane tank,; b) the guy said, “Follow me to your site”.  And he helped Mike line up on the site.  Usually we unhook the Jeep when we check in , then I drive it ahead of Mike back to our site, try to find somewhere to park it out of the way so I can jump out and help Mike line up on the site; and c) they let us wash the motorhome.

We wash this thing more than most people wash their car!  When it came to washing the Jeep, Mike said not to use the RV wash because we are almost out.  Now if we can make sure we can’t find any more of the special wash liquid. . . .One can only hope. . .

Saturday we drove to Big Sky Resort, about 45 minutes south of Bozeman.  Mike had been here over 15 years ago and he really wanted me to see it.  We knew the skiing would be over, but hoped to be able to ride the gondola to the top (over 11,100 ft.) and just see the whole development.  Sometimes our timing is good and sometimes not.  Today was a not.  The resort closes from April 17 to June 5 during “mud season”.  We did walk around the area where the ski lifts are located.  An area filled with shops, restaurants, outdoor seating areas around fire pits, lodging, and equipment places.  It was deserted, but we got a close up view of a few of the ski runs and the peak. 

This wasn’t the town.  That was at the base of the mountain, along with a golf course.

Lunch was the same place Mike had dinner all those years ago – The Corral, just outside of town.  The pictures should give you a better idea of it than my words would.

The drive to and from Bozeman to Big Sky follows the Gallatin River.  There were lots of signs advertising fly-fishing trips and white water rafting.  We saw both.

On Sunday we head to Gardiner, MT, just outside the north entrance to Yellowstone.  We are staying there for two nights, hoping to get into a campground inside Yellowstone after the holiday weekend.  Our plan is to do day trips into Yellowstone until we can get a campsite inside, and will stay until Friday.

In case I don’t post again before Monday – Happy Memorial Day and Thank-you to all veterans and current service men and women who have made our country the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.

Pictures today are: entering Idaho;  a good reminder of the time zone change (my watch has always been on Michigan time, but all the clocks in the RV and the Jeep are on local time); the Montana state sign.  OK- obviously government workers have no idea the pleasure a  catchy, interesting  “Welcome to. . . “ state sign can give a road-weary traveler like me!; how we look going down the road, except we have the door closed!; Montana landscape – cattle grazing with a mountain backdrop;  the snow in Butte;  Big Sky sign;  ranch fencing (this is one of those silly things that I get a kick out of because it is what you envision it to be); a long-range view of the Big Sky peak;  a sign at the ski lift;  a close-range view of a few of the ski runs and peak; two views of the inside of The Corral,  Notice the bear skins on the ceiling; and white-water rafters.