We left Post Falls in Idaho on the 5th of July and on the 10th of July we reached Billings, Montana! We not only covered a lot of miles we stopped at a lot of tourist and historical sites along the way. My dad would have called this, “Taking the Scenic Route”! All these stops provided a great contrast to just driving straight through. We stayed at all different kinds of campgrounds including State Parks, City Parks, Cracker Barrel parking lots, and outside the gates of our reserved and paid-for RV resort when we arrived after the security gate was closed! Fortunately they allowed overnight parking for late arrivals. In the morning we were greeted by the resident horses, as we were actually in the pasture!
Our driving has brought us along a beautiful 99 mile stretch of mountain road along a river, up and down winding mountain passes, along lakes, through prairies and pastureland, and beautifully irrigated fields. We have seen many deer along the highways and near our creek side camp site at the Washoe City Park.
We have toured the Montana State Prison and Auto Museum, (yes they are in the same tour) in Deer Lodge. In Billings we toured the Moss Museum (built in 1903), home of PB Moss who helped found and plan the city. Also in Billings we toured the DanWalt Gardens, a privately owned home where the garden is open to tour, (or to have weddings or events). We went to Montana Tech and enjoyed their mineral museum and views of the city of Butte from the campus. We saw amazing underground caverns at the Lewis and Clark State Park. We have enjoyed murals depicting the Lewis and Clark exploration in Whitehall Montana; in Anaconda we saw a one hundred year old brick smokestack on top of a hill that was 585 feet tall. That is taller than the Washington Monument!
Also, a little known fact about Steve is that if there are kids with a roadside lemonade stand, we drive around the block to buy a cool drink. We saw two girls on a very hot day, standing in the sun right along the main street in Deer Lodge in front of a business and even though we had the trailer attached we circled the block and found roadside parking just in front of their stand. They also had some really delicious homemade chocolate chip cookies! Steve doesn’t miss an opportunity to encourage young entrepreneurs!
On Sunday morning we drove from Billings to Wapiti, Montana and enjoyed a great teaching and fellowship at a local church, where all the ushers wore cowboy attire, and when they took the offering they “passed the hats!” They obviously knew that we were visiting by our “Southern California Casual Attire!” This week has added over a thousand miles to our Adventures on the Road? Overall it has been a full week of driving, sightseeing, visiting museums and learning local and regional history. We have not had very reliable cell service and we have had almost no internet. While this is nice to be disconnected and unplugged, it does make blogging more difficult. So that is why this blog is more of a summary of the week than our previous blogs. Below are some pictures, not in chronological order, for you to enjoy!
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