May 25, 2021 Travel to Echo Lake

We were up and around pretty good this morning and got on the road by 9:15 AM. It was a lovely slow drive over MT 200. Beautiful mountains! 

Just outside Great Falls

We drove over Rogers Pass without any problems. That is where the continental divide is on today’s path. 

Then we went through Lincoln, MT Seeley Lake and Swan Valley. 

That is a beautiful drive. 

We stopped at Ferndale and topped up the RV gas and propane. Then we arrived at Echo Lake.

The lake looked pretty low- hopefully the snow melt and rain will fill it up soon. 

The first thing we did was to unhook the pickup from the RV. Then we parked the RV in its summer spot and put down the jack pads and started the leveling process. Its a little difficult to get the RV level because we are on the side of a mountain lake with a beautiful view. Then we got our utilities hooked up and went to town (Bigfork) and ate pizza at Rosa’s Pizza. It was good. 

May 21 - 24, 2021 (Friday - Monday) We are hanging out in Great Falls in the Malmstrom AFB Famcamp

Fri, May 21

We got up and around. The bedroom temperature was up to 70 degrees. There is more snow! Almost 4 inches! We putzed around and ate snacks. Later we walked the dogs and carried out our trash. This at least got us outside. The RV was 67 degrees inside - with the space heater running. This is fine because I dressed warm. We spent most of the day working on the computer and watching TV. I talked to my sisters and we had another outing around the Famcamp RV Park to interrupt the boredom. 

Sat, May 22

We walked the dogs and the day was much nicer. There was no rain or snow. Another item on the agenda was laundry. We were parked in site # 1 very close to the restrooms and laundry, so we took advantage of that and  did two loads of laundry. Later we both used the showers here at the Famcamp. These are very nice bathroom facilities. Since Steve was stationed at this base the last 5 years of his time in the Air Force -we drove around and toured the base. In addition we also returned to Walmart to pickup my medicine and a few more supplies. 

Sun, May 23

Well we were up at 8:30 but really didn’t do anything until about 11 AM. It was rainy and chilly, like 41 degrees, feels like 34 degrees! We finally took the dogs out to walk and ate lunch about 1:00. We paid for another day here and watched it rain! A little boring! Steve has been trying to research what is wrong with the RV heater. That has occupied a lot of his time. 

Mon, May 24

On the weather front: the temperature is better and there is no rain or snow. But, the WIND is Horrible! And I say that being from Oklahoma where the wind always blows. Today we got rid of some pillows that are not good anymore. Steve wants a new pillow - so out go some old ones. We returned to Walmart for more stuff. I don't know where everything disappears to but we may not be making the best lists. Oh well. Today the Montana weather is miserable. Sometime hearing the wind blow almost drives a person crazy! Later we had a nice relaxing nap. Tomorrow will be better.

May 14 - May 20, 2021 The Journey Continues, And The Road Never Ends!

May 14, Friday

We got up and around. Then we dressed and walked the dogs. We were on the road pretty quickly. It was I-90 West today. We drove about 2 hours to Presha, SD and filled up with gas. Since we were stopped we also walked the dogs and ate lunch. It's kind of funny - because we stopped in this same location last fall when we were headed east to Winnebago. Strange things! Then we were back on the road. About an hour or so later we stopped at a rest stop and took a nap. We had been in road construction for about 10 miles when the rest stop became available. There was a really nice building - but it was only restrooms - there were no tourist brochures! So glad Steve stopped, he was tired. When we got started again we made to Sturgis, SD and stayed at Day’s End Campground. There were plenty of sites. He gave us a site at the back away from the road noise. We were glad to settle in for the night. 

Chamberlain, SD Missouri River

We saw several of these as we headed west on I90. 






The Badlands

                Motorcycles we saw at the Sturgis Days End RV park

May 15, Saturday

We got around and walked the dogs. Then Steve & I went to Deadwood and toured the Tatonka museum. We were back to the RV in time for lunch. Steve felt a little funny - he had a queasy stomach and a headache. So we rested. It rained most of the afternoon. I talked to Marsha. Then I also napped. Napping during a rainstorm is almost a necessity. When we woke up we took off about 5 PM. The dogs were so excited to go on a ride in the pickup. So we drove to Custer State Park and the Iron Mountain Road. We saw lots of Deer, two Bison and several Elk. We drove through the park and were back home about 9:00 PM.

Below are the pictures I took at the museum of the Bison - Kevin Costner funded these sculptures and the museum I believe. It has some memorabilia from the movie "Dances With Wolves" also. 

These are the elk and a lone bison we saw at Custer State Park. 

May 16, Sunday

We woke up early and got on the road about 9 AM. We headed north out of Sturgis through the Northeast corner of Wyoming then on to Montana. We saw lots of Pronghorns (my favorite animals) and deer. We also enjoyed seeing the interesting rock formations. At some point we even passed a bit of the Custer National forest. We arrived at Glendive Montana and stayed at Blue Sky RV Park ($40). It was fine - but you sure notice higher RV park prices up here in Montana. It really only had an electric hookup. There was a place to fill up with water - but we didn’t need any. You fill out your registration and put it in a self pay box.  The owner did come by when we were unhooking the pickup and visited with us. We took the dogs on a tour of Makoshika State Park. It too had a lot of interesting rock formations. The campgrounds were primitive - no hookups. Some were just out on the prairie.  We also found a Fishing Access site on the Yellowstone River in Glendive, MT. 

Nice Building at Ekalaka, MT

Pictures I take as we motor down the road. If you look hard you may see Pronghorns or Deer!

Below are images from Makoshika State Park - Glendive, Montana. I was taking pictures into the setting sun - which is not good. But I took them anyway. I had wanted to see this place because Dinosaurs have been found here. It is otherworldly!

This picture is of the Yellowstone River Fishing Access site at Glendive MT. Blogger puts these pictures in whatever order it chooses. Not what I tell it. 

May 17, Monday

Again we woke up early and left Glendive, MT about 9:15 AM after getting gas. We saw antelope and and little airport at Wolf Point, MT, We also saw dinosaur statues at Glascow MT. We were going to stay here, but we pulled over and napped from noon to 2 or so and had lunch. Then we felt like moving on west. We’ve seen some big tractors here in Northern  Montana. The one we saw at Malta took up the whole bridge! We gassed up again and kept the RV headed west. We got into some bad road construction! Some of the spots were so bad we had to slow down to 15 - 20 mph. We saw a nice old abandoned mission church at Fort Belknap.  We finished our day at Havre RV park and settled in. It was $45/night.

May 18, Tuesday

We slept in til 8 AM. After breakfast we took it easy and then got dressed. We took off about 10:30 AM and drove back to Chinook to view the Bear Paw Battlefield where Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce surrendered and said “From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever.” It was a lovely drive. We also saw a Charles Russel Statue in town. Then we went back to Havre and picked up a sandwich near the RV Park and took it to the RV to eat. They had nice smoothies also. For supper we went to the Duck Inn and had soup and salad. That just about catches us up. 

 These pictures are at the Bear Paw Battlefield or on the drive south of Chinook to get there.

Charles Russell - Montana/Western Artist statue in the town of Chinook, MT

May 19, Wednesday

On our way out of Havre - we stopped at Walmart to get supplies. Then we were on our way to Great Falls, MT. The temperature started dropping slowly. The next thing you know it started clouding up a bit. Before we got to  Great Falls, there was 8-10 miles of road construction. We had to keep the RV speed 20 - 25 mph. By the time we pulled into the Famcamp the wind had ramped up and it was pretty chilly! We got settled and I did a load of laundry. 

Old Grain Elevators near Havre, MT

Loma MT - The scenery is changing

Marias River






These two shots are near Fort Benton

 

Floweree, MT

Road Construction!

May 20, Thursday

The RV heater was not working when we got up. We don't know what went wrong. It started snowing. I was sitting under my electric blanket with extra clothes on. About 3:30 or so we went to Walmart to see if they had an electric heater before the weather gets worse. We didn't have much luck, they had no heaters and also my meds weren't ready to pick up either. Next we went to North 40 Outfitters and were in luck. They had a heater we could buy. Then we returned to the RV. We ate leftover chili and got the RV warmed up. Later we walked the dogs on the snow a bit. The best thing is to stay inside while this weather blows through. 

It's starting to snow on May 20, 2021 - at Great Falls Malmstrom AFB Famcamp!