September 5, 2016 Monday Moving on Down the Road

We haven't been getting up very early.  Consequently, we did not leave til about 10:30 AM. Sometimes this time includes our finagling around to try to get into a place to get gas.

 I know lots of people don't like interstates. But I love the drive through Wyoming on I-25. I always get to see my favorite animals - Pronghorns. There is very little traffic, and this summer we did not have wind - when we headed north or on our return trip south. Great weather actually. Most of the time we did not even run the air conditioner. 

We went through Lodge Grass, Wyola, Sheridan, WY, Buffalo, WY and Casper, WY.

At Casper - we took a look at our right blinker light in front- you have to take out the whole headlight to get to the blinker bulb. What we found out was that it was not the bulb - but the thing that holds the light bulb (blinker light socket).  OK - well we moved on down the road - since it is Labor Day - not many places open.  

We got to Douglas, WY and stayed overnight at KOA.  This is the best KOA around - maybe the best in the country. 

  The price was reasonable and the office girl was so nice, plus she escorted us to our site. Very helpful when you are road weary!

September 2, 2016 - Friday Drive to Ulm; Car Races

Before we started on our little excursion today - I decided to call the VA and check on Steve's shots. Long Story Short - they had been sent UPS - instead of US Post Office and had arrived here in Great Falls and been returned. I guess UPS tried to call us, but we did not receive the call and were not expecting it - so had no idea there was any problem. What a mess. Oh well, - we will just have them ship them to home. We are headed that way soon anyhow! 

We went to the visitor's center to get a trail map, because there is supposed to be a statue of a Grizzly bear not the River Trail and of course I want to try to find it. I got a map and we tried to figure out where the statue was - but no luck. We will try again another time I guess. With the way the Missouri River goes through and the streets are laid out - it can be confusing as to where things are. Next we took a short drive to Ulm, MT. We wanted to see the Smith River. It is a river that some people float several miles on and we wanted to try to find the put in point. I think we missed that - but had a nice short drive and the dogs loved playing in the water. 

 Steve skipped some rocks - and I drowned some. Nice and relaxing! It is so interesting to feel how smooth the rocks get. Very relaxing. We returned and did a little more exploring. 

 When we got back to the RV Steve remembered that the car races were on- so we decide to go! The races were good and there was a large crowd! 

They didn't finish until about 11:15 PM. So of course we stayed overnight and decided to do the Walmart run on Saturday morning and head out for home on Sunday.

September 1, 2016 Thursday R & R Day plus Laundry

Today we checked to see if Steve's shots arrived - no luck. I mailed some other items. Then we were going to do Laundry - it never goes away! We had to get quarters and also an Oreo shake. We couldn't use the laundry at the Famcamp - because they had too high a level of chlorine in it. They had been by the RV earlier and told us not to drink, bathe or wash clothes in the water until they said all was OK. This meant we had to go downtown to do the laundry. We got to the laundromat and found out we forgot our hangers - so Steve went back and got them. When he got back - the laundry was going pretty good. We just had to finish drying the clothes. Finally - they all got dry and we hung them up or folded them and were on our way back to the RV. Just a little bit before we left the laundromat - the wind came up really strong. We found some downed branches on our way back to the RV. Also there must have been down power line because we got routed around a few blocks. Shortly after we got back to the RV - a guy came by and told us the water was OK to use. I think we just had an easy day, since we had a long sightseeing day Wednesday.

August 30 and 31, 2016 Tuesday and Wednesday Cultural Day then Nature Day

Tuesday 

Ok, well it started off with another call to the VA Pharmacy. They said the shots had not been renewed yet. OH BOY! I called the SCI clinic, and left my number, they called me back and said - yes they were renewed, but the renewal had to be approved. OK, I said how long does that take? It takes 24 to 72 hours - Oh great! 

Well I decided to forget it for the time being and check on it after lunch. Next -we call a realtor at Belt, MT. He had a place that we wanted to look at. So he said come on down. We drove to Belt (only about 20 miles from here) and he showed us two places. One had 6 lots in town that already had water, electric and sewer - nice - but would need a concrete pad or some leveling - Price = $50,000.

  WOW! Next he showed us 3 acres - no improvements, $20,000. It was up on a hill, without trees or anything, it would take a lot of work. 

 We told him we would be mulling it over. We drove around the town and found the old campground we stayed at before - it is closed for repairs - Fort Ponderosa. 

Here is a shot of a neat old Grainery!

I re-checked with the VA and they had renewed Steve's shots so I gave them the address.  We'll see what happens. 

We returned to Great Falls and went down to the Paris Gibson Art Museum. We loved the building and some of the art pieces.

 We appreciate how much time and effort it took to create some of the items - but we weren't there too long. We really liked the Native American drawings on ledger paper and the sculptures made of tree limbs and found items. All in all I'm sure we improved our culture! Ha Ha! 

We got back to the RV and had supper. Then we loaded up the dogs and went to the west side of the River trail.

 It was quite nice walking and other people were out on bikes, and roller skates and walking. So nice to have these trails to walk and for the weather to be not so hot - then you can enjoy it! 

 Wednesday 

Today we got up a little earlier. I had a big day planned. I drove from Great Falls to Lincoln, MT. 

Nice Rest Stop on I 15

 There we had lunch. 

 We bought our lunch at the Bushwhacker Saloon and took it in a to-go container to a little park to eat.

 In Montana, tons of places are casinos, bars, food establishments. It seems to be the norm here. I continued to drive until we got almost to Seeley Lake, MT. The drive was so interesting and beautiful most of the way. We really enjoyed it. When we got to Salmon Lake (first) - we just oohed and aaahhed. Very pretty. 

 We drove around and took some pictures. 

 We investigated the forest campground and decided it would be a great place to be camp hosts, maybe someday.

 It is a long ways from a town of any size though - about 65 miles I think from Missoula, long ways from Great Falls and quite a ways from Helena also. Then Steve drove back and I enjoyed the scenery. 

 We were pooped when we got home. We had some soup and yogurt and fruit and pretty much called it a night. A wind came up and spooked us for a little bit - but it died down. Then we had a beautiful sunset. We sure are enjoying the sights here!

August 28 & 29, 2016 Sunday & Monday

Sunday 

We didn't do a whole lot today. After we got around - we went to the commissary and bought groceries. Steve kept looking a little pooped out, like he was fading fast. About the time we checked out, he was light-headed, so I drove us back to the RV. We unloaded the groceries and took it somewhat easy. I expect we took a short nap. I also worked on a new blog post for my website: Dietitian Delivers. . Check it out! 

 Monday 

First order of business today was to see how to go about getting Steve's shots delivered here. First I call the Outdoor Rec ofc - where it was posted you could have mail sent. They said it would be better to have it sent Gen Del to the Maelstrom AFB Post Office. OK then. Next call the VA - shots were out of refills. Oh Boy! Call the SCI clinic - they will call back. And they did call back - before noon. The nice nurse said she would get things going. Okie Dokie.

 Then we decided to go for a walk on the trail at Giant Springs State Park, along the Missouri River. It was a really nice walk - and we weren't going to go too far - but kept seeing stuff we wanted to look at. It is a great trail - they even have a paved trail for bikes and walkers. We used it and the dirt path both.

 The River is magnificent. So hard to imagine how it must have looked before dams - when Lewis and Clark were here. 

Probably very wild.

 We headed back to the pickup, by then it was feeling pretty hot - even though the temperature was below 80 degrees - the sun was blasting us with heat. Poor little Poopsie- she was panting so hard we rested several times on the return trip and I carried her a few times to give her a break. Anyway we made it back to the pickup - and I give her a Buster some of my iced tea. That made them happy. Of course we forgot to bring extra water for us or the dogs. Duh! When will we learn? We had lunch back at the RV and then I read a book and worked on mail chimp. Steve took a nap and I think I had a short nap also. After supper we went to K-Mart and Target - looking for different things. That about finished off Monday!