Livingston to Missoula, Montana

Well, we woke to cloudy skies and cool temperatures, and it was trying to rain too. No golf in Livingston today. On the road by 10am after getting up late (Graham's fault).

We drove the motor home and toad separately until we reached Bozeman. We were going to pull into the rest stop to hook up, but made one turn too soon and ended up eastbound (the way we just came) on the I-90. Went back to the first exit and turned off into a hotel parking lot. It was narrow, but we managed to get the motor home 3 point turned so that we could re-hook the toad. It the toad was attached, we wouldn't have gotten turned around; but then, if the toad were attached, we wouldn't have been there in the first place.

As it turned out, the Bozeman Pass, although marked on the map, was easy compared with the Homestake Pass just east of Butte. It wasn't marked on the map I was using, and so we hauled the Saturn all the way up. To make things fair, the Saturn helped to push us down the other side! Notable for its ugliness was the huge open pit mine in Butte. It looks like it's part of the city, and seems to stretch for miles. I suppose it has brought wealth to the community, but it sure has its downside when it comes to the environmental impact.

Today was a relatively easy drive, with the sun breaking out after an hour or so. We had spotty showers at the higher elevations after that, but nothing to be concerned about. We decided on a late lunch at one of the rest stops. It was full of 18 wheelers, and one had some problems, so the wrecker brought another tractor unit to take the trailer while the wrecker took the other. The picture shows how busy the parking lot was for awhile.

Again, some cool rock formations near the road to take pictures of. Got to Missoula around 3pm and decided to gas up and top up the Ride Rites with air. They leak after a few days and these haven't been topped for over a week. This necessitated two trips around the gas station parking lot, since the air hose was positioned so poorly. Ah well, off to the local KOA (Missoula-ElMar).

The KOA just happens to be adjacent to a big shopping area, so we had to go shopping for 'clothes and shoes' right away. We also got some Stone Cold ice cream, which was super good and highly recommended. We're here for a couple of days, and the weather is definitely better, so more shopping and a postponed golf date are likely on Monday.

The nights are cool here (38 degrees F) but the days are definitely summer-like. We did some miscellaneous shopping, starting with a trip to the local RV dealer (Bretz) for a new screen door handle and closet light bulb. While there we confirmed once again that the bus is 'our' RV of choice. Newer ones are prettier, but the the cost differential would not justify the small incremental improvements. We golfed at Larchmont Golf Course on Monday afternoon. A city-owned course, but in really good shape for late in the season. And the cost was low compared to the quality ($14 for 9 holes). In talking to one of the locals after the game, he was complaining about the size of his city... at 100,000 people, it was "just getting too big".

Cassie is fascinated with the big brown squirrels at the campground. She wants to go out and play with them... must be her hunting instincts that are coming out.

Sep 9, 2007

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