May 17, 2013 - Duct Tape

We are now in Lewistown, Montana which is considered the geographical center of Montana. It is also the county seat and largest city in the county (population 5,000). When I saw the billboard and signs as we entered the city, I knew I would have to break out the duct tape to apply to Art’s mouth. Some of the signs were: “Welcome to Lewistown from the Republican Tea Party;” “No God, No Peace; Know God, Know Peace.” “Abortion stops a beating heart.” “Sierra Club Sucks.” Aren’t those signs welcoming? At least we didn’t see the Ten Commandments...

May 17, 2013 - Hello Great Falls

Thurs & Fri 5/16-17 We had a long but scenic drive over red roads (Routes 200, 87, 89) to Great Falls on Wednesday. The scenery around the Lewistown area near the Belt Mountains in the Judith Basin was particularly nice. We had to take a 30 mile detour off the road in the vicinity of Sluice Boxes State Park. The detour took us to about 5400 feet in the mountains and the scenery was quintessential Montana. Grassy hillsides with large groups of pines, snow-capped mountains in the background. We arrived at our campground (Dick’s RV Park) in...

May 17, 2013 - day 22 to Terry MT

day 21, again, was not a hot a day for photos - these are in he prairies of NE montana... miles and miles of hugh farms/oil/mining/cow grazing land... our day 21 photos: https://picasaweb.google.com/110438477258823146205/Day21Photos?authkey=Gv1sRgCMGLr-Ky54uyLw# our spot where we were: http://fms.ws/C50rs/46.26017N/106.69266W day 22 another drive day much like 20/21 more ranches/oil/pastures and lots of prairie land plus haze, clouds making fuzzy photos... our day 22...

May 16, 2013 - Day 2 Great Falls to Bozeman - another day on the road

So, Great Falls - as we left we confirmed the impression last night as we arrived .... going down the 3 or 4 mile main drag there was a clear repetitive theme to the shopping /business areas: Casino Church Gas Station Pub ... and sometimes up to 3 of the 4 combined in the same building. As a cross section of society it conjures an odd way of life. Despite the stories of Montana's gun culture and militia, interestingly, not a single (visible) firearms shop. Oh, and no sign of any Falls of any sort, great or small. Another day of travel...

May 15, 2013 - Log glitch? ... and Day 1

Just typed a bit here and the site promptly glitched and deleted it. A few mins wasted there - hope that doesn't happen again or this will be ditched before it even starts. A day of just getting there ... we had to get down in to US today ahead of the holiday weekend onslaught. US customs actually very good - a not unpleasant experience, and not too long a wait - about an hour including the vehicle lines and all the form filling (for Mum who is still on a UK passport). Not specially inspiring scenery en route to Great Falls, but good clear...

May 15, 2013 - day 20 to Billings MT

day 20 photos poor due to direct sunlight and early AM haze - our day was just a drive day, heading NE towards michican, stopping only for gas and lunch and a new coffee place in billings, where we are now - we are staying at the very first KOA built in america which was in billings MT... our photos: https://picasaweb.google.com/110438477258823146205/Day20ToBillingsMT?authkey=Gv1sRgCJe00cSn7ND0aQ# our...

May 14, 2013 - Long (make-up) Day

Mon 5/13 48 degrees We headed west on I-94 this morning. We saw much more farmland. As with IA, some of these fields are hundreds, if not thousands, of acres. And the equipment they are using – holy crap! Some tractors have 3 wheels on each corner. How would you like to buy those tires?? It was interesting because not only is the equipment huge but it must be very expensive and much of the equipment looked new. A lot of John Deere green out there! And of course there were many more wind turbines. As we crossed into North Dakota, it was more...

May 14, 2013 - day 19 w/the smarts

day 19 our last day visiting the smarts we went to breakfast in three forks at the iron horse cafe - then we drove thru the valley visiting the head waters of the Missouri river, stopping at a seed store to get bill seed to be used to make a shooting range at his mountain home - we always have a great time together talking post stuff and bb & sarah do their thing... saying "til we meet again" is a hard thing to do when you are having a memorable good time and we do do that... but we did, w/hugs/kisses and good ol' western handshakes... bill...

May 13, 2013 - day 18 w/sarah/bill whitehall/cardwell

day 18 drove from butte to whitehall, washed the truck than went on to camp in cardwell - sarah and bill met us there and we went to lunch at karina's from there we went up to the mountains to see some caves... my photos are not so hot today.. our day 19 photos: https://picasaweb.google.com/110438477258823146205/Day18WhitehallSmarts?authkey=Gv1sRgCNvc3MujmqboIw#   our spots: http://fms.ws/C2FEH/45.86898N/112.08781W where we are: http://fms.ws/C2HXE/45.86863N/111.94925W   more photos w/sarah & bill tomorrow... sent from our ipad ron & bebe...

May 13, 2013 - Where the Wind Blows ...

"Where The Winds Blows" is not a Prairie Hearts Novel for us these days ... in fact, it's not novel at all. We're "tied up" here in Havre MT for a couple of days ... waiting for parts to arrive to repair the sky light in our camper, which blew open the other day due to unequal pressures in the camper caused by driving in high winds ... which wouldn't have happened if Bob hadn't left a roof vent open ... as they say, you're never too old to learn. The latches broke when the wind forced the sky light open ... come to find out, it occurs with...

May 13, 2013 - Little Big Horn Battlefield and Livingston, MT

We got up and got started to head west. The wind is suppose to pick up this evening so we were trying to our next stop before it does. We also wanted to see the Little Big Horn Battlefield on our way west. It is right off I90. We pulled into the Little Big Horn Battlefield national park with both trailers and the car. We weren't sure where we could park the trucks and trailers while we saw the park. Fortunately there was RV parking at the Visitor Center and we didn't have to take teh back towards the interstate to park them. We went into...

May 11, 2013 - Another Dam Campground ...

And so it is ... here we are at another dam campground :) . This stop is at Fort Peck Dam, built in the 1930's ... the first dam built on the Missouri River ... a part of Roosevelt's New Deal. Originally designed for flood control on the Missouri, it now serves as a major producer of electricity for the northern plains ... generating enough electricity for 400,000 households annually. At the time it was built, it was the largest earth filled dam in the world ... impressive. A "company town" was built to house workers ... many smaller "boom...