Three Really Big States: Driving, Driving, Driving

 Saturday/Sunday, Sept. 11-12, 2021

All in all, we spent 8 nights—an entire week—in Minnesota. It is a. BIG state from North to South, and I think we drove vertically for the most part. But finally we left from the middle to head west. Then there’s North Dakota. When I say there is NOTHING THERE, it’s not 100% true. But it’s definitely true of the northeast corner, where we entered the state. It was flat and completely nondescript. We drove and drove and drove. All in all, we drove about 350 miles on Saturday.

We were going to spend the night in Minot, ND, at a Walmart. We did shop there, but the lady at the customer service desk said we couldn’t stay. Then we went a few miles further to a Flying J. They said we COULD stay, but despite them having a big parking lot, the area they wanted us in was awkwardly arranged, and we couldn’t figure out how to “fit”. So we went 8 miles even further down the highway, to a town called Burlington. They have an adorable little town park with a campground loop of 12 spaces, most pull-through (meaning we would not have to detach the Jeep) and with electricity. So we ended up paying $21 for the electric, and spent a very quiet night (there were only two other RVs there.). 

We left this morning, and continued. Driving, driving, driving. After about 150 miles, we got out of North Dakota and entered Montana. We kept driving. Driving, driving, driving. North Dakota was huge (400 miles-ish, I think.) Montana is huger. We did gain an hour when we crossed the border, so we decided to use it to drive even further. I’d had places planned out for stops all along the way, for depending on where we were when we’d had enough driving. But we made it to Havre, another couple of hundred miles, i think. So tonight we ARE at a Walmart lot. Along with several other RVs, including one from New Jersey with a woman who opened her door to ask, “Where in NJ are you from?” She is living in her van for the year, after selling all her stuff, and is also heading to Glacier National Park, as are we. She’s from Madison, NJ. We exchanged phone numbers.

Tomorrow, we will be driving yet again, until we get to Glacier National Park, at which point, we will try to find a place to stay. There is only one campground open now that Labor Day is over, and it’s first come, first served. We’ve gotten lucky in the past, and we are just hoping to get lucky again. Meanwhile… I’ll be happy to STOP driving. We’ve been on US-2 across the upper part of the country for the past 60 hours, and I’m getting tired of it. But this is a huge country, and there’s just no describing the wide-open vistas we have passed. This afternoon, we finally started seeing mountains! So we are definitely getting someplace. I will try to add a photo or two (that’s all we have!) tomorrow.

Slipping into Washington

Mine Disaster Memorial

2019-09-15 (Sunday)

With about one month left of our travels, we made our departure from the state of Montana after two weeks there, and headed toward Washington. Of course, for that we had to go through Idaho, but that was only about 70 miles of I-90, so no problem. We had the usual beautiful Montana scenery until we got to I-90 before that, though. We stopped at a huge tourist “trap”, an enormous gift shop next to a casino. I went inside to get a milkshake, but spent some time going through the gifts. I came out and told Joe, “We should probably head for home now, it’s time. I couldn’t find a single thing to buy in that enormous store!” I did, though, get a chocolate malt, and that was scrumptious! We got onto I-90 at that point, and 30 miles down the road, we crossed into Idaho, and into Pacific Daylight Time. So we are now 3 hours behind “home.”

We would most likely not have stopped at all on that 70 mile stretch of Idaho, but for some reason, our tire monitor began shrieking. We took the next exit, a mile down the road, and could find no problems with the tires. However, the stop put us into a historical spot (Idaho actually had a historical marker very frequently along that 70 mile stretch.) This one was in commemoration of a terrible fire in the country’s largest silver mine. 61 men died in the tunnels of the mines. The statue and marble plaques at the mine site along the highway were a somber reminder of the danger miners face to recover the metals hidden deep in the heart of the mountains.

After that stop, we drove through Coeur D’Alene, Idaho and over the border into Washington. We passed through Spokane, and headed for our planned stop, the Northern Quest Casino. We knew it was a free overnight stop. I was somewhat taken aback when we got here, though. For one thing, it was huge and very glitzy. For another, it was evident that something was going on here besides the casino. There were a dozen RVs and lots of cars, and people were tailgating. This was not the usual way we find casinos.

There was a sign that RVs needed to check in at the desk to stay overnight, so after getting lost in the very upscale hotel area, I found my way through the large casino (including table games and OTB, unlike the many “casinos” in Montana which feature only a few slot machines.) I signed in at the security desk, and asked what was going on. Well, tonight there’s an outdoor concert in the outdoor amphitheater (it’s behind the casino/hotel, so I didn’t see it) by the country group Old Dominion. The parking lot is now completely full—we were most fortunate to get here when we did! We are parked along the edge with a lot of other RVs, out of the way. And i suppose it will be a bit noisy when the concert is over and the crowds leave. But meanwhile, we are all set.

Tomorrow the plan is to go to the Grand Coulee Dam. I have to think it’s the influence of my father in me that I am so “into” locks and dams. I’m very much looking forward to it.

A Quiet Day, except for Football

Masonic Hall, Columbia Falls, MT

2019-09-14 Saturday

Today we had a very quiet day, if you define quiet as, no sightseeing. It was NOT quiet during the MSU football game, when I (along with all the other Spartan fans in the world) was screaming murder at the coaches and officials. No joy in Mudville after the worst loss I think I’ve ever seen them take. Time to move on.

I slept in this morning, and Joe made us a yummy brunch of fresh baked biscuits and bacon and eggs. After that, I took Cassie for a walk, and then did laundry (just the linens) and read my book. After that, 2pm local time, was the football game. Time to move on.

At about 7:00, Joe suggested it was time for dinner. He’d been searching on google, and had discovered a 5-star pizza place. Sure, why not? So we got into the Jeep and drove about 6 or 8 blocks from the RV park to what turned out to be a FABULOUS pizza place. Best pizza we’ve had in ages. Better than the pizza places in HP. We told the waitress when she asked, saying we were from New Jersey. Oh, she says—the owner is from New Jersey too! Well, no WONDER the guy knows from pizza! We complimented him on the way out. He is from Verona, NJ. The pizza, as I said, was fabulous.

After that, we decided some ice cream was in order. Again, google was sending us to the best 5-star ice cream, this time in Whitefish, MT, about a 15-20 minute drive from where we are. It seemed silly (no ice cream in Columbia Falls?) but what the heck, it was an adventure. So we drove there. I had the chocolate, and Joey had “huckleberry” flavored ice cream (no, it was not no-sugar-added .) I thought it was good, but frankly, not as good as Thomas Sweet or Woodside Farms Creamery in Newark near Beth. But it was a fun adventure. Whitefish is clearly a tourist-based town. We walked a little bit after the ice cream and looked into the windows of some of the shops— many very upscale stores. Columbia Falls, in contrast, seemed to have more funky places. 

And then we drove home. That was our day! I heard some ladies talking while I was folding laundry, saying the park was 40% busier this year than last year. And that the roads and parking lots were really crowded. So we are not going to try to go up the Going-to-the-Sun Road tomorrow from this west side of the park (the road closes part the way as of Monday, so even the locals may be trying to get a last look at the scenery before that.) Instead we will head west.

I took one photo today, of the Masonic Hall here in Columbia Falls, up across from the pizza place. The building was very interesting on the outside— it was like a cinder block building with NO windows. The entire exterior was painted with tromp d’oeil (or however it’s spelled) paintings. But my phone was supposed to email the photo to me, and it is stuck in “pending”. And I am tired. So it’s bedtime, and no photos for today.

Friday the 13th Went Smoothly

I loved this billboard at the main intersection of Browning.

2019-09-13 Friday

Sometimes when I start to write this blog, I have trouble remembering what happened early in the day! This is one of those times, although we didn’t do THAT much today, I suppose.

Last night after I blogged that we were in the parking lot of the Museum of the American Plains Indians, I started being unhappy with that decision. It seemed that there were a lot of people coming through that parking lot, using it as a meeting place, a hang-out place, and a short-cut through to and from the Casino next door. I started feeling uncomfortable about it, and I woke up Joey. I reminded him that “they” say that if you feel uncomfortable in a place, follow your instincts and move someplace else. So I wanted to move--but as mentioned yesterday, there were not a lot of choices around here. Then he remembered our friend Dan had mentioned that hospitals are a good place to stay--as far as anyone knows, you are there visiting someone sick! And Joey remembered seeing a sign for a hospital (which made perfect sense--as I mentioned, Browning is the seat of the Blackfeet Council and Reservation.) So we looked on Google, and found our way to a very modern-looking hospital with a very large parking lot! We pulled into a space there, and, feeling a lot less vulnerable, went to sleep.

This morning, we got going earlier than usual, since Joe wanted to pick up those brake parts at the NAPA store and get them over to Donny, so the whole repair could get finished. I went out to give Cassie her walk, and discovered that there was a really great sculpture nearby made of scrap metal and old auto parts. It was of an Indian, with a bull elk, a bear, a bison, an eagle, and a wolf. I tried to take a photo, but because of the angle of the sun, it isn’t great. I took some close-ups though, which came out better.

The Bison's eye is a hubcap!

As soon as Cassie was walked, we drove to the NAPA store, grabbed the brake parts, and drove back to the shop. They told us it would take about two hours to finish up. So after some discussion, we decided to go back and see the Museum of the American Plains Indians. The parking lot seemed a lot friendlier in daylight, with several RVs and cars parked there .

The museum was quite small, but was actually excellent. It is a combined museum and art center, so there was a room with art by contemporary Indian artists. There was also a short film giving an overview of the experiences of the Plains Indians. But most of the museum was a presentation of the clothing and belongings of the people, demonstrating the extraordinary craftsmanship. The displays were curated VERY thoroughly and carefully, with each object being identified as to type, the tribe it came from, the date it was made, and its provenance (i.e. who donated it to the museum.) 

A selection of costumes--beautiful!

Clothing and accessories

 I spent a long time looking at the clothing--each mannequin was dressed in a total outfit which usually included at least four items of clothing, and each item was described in total, such as “cloak--Hudson Bay wool blanket, seed beed embroidered arms, ermine fur fringe, horse-hair knots at shoulders.” And then there would be a description of the accessories, the gauntlets around the calves, the moccasins, a head-dress or hat if there was one, and any items the mannequin was holding. The variety of crafting techniques and materials was really quite fascinating, and absolutely beautiful. Nearby was another display describing how different techniques were done, and their varieties. I studied the quilling, for example-- how they used porcupine quills (they were soaked or moistened, then flattened by being drawn between the teeth! And then woven in various patterns.) Like I said, it was fascinating to me as a used-to-be crafter.

Examples and descriptions of quilling and beading

By the time we finished in the museum, it was just about noon, time to go check on the Jeep. When we arrived, we could see it was sitting outside, all finished. So we paid and thanked Allan and Donny. We then had to 1) drive back to NAPA to turn in the used calipers--we got a refund of $128 for doing that; 2) top off the gas tank of the RV; 3) stop at the post office to mail the postcards I’d bought at the museum; 4) reconnect the Jeep to the RV; and 5) have lunch. I drove the Jeep and, using the walkie-talkies as reassurance, Joey followed me around town for the first three errands, and then we returned yet again to the Museum parking lot, this time to take advantage of its large size, to hook the Jeep back up. We did that, and, after having some lunch, finally left Browning after more than 24 hours living among the Blackfeet Indians.

(BTW, in case you are wondering, I learned at the museum that it is perfectly fine to refer to them as Indians-- that it what they call themselves! The display I read said that it is not “pejorative,” but saying Native American or Native is fine as well. We went past a school this morning which proclaimed it was the “Home of the Indians,” so obviously they were okay with it. The word Indian was used throughout the museum’s displays, as well as, obviously, in the name of the building.)

Our destination for tonight and tomorrow night was Kalispell, MT, just on the other side of Glacier National Park. We are still heading west, but we wanted yet again to have a more urban area to facilitate the football game viewing. We had no reservations, and every time I looked, I couldn’t find anyplace that seemed both nice (i.e. state park, county park, Corps of Engineer park) and near enough to the small city of Kalispell to supply decent TV choices. When we were passing through Columbia Falls, 10 miles from Kalispell, we passed an RV park which was one of those large “slot-style” places, but which would surely have a shower and some connectivity. The sign said “Vacancy.” So we decided we’d stop (I was pretty tired, and it was 4:45pm) and check it out. Sure enough, they had room, and despite being expensive, we decided to come in for a landing for a couple of nights. Since our past six nights cost a grand total of $30, we figured we could balance it with a ludicrously expensive place (although not as expensive as the Hot Springs place in Bozeman!)

So we are slotted in at the Columbia Falls RV Park, with indeed a lot of cable TV stations and a VERY nice shower! Also full hookups, making dumping when Sunday comes very easy. I think tomorrow morning I will use the laundry room to wash the linens (I didn’t do them yesterday); the football game is 2pm local time; and there are several ice cream places to check out in town afterwards. So that’s the plan.

PS: Photos have been added to the O Canada and Driving to Glacier blogs.

A Day on the Blackfeet Reservation

2019-09-12 Thursday

We woke up early this morning, and by 10:00 or so, we had packed up, hooked up the Jeep, dumped the waste tank, filled the water tank, and were on the road south to Browning, MT. I wrote on Tuesday when we drove through town that Browning is the seat of the Blackfeet Indian Authority, and although no one would consider it large by New Jersey standards, it is sizeable enough to have a NAPA store for auto parts, and at least one car mechanic.

The drive down here (the alternative to US 89 we should have taken on Tuesday, and would have taken had we known about it) was really beautiful. The mountains around here are gorgeous, especially with the foreground of golden fields of wheat and grazing land. The combination is simply wonderful and I never get enough of it.

When we arrived in Browning, we decided that we’d go to the NAPA store first, on the theory that they would know who in town we should ask about looking at the Jeep brakes. They sent us back up the same road we’d just come down, and we were fortunate to find the garage--it was off the main road, on an unpaved road, in what looked basically like a beaten-up garage, and the signs all said “towing.” (Quite honestly, all too many of the buildings in this town look about the same, and at least half of the streets are unpaved.) Anyway, we were greeted by a young guy named Donny, who is the mechanic. We unhooked the Jeep so he could look at the brakes, after he told us that the parts would probably not be availabe in town and would have to be ordered from the NAPA.

A few minutes later, the owner Allan came out to chat with us. He said that Donny was the mechanic--that he (Allan) just drove the tow truck! We discussed what our problem was, and Donny was available to fix it, but again, probably not be finished until tomorrow. This was, frankly, what we’d sort of expected would happen. Allan eyed the RV and asked us if we had a place to stay for the night. We said “we’ll find someplace,” and I could see him thinking. Then he said that if we wanted, we could stay next to the garage, and they could “hook us up” for the night. We thought this was exceptionally nice, although there were two signs saying “beware of dog.” Also, quite honestly, the place looked like a pile of automobile discards and it would basically be like staying in a junk yard. I really was grateful for the offer (which Allan repeated later), but I just felt uncomfortable about the whole thing.

Meanwhile, the decision was that the Jeep needed a total brake job, basically--the rotors (whatever they are) were damaged, etc. I don’t know... I wasn’t up for a lesson on brakes. But what happened was, we drove in the RV back to the NAPA store, where we bought what we needed which they had in stock, they ordered the rest (“it will be here by 9:00 a.m. tomorrow”, they promised) and then we drove back to the mechanic with the boxes of stuff they already had. I could see the Jeep was already on a lift, with the tires off. Allan came outside again and said he would “get Donny working on the job,” and reiterated the offer to stay if we wanted. We told him we had laundry and whatever, so we would be keeping busy for the day. He nodded and we said goodbye.

By then it was about 1:30 pm-- amazing how time goes by while dealing with this kind of thing! We decided to go to the laundromat (Allan recommended the place I’d found on google) and eat, then do laundry. So that is what we did. Although unprepossessing from the outside (i.e. it looked like a shed, again), it was a new laundromat with new machines and a nice lady in charge. I dragged our stuff in, and got to work. Meanwhile, Joey had projects too. He had already replaced a back-up tail light on the RV after the first NAPA stop. While I did laundry, he climbed on the roof of the RV and installed a new vent cap, which we’d picked up a number of days ago (we’ve been missing one for a while, and we needed it to prevent back-flow odors from the waste tank when we drove.) That took about the same amount of time as my laundry.

We’ve also been having electrical issues with our “house” battery, which has not been holding a charge. Joe figured that since it was only 4pm, he wanted to see if the NAPA store had a battery of the right size--if it did, he wanted to put in a new battery. He’s tired of not having the charge we should have (the old battery was a year old.) So we drove back to the NAPA store for I think the 3rd or 4th time. I waited outside while he went in, looked at batteries; came out and did some more research; went back in, came out again and removed our old battery, and then came back with a new one (at least this time, the young guy in the store carried it for him.) He put in the new battery, and came inside, really exhausted from all the exertion.

I could see he was pretty much done for the day, so we drove from there to the grocery (the distance between the laundry, grocery, and NAPA was about a half mile on the same main drag through town--we just kept driving up and down!) We went over our list, then I went inside and did the shopping while he rested. When I came out, it was 6:00 and we had to decide about where to spend the night. Neither of us felt that comfortable taking Allan up on his offer, but there seem to be no campgrounds in this town. One is closed already for the season, and one other (allegedly 2.5 miles away) did not exist when we went to see it.

I had the idea of checking out the large casino I had noticed two days ago when we drove into town. It is right next to the Museum of the American Plains Indian. So we drove there. The place was really hopping! I figured we could ask if we could stay, and at least eat something while we were there, because I could see Joey did NOT want to be cooking. So we ate dinner in their “restaurant” (a glorified snack bar with slot machines.) Then we asked at the desk if we could park in their lot in the RV overnight. The security guard came to talk to us, and said that we might be better off next door at the museum. I asked him specifically if it was posted with “no overnight parking,” and he said it was not. So that is where we are. It’s dark here, and pretty quiet, and we should be fine.

We are about a half-mile from the NAPA, and Joey seems determined to get there at 9am to pick up the last brake parts, so Donny can finish up his work and we can be on our way. Although today went about as expected, and fairly smoothly, I am not so sure it will be that fast tomorrow. However, our route from East Glacier to West Glacier/Kallispell planned for tomorrow would have run through Browning in any case, so we are at least not out of the way. It just may take a bit longer to get out of town. We’ll see what happens when the time comes.

Meanwhile, although we were “stuck” getting the brakes dealt with, we used our time very productively, getting the laundry and other repairs done, and grocery shopping. We have limited wifi, so I can upload these blogs, although it doesn't seem to be supporting my photo uploads, which will have to come later. I was able to pick up some phone messages, and So I can’t say that today was a waste in any way, and it was kind of interesting spending a day on the Blackfeet reservation. I am sad that it does not look more prosperous, but we did our best to pump dollars into the economy!

O Canada!

2019-09-11 Wednesday

Today, as planned, we packed picnic lunches, and Cassie, and our passports and vet records, and we drove the Jeep up to Canada! The landscape of mountains in this part of the world is truly stunning! It took about an hour to get to the border of the US/Canada, and the views kept us entertained the entire way. (I will upload a lot of photos, hopefully later tomorrow; my connection is very bad here.)

We had no trouble getting through border patrol-- Cassie’s records were acceptable and we had nothing to declare, of course. Then it was another 30 minutes or so until we got to the gate for Waterton Lakes National Park. The mountains around there are even more stunning than what we saw on our way up. The weather when we left the campground was warm and sunny, but unfortunately got cloudier as we came further north, so it was probably in the high 50s all day. If the clouds weren’t there, it would have been warm, because there was no breeze at all.

Morning view out my window from campsite

 The park was not exactly what I expected. The disconcerting thing was, it had a town right in the center, which was where all the information was. We drove in, and it was like driving into a little town rather than a national park. It reminded me of Bar Harbor--adjacent to Acadia National Park-- a little resort town which grew up around the views of the sea and the tourists who come there. Except this town is literally part of the park. We weren’t sure where we were going, and it was noonish, so we pulled into a picnic area right next to the lake, and had a lovely lunch there. We could see buildings and a boat dock area right across from us, and I assumed that was the town, but as I said, I didn’t realize what it was like until we got into it.

Prince of Wales Hotel

We found the visitor’s information building, which was a totally unprepossessing place; it looked like a scantily furnished trailer, actually. But the young lady inside was very helpful. She told me there was a waterfall a couple of blocks away, and where the stores were, and to be sure to check out the Prince of Wales Hotel (which I already had heard about, plus we saw it on our way into town.) Her advice gave us some direction for the afternoon.

We went first to the waterfall. It was really pretty. We sat there for a bit, and then went to the other side of the town (i.e. about 6 blocks away) to the waterfront. It was too late in the day to take a boat trip, because it was a two hour thing which left at 4pm, and we had to get back to cross the border by 6pm. So we walked down the “main street” of town, looking in shops and people watching. Then we got ice cream. Cassie met some VERY nice people who like dogs, and one of them even shared her ice cream with Cassie!

We suddenly noticed that it was about 3:30 in the afternoon--apparently our Jeep’s clock was not correct, and it may have been later all along than we realized. So we decided to head back home. On the way, we went down a road the lady at the visitor’s info had recommended, if we wanted to see a herd of elk. The road started out unpaved, then became significantly rutted, and finally narrowed down to basically one lane. We had some mechanical concerns (keep reading) and finally we decided the entire thing was a joke! We turned around and came back. From there it was smooth sailing back to the customs at the border, and back to St. Mary.

Cameron Falls

Unfortunately, we have a problem with the Jeep’s brakes. This morning as we started driving, we heard a squeaking sound. Joey looked and didn’t see anything, and decided it was mud built up from when we came through US 89 yesterday, and the road was so terrible and unpaved. But as the day went on, the noise became more worrisome, and became a grating sound. We both knew that was not good, and it made us worried most of the day. On the way home, the sound had changed again, but the braking was rough, and when we got to St. Mary, we stopped and Joe looked at the brakes (which, on a Jeep, are literally visible behind the wheels.) Sure enough, one of the  brake rotors is seriously scratched and rough, and none of them are smooth, like they should be. Something was probably stuck in there, and it really did a number on that brake. Or possibly, the problem is the auxiliary brake system when we are towing--Joe is really not sure WHAT could have caused this, but it's definitely a problem.

Our plans for tomorrow were to go on the Going-to-the-Sun Road, and needless to say, we do NOT feel like taking up a car with some kind of brake problem! The road is scary enough as it is. So we discussed it, and decided that we need to deal with this problem before moving on. The nearest town is Browning, which we came through yesterday. We asked at the gas station here, and they confirmed that Browning is the closest place with any mechanics who can look at the brakes only. We are getting a small amount of phone connection on our non-AT&T “fi-phone” (the one we use only for internet most of the time; but it connects to verizon and the other phone companies well.) So Joe was able to use  that and confirmed that there are two shops in Browning that we can call. It is 40 miles away.

So we are bagging our second day here at Glacier in order to attend to the Jeep’s brakes. This will be the second time our plans for the Going-to-the-Sun Road have been thwarted. In 1980, we were here on our cross-country trip in our VW bus, and the weather was frightful. When we tried to go up the road, it was raining; then it turned to snow, and became so slippery that we were afraid we would slide right off the road! So we turned back and spent an entire day in our tent during that trip. Now it’s the brakes on the Jeep. We may never make it over that road!

Instead, tomorrow we’ll hook up the Jeep and drive to Browning and see if anyone can help us. If necessary, we’ll stay over there until Friday (or drive further along if no one there can help.) One REALLY good thing is, today when we were driving, I discovered we can drive to Browning without backtracking over US 89! It isn’t really any longer, and the last thing we want to do is tackle that mess again--our RV and Jeep are both filthy from it, and of course that may be what caused the problem with the brake disk in the first place.

We’d like to be in Kallispell on Saturday for the football game, but of course now we are juggling this brake problem as well, so we will have to see how it all works out. Just part of the adventure, I guess, but it’s ironic that the problem is with our tow vehicle, and not our RV! The upside is that tomorrow I should have enough wifi to upload two days of blogs. And I’m reading a good book, and there’s a Museum of the Plains Indians to visit in Browning. And we need groceries, and we need to do laundry. So we should be okay for a bit, with plenty to do, if that's where we spend the day.

Interior of the Prince of Wales Hotel

Dining Room, Prince of Wales Hotel

View through Window behind Prince of Wales Hotel

View of the Lake Behind Prince of Wales Hotel

Chief Mountain

Driving to Glacier

The road ahead

2019-09-10 Tuesday (slow upload--photos to follow)

I’m planning for this to be a very short blog today. For one thing, all we did was drive. For another, I can’t upload it, because we are camped in Glacier National Park, and there is no phone service or wifi service.

We left Great Falls this morning at around 11:00, as usual. Joe usually is awake early, but I tend to be up late blogging, and sleep later in the mornings. Also, Joe was not happy with the electrical system in the RV again, and he was investigating various things to see why the “house batteries” were not charging properly. We actually drove for about 20 minutes today with both the generator and the Jeep turned on to charge things up.

However, other than worries about electricity, we drove all day on US 89 from just north of Great Falls, all the way to St. Mary, Montana, which is one of the gateways to Glacier NP. We didn’t take a lot of photos, although the rolling ranch land and herds of cattle we passed were beautiful. There were several stunning vistas ahead--unfortunately I was driving at that point, and Joe is not good at getting the camera out fast for a photo. He did take a couple, though, and I’m hoping to get a chance to add them to this.

US 89 passed through the Blackfeet Indian Reservation through much of our trip, including the town of Browning, which was large enough to have a community college. The town is also the seat of tribal government. We were happy to be able to buy gasoline as well. Then we turned north toward Glacier, and that was when things got hairy.

There is a lot of construction on US 89 between Browning and St. Mary. And when I say construction, it’s not like you’d see anywhere else. We drove on dirt roads that were barely wide enough for two cars, with lots of bumps and potholes (are they potholes on dirt roads? Or just holes?) It went on for miles, and there was just the lightest misty rain at the time, so it was muddy as well. Also, although there were orange cones lining the roads in some places, in many places it was just a dirt road with no people actively working on it (it was early afternoon on a weekday.) We passed machinery and supplies, but no workmen. I also wondered where the workmen might come from-- if they didn’t live on the reservation, they’d have to drive at least an hour from the nearest town--which was nothing at all, just a few dozen buildings. Life out here is just so DIFFERENT than the east or midwest. So much empty space, and a US highway is dirt for miles.

US 89 under construction

About 10 or so miles from St. Mary, the road finally went back to being paved, and we descended a long road to the valley and the park entrance. The campground I wanted (St. Mary Campground) still was not full, so I stopped to talk briefly to a ranger at the Visitor Center (it was surprisingly busy--a lot of people coming in and out!) and then we headed for the campground. The sites here are a bit closer together than we would prefer, but we did have a choice, and found one level enough so that we would not have to use our levelling blocks. We detached the Jeep, and then drove the RV around to the campground entrance again to use the dump and fill the water tank. And then we drove back and rearranged our vehicles yet again.

We have paid for 3 nights here, meaning we will have all day Wednesday and Thursday in the park. The weather for the next two days is not too bad (of course, it’s raining on us now, but that is no surprise, frankly.) I’m a bit worried about being cold, though-- I probably should have packed a couple of fall jackets, but all I brought was sweatshirts. It was hard to imagine being COLD during that miserable spell of 100 degrees in mid-August when we left home. I hope it’s nice anyway... we had really miserable weather last time we were here, in 1980, and that’s one reason we haven’t been back. It was not our favorite park. We’re hoping for better this time--we will be doing a lot of driving, and we don’t want to be doing it in the rain.

Views of St Mary Lake

Anyway, our plans are to go to Canada tomorrow, and the Going-to-the-Sun Road on Thursday (the best predicted weather.) Glacier’s full name is Glacier-Waterton Peace Park, and it is actually an international park. We’ve never been to the Waterton part of the park, and that would be fun. We just have to find out about what the requirements are for bringing Cassie. We have all her paperwork, but we need to be sure. We’ll ask at the Visitor Center before we drive the hour up to the border. We’ll be gone all day, and don’t want to leave her that long. I guess we’ll find all this stuff out tomorrow. For now, we’re eating dinner early for us (7:00 pm) and then I’ll relax, read my book, and go to bed early!

Lewis and Clark at the Great Falls

Missouri River wandering through Montana

2019-09-09 Monday

It rained all night, but this morning when I woke up, it had finally stopped. With hope that the day would stay relatively dry, we drove from Helena to Great Falls, Montana. Our destination was the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center at Great Falls.

The scenery was pretty at first, and then suddenly we entered a deep alley between mountains. We’d been following a river almost the entire time, but it took us until then to figure out that it was the Missouri River, which was our companion all day. We also didn’t realize, but found out at the Interpretive Center, that Lewis and Clark encountered these same mountains. What struck us was the gorgous colors in the striations of the layers, especially the contrast between pinks and greens. We discussed it, and realized the green must be copper, which of course was the primary metal mined in Butte, which made that city so prosperous. There was a LOT of it-- our mountains certainly are worth a lot of pennies!

Colors in the rocks along the highway--green copper!

We came through the mountain area, and encountered the farmland with the river meandering through it. I still just love that kind of landscape, and once again was looking for the “perfect” combination of river and fields. In the distance we saw low mountains and lots of layers of clouds, but other than a brief sprinkle, the rain stayed away.

Missouri River

 We got to Great Falls and the Interpretive Center at about 12:45, so we had some lunch and walked Cassie along the river. We passed one “falls” on our way, which was dammed up and not hugely impressive. I couldn’t decide if that was the falls that the city was named for. The plaques on the path outside didn’t enlighten us very much either.

However, once we were inside, all questions were answered. This center was terrific! Perched on the edge of the Missouri River, this site was especially important because there was not one, but FIVE waterfalls within a few miles. As the Corps of Discovery came up the river, the Indians had told Lewis about this very large falls, but had not mentioned there were actually five of them! He was looking for one, which would reassure him that he had chosen the correct branch of the river further down and was still following the Missouri. But when he discovered there were five, there was great dismay. It was necessary for the Corps to portage around the five falls, an incredibly strenuous and difficult procedure which took them 18 days. Inside the building, there is a huge diorama two stories high, showing the process of hauling tons of equipment up steep inclines covered with sharp earth and prickly pear cactus with spines which could puncture even double-soled moccasins.

Portaging pas Great Falls (Diorama)

 I didn’t truly appreciate the diorama until I’d gone through the whole museum, though. It was extremely detailed, and by the end (I was there for over 3 hours-- Joey went back to the RV before I was done) I felt I’d been through the entire 3 years myself! The displays began with the politics and decision of the actual purchase of the Louisiana territory which doubled the size of the U.S., and with the commissioning of Lewis and then Clark to lead the expedition. We read about how they planned, decided what to take with them, and the special boat which was built for them. We learned details of all the different Indian tribes they encountered (all but one were friendly, until an unfortunate clash on their way back home.) We learned what they ate, the clothes they wore, and the details of the exploration as they moved on.

Clark was the cartographer of the group, and he created maps throughout the journey. Lewis described the animals and plants which they found, detailing over 150 each of new species previous undescribed by Europeans. All together there were 33 members of the corps plus the two leaders. Only one of them died on the trip-- historians think he may have had a burst appendix, judging by the description of his symptoms. Both leaders took copious notes, as directed by Jefferson, and several other members of the Corps also kept journals, so there is a great repository of the original observations and experiences which historians can draw on to understand the experiences they had, as well as the tribal cultures they encountered.

One of the most incredible details of the experience for me was the information about Sacagawea, the Indian wife of their French-Canadian guide. She was a Shoshone who was kidnapped as a child by the Hidatsa tribe, so she was bilingual, and became a very important member of the Corps. The Corps needed horses to get over the mountains once the river was no longer navigable, and the Shoshone were the tribe with horses. They hoped that Sacagawea could help them get horses. The Corps often split into two groups, and when Clark finally encountered the Shoshone, the chief did not trust him, and refused to sell him horses. A few days later, Lewis’s group (including Sacagawea) joined them. Sacagawea began to interpret for them, when suddenly, she realized that the chief was her brother! The entire tenor of the relationship between the tribe and the Corps changed at that moment, and the horses were acquired. Without them, the expedition most probably would have failed. In fact, as I said to Joe afterwards, if you ask me NOW, I’d have to say that the expedition couldn’t possibly succeed. And yet, they did.

View of Missouri River from Interpretive Center at Great Falls

 As I said, I spent a long time in the museum, and really learned a lot--there’s plenty about the Corps of Discovery online, so I don’t have to retell the whole story here. At about 5:30 when I rejoined Joe, we decided to continue to drive down the park road to the overlooks at the other falls. We’d learned that only one of the five is undammed, and one has disappeared (it was covered with water in the reservoir formed by the damming of the one further downriver from it.) However, to our disappointment, the dams do not let much water through. The spectacular (and difficult to pass) water which was encountered by Lewis & Clark looked sadly tamed to us. Even the Great Falls, which must have been spectacular, was very hard to access, and in the end, we settled for glimpsing it through the trees. By that time it was already 7:30ish, and we really were getting worn out. I’d have to say that after coming up here to see the Great Falls themselves, they were quite under-whelming. Whereas the Interpretive Center was fantastic and much more worthwhile than I could have guessed.

So we headed back to Great Falls (the town... the Great Falls themselves are about 15 miles downstream from the town and the State Park with the Interpretive Center.) Our choices for tonight were, one expensive private campground and two Walmarts. So for the third night (which is unusual for us!), we ended up at Walmart. We did discover a KOA just next to the Walmart, which we knew nothing about, but we still have everything we need to dry camp, although we are getting low on water, I think. Tomorrow we plan to drive up to Glacier National Park, and will definitely find a “real” campground.

No Longer According to Plan

Joe and Cassie at the Headwaters of the Missouri River

2019-09-08 Sunday

Today was one of those days when everything seemed a little bit “off.” I woke up at 8:00 and never really seemed to wake up. We took our time having breakfast, getting ready to leave, etc., and pulled out around 11:00. I have had a general itinerary made up for this trip, and according to that, we were supposed to drive about 45 minutes to a place (Norris Hot Springs) which had a small (10 slot) campground and a hot springs pool, and stay there overnight. But I wasn’t really in the mood to soak again in a hot spring. We also decided not to go back to the Museum of the Rockies for more dinosaurs and Ghengis Khan. So instead we jumped ahead a day in the itinerary, and headed for Butte, Montana. I had two potential places for us to visit-- the World Mining Museum, which was highly rated but did not excite either of us that much, and the Mai Wah Museum, a very small place which was in the Mai Wah Historical Society building. The latter preserves the history of the Chinese immigrants who were very involved in the mining industry (as well as the town itself). This was what most interested Joey and me, so that was our destination.

Unfortunately, it seemed that the only way to travel this direction was I-90, although we really hate the interstate. The more I looked at the map, the more I wondered why I’d ever planned to go to Norris and Butte at all, since my main destination was north, and these places were west! But since it didn’t occur to me to correct my original itinerary for a new idea completely, we followed along on the interstate.

On the drive, I saw that we were passing a state park on the site of the headwaters of the Missouri River. This was the convergence of the Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin rivers, which flowed together and became the Missouri.  The Lewis and Clark Expedition of Discovery arrived at this point and rested for three days.  L&C decided that none of these three rivers was the Missouri (which they were following), recognizing that the three together formed a new river. So they named the three rivers as they are called today, after President Jefferson, James Madison, and Albert Gallatin, the Secretary of the Treasury at the time of the Expedition.  Then they continued exploring up each branch until deciding to continue their journey following the Jefferson River. 

For about 30 minutes or so, Joey, Cassie and I were the only people visiting the river convergence. It was really beautiful, and we were feeling a bit awed by the hisorical siginficance of the site, and the realization that the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers together are truly responsible for the “bread basket” of the interior of America, which exports so much grain to the rest of the world as well.

 Explanation of the photo at the top of the blog: Joe and Cassie at the confluence of the headwaters of the Missouri River. The river on the left is the Madison River (the same Madison River I was ooh-ing over in Yellowstone.) The river directly behind them is the Jefferson River. And the newly-formed Missouri River is flowing off to the right of the photo. The Gallatin River (which Joey and I drove along last Thursday on our way up US 191) joins the other rivers about a mile away from this point.

Joe and Cassie next to the newly-formed Missouri River

Joe and Cassie at the confluence of the rivers

 In addition to the rivers, we looked at the remains of the original settlement at the site. In the mid-19th century, some entrepreneurs hoped that the site of these rivers would be a good place for boat traffic, as well as passenger travels. But the river rapids did not prove to be very navigable, and the town moved to where the town of Three Forks is now (we did not stop there, despite the many advertisements and inducements of the “historic town”.) The buildings we saw at the park were in extremely decrepit condition, and it’s surprising they are still standing at all!

Joe and Cassie in front of 150 year old hotel--or what is left of it!

After eating lunch just where Lewis & Clark camped, we continued on toward Butte. This is where our day really started going askew. Butte is a small city, but other than some kind of large gathering of “trekkers” (people walking in a long line as if they were on a group hike) that we saw along the highway just as we exited the interstate, we saw almost no one. The exit said we were going to “Historic Butte”, and indeed, we could tell the buildings were all quite old, but the main street was virtually deserted. This is what we’ve learned about cities in other parts of the US-- unlike on the east coast (or the north-east, anyway), where no matter when you drive through a city, you are bound to encounter crowds, if not traffic jams, in the mid-west, the cities do not have people in them downtown during the weekends! We drove through these streets with an RV and Jeep in tow, with absolutely no worries about other traffic.

Montana Roadside Scenery

Roadside Scenery--the colors of the mountains were softly washed--like a water color painting!

We noticed that all the streets we passed were named after metals-- gold, silver, aluminum, copper, etc. We turned on Mercury Street, went two blocks, and found our destination. But despite a large “Open” sign on the door, it was most definitely closed. The streets all around it were most definitely deserted. There was not a SOUL. It looked like the most run-down corner of a city you’d ever find yourself in. With trepidation, we crossed the street (we parked along the curb--the only vehicles in sight!) and knocked, but no one answered. The inside was dark, although I could see Chinese artifacts, a sign-in book, brochures for the museum, and the entry fees posted on the counter. We were REALLY disappointed, because this was just the kind of place we love to discover and learn from. Upstairs we could see paper dragon fans hanging in the window, and in the window at street level, there were some history books, and signs telling us about the town when it was still a small place, and a little bit about the Chinese activity there, but it was scanty info. (I should add that in reading about it later on Wikipedia, I learned that Mercury Street was the center of the red-light district in old mining-town Butte!)

We finally gave up hope, but before we left, I walked around the corner to a post office (thanks, Google Maps!) to mail a card. I noticed there WAS one place open-- a bar/casino on the next block. We drove into the heart of downtown from there, and still saw very few cars or anything else, although the banners on the street lights proclaimed this the “Heart of Historic Butte.” The buildings were definitely interesting, and I was just sorry that apparently everything is closed on Sunday.

Building in Downtown Butte

We decided to continue driving a couple of  blocks further up the hill. I forgot to mention, all of Butte is literally built on the side of a mountain, which is known as the “richest city in the world.” Apparently it was all copper, as well as other metals, and the history of Butte is the history of mining. There are still huge towers related to mining, and lots of buildings that were part of the mining industry and supporting businesses. The Museum of Mining is a “gem attraction”, according to AAA’s guidebook! But even though it was only 3:30 and the museum closed at 6pm, Joey wasn’t that interested, and I was feeling depressed by not planning better. We sat in the RV in the middle of downtown Butte, discussing what to do next, when all I really wanted was a nap! (Main Street, so named, did NOT seem the ideal place for that!) In the end, we decided to continue toward Great Falls, our next real destination. Sadly, this meant getting onto the interstate again. So we decided to go as far as Helena, an hour away, and continue tomorrow.

Leftover mining equipment

And that’s what we did. We followed I-15 up to Helena, got off at exit 126, I think, and pulled right into the Walmart (where else?) We were actually laughing--the parking lot looked like an RV park, there were about a dozen RVs there already. We had just enough time to walk the dog and set up before the rain started. And I threw myself into bed, while Joe made us some Chinese food for dinner (hanging around the Mai Wah building, with its historic marquee proclaiming “Noodles”, had made me hungry for Chinese food!)  I napped soundly while he cooked, and now he’s asleep while I type.

Looking down Montana Street, downtown. Butte is on the side of a mountain.

Dinosaurs Again, and Ghengis Khan

Most Complete T-Rex Skeleton Ever Found

2019-09-07 Saturday

We woke up today to gray skies, but the rain had stopped falling. Joey told me he had been up in the middle of the night (I slept like a log!!) because he heard a “strange noise.” Upon investigation, it seems that our oldest water hose had burst. Since it had already been repaired twice, we put “new water hose” on our shopping list.

Despite having the Jeep still hooked up from last night, it still took us a ridiculous amount of time to leave the campground. I took Cassie for a long walk, and she played with another dog in the huge fenced in dog yard, so that was nice for her to get some exercise. Finally, we pulled out just at 11:00. We drove about 15 minutes to the Museum of the Rockies, adjacent to the Montana State University (wrong MSU again!) campus. There was a large RV Parking area, so we were comfortable leaving the RV there while we went inside.

This museum is famous for its dinosaur collection, and it certainly did not disappoint! Montana is one of the premier states for dinosaur discoveries, and the museum focused on Montana in the presentations. This was no problem, because just to name one thing, the most complete T-Rex skeleton ever discovered was found in Montana, and it is in this museum! MSU (the one here, I mean) has a distinguished paleontology department as a result of the rich fossil record in their backyard. All of the displays included the name of the person who first found the bone(s), as well as the team who removed it from the rock. Often these folks were interns or doctoral students studying at this school.

The displays also were excellent in  that the beginning of the dinosaur section included some basics, such as what paleontology is, how the museum handles its samples, and the fact that all the displays included whether it was the real thing (labeled B for bone) or a replica (R). They explained that sometimes the real bones are still being studied. There was even a small lab included, with a volunteer inside working on cleaning some bones. The sign on the door said to “knock if you have a question,” and we actually did that at one point.

Bottom line, we got to the Museum at 11:30ish, and we stayed all day, until 4:00 (it closed an hour early, much to our dismay.) We did take a break to go have some lunch in the RV, but otherwise, we were with the dinosaurs. There were amazing samples and explanations, including the fact that paleontolgists now classify dinosaurs as either “non-avian” or “avian.” Most of the extinct larger dinosaurs are “non-avian,” but a particular class of dinosaur is still alive--they are the “avian” class--which we call BIRDS! I knew that the general understanding now was that birds “evolved” from dinosaurs, but from a paleontological point of view, apparently they ARE still considered dinosaurs. To put it another way, dinosaurs are not extinct! Only some are, the way some mammals (such as the ones we saw at the Ashfall Fossil Beds) are extinct. [Note: Blogger has become impossible to manipulate photos into... so all my photos will be at the end of the blog (I hope.)]

I could have spent a lot longer in the dinosaur section, because I didn’t have time to watch a number of videos, such as one which showed a day in the life of the paleontologists who found a particular fossil. I did sit through one which explained how the microbes and bacteria which we saw at Yellowstone (all those colorful bacterial mats at Grand Prismatic Pool, for instance) are actually examples of what happened all over the Earth as the geologic ages passed. The reason Yellowstone is so fascinating is that we can see for ourselves life forms which survive based on chemicals rather than on light (such as plants.)

Meanwhile, the dinosaur bones were the stars of the exhibit. The T-Rex was found in Montana, and is on loan to the museum. It was found on Bureau of Land Management land, which means it is strictly speaking owned by the American people. It’s on loan from the BLM. The skeleton is the most complete T-Rex ever found, and we were fascinated by the reconstruction. The creature had two sets of ribs, but no sternum attaching them-- Joey told me he thinks they must have been contained by the musculature of the animal.

One thing we noticed (which is what we asked the volunteer worker about) was an odd, long bone which seemed to come down between the two femurs. It looked very odd, and was something we saw in almost all the dinosaurs. The volunteer said she thought the bone was analogous to the pubic bone in people, but here it seemed to extend quite far from the pelvic bones. Joey added while I was writing this that what really freaked him out was the similarity of the “hands” of the bipedal dinosaurs to human hands--they have not evolved that differently. He says he also learned a lot about the comparative anatomy of birds that he didn’t know before-- the scientists who study this stuff do a lot of work with modern animals looking for similarities in bone structures, which helps to understand what the dinosaur’s body functioned like.

Another thing we learned was that some of the features of some dinosaurs, such as the plates on the back of a stegosaurus, may have been for “display”, the way modern birds have colorful features for display (think of peacocks, for example.) So several of the reconstructed dinosaurs were depicted with some distinct colors, with feathers in various parts of their bodies (this is known from the bones themselves.) It was just fascinating. We saw dinosaurs which probably burrowed underground (again, similarities to features in modern burrowing animals), and clutches of dinosaur eggs. Most everything in the dinosaur exhibit was original--there were not very many reconstructions, although the series of triceratops skulls had several reconstructions in order to present a complete display of the animals from when they were babies, through the juvenile stage, to adulthood. The skull undergoes certain changes as the animal ages.

One more funny thing-- I read that T-Rex’s teeth replaced themselves every six months, so the animal went through a number of sets of teeth. This sounds so weird, but the display explanation added, “Humans only replace their set of teeth once during their lives.” Until then, I had never thought of people as “replacing” a set of teeth this way--but of course, that’s what happens when we lose our “baby teeth” for our adult ones. The same thing was true of dinosaurs, only more frequently during their life span.

All in all, this was so interesting, but at about 3:00 they announced that the museum was closing an hour early for a private event. We hadn’t seen ANYTHING else except a movie in the planetarium, on how the earth was created. Joey said it was very good-- sadly, I fell asleep while Jupiter was the only planet, and I missed the rest of the movie. But besides this, there was a hall of “original peoples” of Yellowstone Park, i.e. Native Americans who lived in the vicinity. In that hall there were also posters and photos of the original stores and hotels set up in the late 19th century for tourists. I have to say, we pretty much ran through that section.

To our surprise, when we went into the next room, it had a lot of early 20th century vehicles used in Montana, including a set-up of a gas station, a “sheep wagon” (which looked sort of like a covered wagon with a bed, stove, table, and cupboards--in other words, an RV!-- for the guy who followed sheep herds over the prairie), and a “tar-paper shack”. We looked around for 10 more minutes.

Then we hurried into the last exhibit, a temporary exhibit on Ghengis Khan. We started at the wrong end for that-- and I found it fascinating, but Joey wasn’t as interested as I was. I have a book on Genghis Khan, so I knew his history. Basically he united the Mongol tribes, controlled most of Asia (the idea of the Mongols sweeping down and conquering people was entirely true), and then he implemented a lot of ideas which we still use today, such as diplomatic immunity for political representatives of other areas, the pony express concept (which was described by Marco Polo), national parks (he set aside some of his favorite hunting areas and forbade settlements there), wearing trousers (men wore robes before that, but trousers were much more convenient for riding horses), protection of water sources, religious freedom, the use of paper money (also reported on by Marco Polo), and tollbooths! There was also a brief video explaining that Ghengis Kahn (or perhaps one of HIS ancestors) was the progenitor of a huge percentage of Asian people--discovered by tracing the Y chromosome which unites this large group. So maybe he also populated the countries as well as ruling them!

Ghengis Khan also wrote a code of laws and morality (he lived at the beginning of the 13th century), including such items as, “All religions are to be respected equally,” and “Lies, theft, treachery and adultery are forbidden...whoever violates these commands is to be put to death.”  Joey’s favorite was, “Do not wash clothes until they are completely worn out.” I had to notice this one: “Don’t behave as high as a mountain. Though a mountain is high, it will be climbed by animals.”

All this information was, as I said, at the very end of the large exhibit, and we didn’t have time for most of it (including the information about horses, warfare, etc.) They even had a dance group from Mongolia (which is now an independent nation) so we could learn more about the Mongol art and music-- of course, we did not go to that either. At ten minutes to four, I rushed into the gift shop, looked around hastily, and let them kick me and the last stragglers out of the museum. I could have used the extra hour!! All in all, this museum was absolutely fantastic, and I’m still thinking of going back tomorrow; our admission was good for two days.

From there, we drove to Walmart, where we are spending the night. The wifi reception was excellent, and we were able to watch the entire Michigan State (the right MSU) football game. There was also a home game for the wrong MSU today, and we are joined in the Walmart parking lot by at least 20 other RVs. It is quite remarkable; I have never seen so many overnighters at once. Our guess is that they are here for the game--the RV park we stayed in last night was booked solid tonight so we couldn’t have stayed even if we’d wanted to. After the game was over, we went inside and paid for our free parking with a $200 purchase of groceries, a new water hose as mentioned above, some TV cables to perhaps get local TV stations on my computer, and a pair of sweat pants for Joey, among other items. Now, I just have to fight with my blog platform, in an attempt to upload some of the many museum photos I took today. And then, to sleep!

Comparative leg sizes

Clutches of Dinosaur Eggs

Feet and Leg Bones--they got stuck in the mud!

Comparison of Horned Dinosaur skulls as they aged

Tyrannosaurus again, with some other skulls of other T-Rexes

Neck of previously unknown dinosaur, still being studied

Ghengis Khan

 

Interior of Tar Paper Shack