Catching Up (Coeur d’Alene, ID)

 

First we have an official sign to hang on our coach.  We had it made when we were at the Escapade Rally.

I finally have a Wi-Fi connection so I can upload pictures.  So here goes the last couple of weeks!

You already know we were in Glacier NP and did some star gazing.  Now for the daytime pictures.  We have taken 460 pictures between us.  I won’t torture you with all of them.  I will just try to pick the highlights.

First we went to the northern part of the park and took the road to the Many Glacier.

Next we took the Going-to-the-Sun-Road.

Going-to-the-Sun-Road is 45 miles, but it is very slow with construction and many hair pin turns.  Good thing we only took the truck.  When we reached the end, Apgar Village, we stopped to eat lunch.  When we were parked we had a knock at the window.  It was our friends that we first met at Bolder City, NV and again in Great Falls, MT.  We had a nice lunch with Dennis and Suni. 

Glacier NP is  a Peace Park in cooperation with Canada.  In Canada it is called Waterton Lakes National Park (Alberta, CA).  So we dug out our passports and took the 30 mile drive north to Canada and Waterton NP.  Actually, it was very much like Glacier.

Over the many months we have been on the road we have met so many different people and made many friends.  Friends we keep in touch with and keep running into.

After we left St. Mary”s (Glacier NP) we went to the Elks Lodge in Coeur d’Alane, ID. It is a town in the northern part of the Idaho panhandle.  What a beautiful place this is.  It is right on the Coeur d’Alene Lake.  We passed the time here in Idaho by taking a cruise around the lake as well as a drive along one of the area “Scenic Highways.”  It was just beautiful

Tomorrow we leave for Grand Coulee Washington and the Grand Coulee Dam.

Life is Great on the Roan Road…

Star Gazing (Glacier National Park, MT)

 

These are scenes you don’t get to see in New York City,  stars.  On Tuesday we went to an Ranger led Astronomy talk.  The Ranger was also an astronomer and extremely knowledgeable.  We showed up at the Visitor Center around 10 PM, right before it got dark.  Around 11 PM the half moon was up and we could start to see the many constellations.  When the moon went below the horizon it got really dark and the all of the stars could be seen.  We didn’t get home until 1 PM, way past our bed time.  But it was worth it.

The Big Dipper

 

The Milky Way

More daytime pictures to follow.

Life is good on the Roan Road…

Big Sky Country (St. Mary, MT)

 

We are now camped right outside the east entrance of Glacier National Park,  at  Johnsons of St. Mary Campground.  We have been touring the park.  This is one of the most beautiful National Parks.  The main road across the park is the Going-to-the-Sun Road.  It takes about 2-3 hours to go 45 miles.  There is construction, stops for pictures, twists and turns in the road and then there is the “Pull over Look at that” and “OMG look at the mountains all around”.

Pictures to follow because the only internet is using my Verizon Air card.  That can get expensive when I upload all of the pictures.  So far we have taken 327 to date between us.  That’s just for Glacier NP.  When I get a WiFi connection I will post a follow up blog with the pictures.

On Monday we head out for an Elks Lodge in Kalispell, MT on our way to the Grand Coolie Dam in Washington State.  While in Kalispell we are going to replace the tires on the truck.  They are just about ready, but since there is no sales tax in Montana, we will save several hundred dollars.

Life is Great on the Roan Road…

A Great Town (Great Falls, MT)

 

Tomorrow we leave for Glacier NP, about a160 mile trip.  Just the right distance, not to far.  We should be there about 2 PM.  No telling how the internet connection will be.

The weather in Great Falls was perfect.  In the 80’s during the day and 60’s at night.  When it did rain, it rained in the late afternoon or at night. 

Great Falls, MT is right on the Missouri River.  This is where Lewis & Clark and the Corp. of Discovery came through.  They came up the Missouri and had go around several water falls.  There is a Lewis & Clark Interpretative Center located here on the Mighty Missouri River.

The men of the Lewis & Clark Exposition had to portage all of their equipment around each of the falls.

After taking an elevator down to the river level they had two Rangers there to show us how, using a compass, follow a map and not get lost. Next a ranger showed us how the men of the expedition started a fire.  It is amazing, how in the mid 1800’s, how accurate the Lewis & Clark’s maps were.

There is a nice walking/biking trail along the river.  Up the river a short distance is the Giant Springs State Park.  We spent a whole day there.  The springs were amazing and the grounds (built the WPA in the 1930’s and updated in the 1970’s by Great Falls) are beautifully kept up. On this day they had activities for people of all ages.  It was free for Montana residences, and $5 for everyone else.  But because we had Montana plates on the truck, we didn't have to pay.  Hey, every penny helps.  (note, Ann really loved this park.  She thinks it should be one of the Seven Wonders of the World!)

Warning!  the following slide show has 27 photographs.  You do not have to watch all of them, but I will know who you are if you don’t.

There are three waterfalls along the Missouri around Great Falls.  They all supply supply hydroelectric power to the main grid.  The hydroelectric power generated here does not go directly to Great Falls.  It goes into the power grid that serves US and Canada. 

We went to all three but the best one was the Great Falls/Ryan Dam built in 1915 and produces 60 megawatts of power. It is 10 miles from the city of Great Falls.

There is an beautiful  island park in the middle of the river.  It is accessible via a wire suspension bridge.

This is a sign on the island.  If the Horn sounds 8 short blast.  RUN fast - the Dam is about to BLOW!!!

We visited the C.M Russell museum.  C.M Russell was a Cowboy/Artist of the 1930s who live and worked in Great Falls.  Unfortunately, we could not photograph in the museum, but we did take some pictures of the sculptures on the grounds.

Great Falls, MT is a place we both really like and, some day, would like to come back to.  Just not in the winter.

Reminder:  All of these great pictures are taken by Ann and myself.

Life is truly Great on the Roan Road…

A Sad Day For All (Great Falls, MT)

 

We spent three days in a campsite right outside of the Bighorn National Park in a town called Garryowen.  Garryowen is literally the quintessential small town.  A post office, a gas station and a so-called museum.  The campsite we stayed in was terraced out of a hillside. The sites were reasonably level, but the view of the valley below was unbelievable.  You could see a thunder storm coming from miles away.

After the storm a beautiful  rainbow.

Next we spent two days at the Bighorn National Park

The Bighorn National Park also has a National Cemetery where veterans can be buried.  The cemetery is filled but if you have a reservation you can sill get in.

“Little Bighorn Battlefield” memorializes a major battle fought on June 25th 1876, between Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians against the United States Army.  These tribes were fighting to preserve their traditional way of life as nomatic buffalo hunters,  The U.S. Army  was carrying out the Grant Administrations instructions tt remove the Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne peoples to the Sioux Reservation in Dakota Territory.

The Warriors were defending their wives and children,  The Soldiers were following orders.

Life is Great on the Roan Road…

A Good time Had By All (Garryowen, MT)

 

We arrived in Gillette, WY Cam-Plex for the 53rd. Escapade.  The Escapade is an annual event held by the RV group Escapees.  We arrived early on the 27th.  Our good friends, Bob and Sue, parked next to us.

Yes, they do carry a Smart Car

Ann got right to work arranging Dinner outings and Happy Hour for all of our friends (many have New Horizons RV’s).

We attended a number of classes.  Ann went to a Smartphone class, a Camera Class.  I went to a maintenance class and we both went to a Movie Maker class.

The last night, July 4th, we had a dinner put on by the Escapade.  Afterwards there was a fireworks display.

Just as the fireworks stated a thunderstorm passed by.  So I only could take a few pictures.  This was the only one I could get.

After the Escapade ended we stayed an extra day to decompress from a busy week.  On Saturday, July 6th, we said goodby to everyone with promises to see each other down the road.  We headed west on I-90.

We are now at the 7th RV park, a few miles from Little Big Horn Battlefield.  More pictures to follow.

Life is Great on the Roan Road…