Two Days of Journal Catch-up! Of course, Roger says, “You’re putting ketchup on your journal?” (He has an appointment with VA when we get back for new hearing aids!) He’s busy right now putting a handle on the screen door for me so I won’t pull out the plastic slider thingy again! I’ll keep going with the ketchup!
Wednesday - As indicated already, we are having to face the reality that we can’t be connected whenever we want to be. It’s the pits, but, we are going to have to learn to live with it. I am going to write the entry and then tomorrow MAYBE we will get lucky and have a good connection? What a surprise that would be!!!
We ended up going on base to the library to use the WIFI so that we could search for campgrounds and make reservations for the next few days. It’s coming up on a weekend and the end of summer and campgrounds are full. We thought it prudent to have places to stay all lined up between here and Denver. A few places we tried but they were booked, so I’m glad we are pretty much set now until we leave Colorado Springs on Tuesday after Labor Day.
OK, we left Missoula on Tuesday feeling pretty rested and ready for our next adventure. We tried giving the dog a quarter of the tablet of the meds about half an hour before we left. It helped take the edge off a little, but after we were on the road about an hour we gave her another quarter. It took a while, but she did finally calm down, face the front for part of the way, and once I caught her dozing off. Tomorrow we will give her half a tablet to start.
Yesterday, Tuesday, we traveled northeast to Great Falls, MT and parked the rig at a small Air Force FamCamp. Very nice place except for the lack of WIFI. It’s advertised that they have it, there is a pole one site down from us with an antenna, and all of our devices find the signal. It just doesn’t log on to the internet. We did meet some folks from Illinois in our search for answers who also had the same issues. I went down to the camp host and asked what I was doing wrong because I couldn’t get it to work. His reply, “You’re right, it doesn’t work. They pay some rinky dink company for it and the antenna is too short so it never works.” So, why didn’t he tell us when we checked in instead of letting us spend an hour messing about? Makes me crazy!!
I’m having trouble coming up with descriptive terms for the scenery on the way here. Gorgeous? Spectacular? Awesome? I just can’t find the right words. This is the most of Montana that we have visited and we are liking it. We crossed mountains, and drove through valleys with beautiful ranches and farms all the way to Helena, the state capitol. I fell in love with that town! I could live there if they had less winter. Actually, a LOT less winter! It is a beautiful town set in a fertile valley and it won my heart. Probably the prettiest place we’ve seen in this state. We then moved on to high desert sagebrush, and then the open plains as we entered Great Falls. Now, this is a town I wouldn’t want to live in. There’s a refinery, lots of industry, and just not very pretty. Driving down the streets is like going down the streets in a midwestern town. The houses reminded us of Detroit area homes - small, brick, garage on the side in the back. Nope, don’t want to live here. Oh, yes, the other thing we like about Montana is that there is no sales tax. It’s great paying exactly what the price tag says.
This is the first Air Force base we have ever stayed where there are no airplanes! Imagine that. There is a National Guard unit with 4 helicopters, but no airplanes. “What’s up with that?” we asked the folks from Illinois whose son is stationed here. Missile defense. It’s all underground and electronic stuff. It is weird and it is quiet although they sound reveille in the morning, colors (when they lower the flags for the day) at 4:30pm and then at 11pm they play taps over the base loud speakers.
We tried to visit the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center located on the Missouri River (and the reason we came here) but I left our senior national parks pass in the RV. This, is the one I just bought last week in my name at the Bison Range because we left the one we bought years ago under Roger’s name at home! I am so on top of things!! So, we walked around outside for a while reading the plaques and signs and admiring the river. We did go into the gift shop where we bought a print by a Native American artist that we like (we already have one of his that we bought in Yellowstone years ago). The river was calm and had water birds floating and wading in the shallows. We saw where the Corps of Discovery had camped on their trek westward. There was a mile long hiking trail along the river but Roger’s been having sciatica issues the last few days so we had to bypass that. We had planned on going to the Charles Remington Art Museum but by that time Rog was hurting too much. We didn’t accomplish our goals here, but we are glad we made the trip.
Tomorrow, Thursday, we will start the trip south towards Colorado Springs.
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