NOT SO MUCH TO DO

Another day in Great Falls at the not-so-great RV Park. This morning Warren and the Kathies went for a mega shopping spree at the Super Walmart. For sure now we have EVERYTHING we need! Jim stayed home to do some manly chores, more about that later. They bought cedar blocks for the closet moths.

Have I mentioned the moths? There's been a plague of moths in both of our coaches the past 3 days. I think we picked them up in Big Timber, but they are still coming out of the woodwork. They fly at us out of the bays, out from under the bed, in the bathroom and Kathy T had about 30 of them on her TV screen. Today there were only about 6 of them in our rig and a few more than that in the Taylors. They even had one in the Jeep this morning. So annoying! 

One of Jims chores this morning was to install the new double hitch that he had welded in Big Timber. In doing so he inspected the Roadmaster tow bar and found a problem. Apparently, a critical part needs to be replaced before we can tow the jeep again. Roadmaster will ship the part to us in Kalispell and Jim will fix it. In the meantime, Warren and Jim found a slightly used tow bar to use until we repair ours. It's always something!

This afternoon, after a haircut for Jim and pedicures for the Kathies they all went for a bike ride along the Missouri river before dinner.

NOT SO GREAT FALLS

So, the drive was great. There were some strong gusts of wind but nothing we couldn't handle. Lots and lots of green fields and hundreds of cattle. A short stop for some road work, but we made the trip in abut 4 hours. 

This RV Park is called Dick's RV Park, and it's nothing to write home about, so I won't.

Here's a picture that Kathe took as we were leaving the Spring Creek Campground. Last night we had three different thunderstorms. The first one came just about the time Jim was cooking the hamburgers. Dinner was fine but everything else got soaked. The second one came as I was taking my last walk around the park before bedtime, and I took my sweet time going inside. Rainwater is good for the fur. Finally, at about 10PM we had thunder and lightning and lots of rain for a long time. I slept through it of course, but Gianni and Bella kept the Taylors up for hours.

We are in Great Falls for 2 nights; Kathe promised me that tomorrow there will be something to write about.

TWO THINGS TO DO

That's right, there are only two things to do here in Big Timber. Naturally, they did both of them today!

First up was the Natural Bridge and Falls Scenic Area in the Gallatin National Forest. As you know, we are camped on the Boulder River, and the Falls was about 20 miles upriver. It was a wild and beautiful waterfall. They hiked across a bridge and up the trail about 1/4 of a mile to take pictures. At one time there was a natural rock bridge across the river, but it collapsed and now the water disappears under the limestone and flows out on the other side of the rocks. With the recent storms it was really a fantastic sight. After the hike they took a jeep trail up into the Gallatin Forest looking for animals. No animals, just some really beautiful vacation homes.

The second excursion of the day was a trip to Prairie Dog State Park. Yes, there is a State Park here in Montana just for the prairie dog. It was fun but very difficult to take pictures. 

There were lots of them running around, but as soon as they heard my humans, they started barking a warning and went running underground. This was Kathe's best picture!

Right now, we are having a thunderstorm its dark and gloomy, hopefully it will clear up soon so Jim can cook the hamburgers. Tomorrow, we move on to Great Falls. 

BIG TIMBER MONTANA

You can see how beautiful our campsite is tonight, we are right on the banks of the Boulder River. The drive today was over four hours long, but worth it. Montana is much greener and prettier than the parts of Wyoming we have been through on this trip. We passed cattle ranches and fields of hay and corn on the highway, and some of the cattle were right up to the sides of the road. We saw beautiful snowy mountains in the background for most of the drive.

Our campground was a little hard to find, we drove through the town of Big Timber on a one lane road for several miles. Then, the driveway into the campground was so dusty that both our car and the motor home are covered in a fine layer of dirt. Poor Jim, all that cleaning and now he can't do a thing about how the coach looks till we get back out of here.

I'm really going to enjoy this place, lots of green grass and lots of birds to chase. The humans are just going to chill tonight, set up the lounge chairs and pray that there are no mosquitos. Only mojitos!

SHOSHONE RIVER TRAIL

I'm going to make this short tonight. The Internet here is so bad that it takes forever to download anything and I'm very frustrated!

Today was a pretty boring day for me. I watched Kathe wash about 5 loads of clothes, and then I watched her read a book. I watched Jim cleaning the motor home again, and I took a nap. Told you it was a boring day.

While I was napping, Jim, Warren and Kathe went for a short hike to the Shoshone Riverway Trail. Even that was boring. A few pretty cactuses, a few cows, and a couple of river rafters floating past, but at least they were outside in the fresh air. 

All of us are ready to move on to the next adventure tomorrow!

YELLOWSTONE AT LAST

I was trying to sleep this morning when my humans made so much noise, I was forced out of bed at 7:30. I'd already been out at 5:00 for my walk, but I usually get to go back to sleep till at least 8 or 9 o'clock. Why were they up so early? ROAD TRIP TO YELLOWSTONE!

Yellowstone is now open on a provisional basis, only cars with license plates ending in an odd number were allowed into the park today. Since we are camped about 50 miles from the east entrance, they wanted to get an early start this morning. The weather here looked gloomy and there were dark clouds when they left.

The plan was to drive to Fishing Bridge and maybe see some critters and thermal features on the way. As soon as they had driven a few miles the skies turned blue, and it was a beautiful drive the rest of the day.

Kathy T brought her big camera and was able to take some pictures from the side of the road. They saw some bison and a moose as well as a bear. This brown lump is a picture of the bear which caused a traffic jam, everyone was trying to get a picture, even though the creature was so far away.

After Fishing Bridge, they drove to West Thumb Geyser Basin. There were lots of thermal pools, mini mud volcanos, and paint pots. There was also an elevated trail to the lakeshore geyser. The pools were steaming and colorful.

Unfortunately, they didn't have time to continue to Old Faithful as us doggies needed our afternoon walks and dinner. I made Kathe walk completely around the park after keeping me waiting so long.  

Shoshone River

Well, they have just about seen everything in the Cody Visitors Guidebook so there wasn't much left to do today. First, here's a picture of the Shoshone River that passes behind our site. The water has been muddy the whole time we've been here due to the flooding and run off from Yellowstone. We saw pictures of the river before the flood, and it was clear and blue. The water flows past us into a large reservoir then on to the Buffalo Bill Dam.

Next, are a couple of pictures of the dam. It is 295 high and provides power and water to Cody and the Big Horn Basin. At one time it was the tallest dam in the world irrigating 93,000 acres of farmland. The visitors center had a film that explained how the original dam was constructed and the improvements made in 1993 which increased the amount of water stored in the reservoir to 650,000-acre feet. That's a lot of dam water!

Speaking of water, it rained last night, and we have a threat of thunder storms this evening. All because Jim washed the motor home. Will he ever learn?