Dillon, Montana to the Anaconda Sportmans Campground on the US-43 near Wise River, Montana. 64 miles.
Today, we took Hitch up North, to meet Aaron and Lillian at a beautiful dry-camp spot on the Big Hole River, off Highway 43 between Divide and Wisdom. This whole section of road is open to boon-docking on State and National forest land (BLM), and, of course, at any of the many private campgrounds along the river.
The Big Hole river has significance as Lewis and Clark travelled along it in the early 1800s under orders from President Jefferson, to try to find a navigable waterway across the West to the Pacific Ocean. It is a beautiful, rugged, area, populated with lots of wildlife and fishing. Including bears. Yup, one should keep an eye out in the evenings when outside around food etc – although we were not lucky enough to encounter any while there.
It’s a beautiful spot so looking forward to taking many pictures to share!
DIllon, Montana to Wise River, MT and back. 128 miles.
Today, we took the F350 up the I-15N to the Anaconda Sportsman Campground, a dry-camp campground on the Big Hole River, off Highway 43 between Divide and Wisdom, in Montana. We needed to chat with the camp host there to see if he had any space for two rigs – ours and Aaron’s, as we’d planned to spend a few days there starting tomorrow (Sunday). The campground is very remote with no stores or gas stations or even cell service, so there was no easy way to call them to find out if they had any vacancies. I told Lillian that we’d take the drive up there on Saturday as we’re only 60 miles away, while her and Aaron are double that distance on the North side.
So, we drove out in the F350 and took Maddie with us as she loves to come with us. We found Mike, the friendly camphost, and we dropped Aaron’s name on him as they knew each other as youngsters when they lived 2-3 blocks apart in the town of Anaconda. Mike said they were completely full at the current time, but he expected the usual exodus on Sunday afternoon, so he thought it should not be a problem for us if we arrived around noon on Sunday, to get two spots.
When we got back to Dillon, I contacted Lillian and we agreed to meet at the Anaconda Sportsman Campground in the early afternoon, the next day, Sunday.
After we arrived back from the short trip to the CG, Karen spotted a huge Forest fire just outside Dillon, on the US-43 towards Banack State park.
The flames seen through my 300mm lens on my Sony APS-C camera were higher than the pine trees themselves.
The fire burnt through the night with firefighters and helicopters working the burn. Next morning, they gained control after the high winds from yesterday had died down. Just a little smoke left when we left the campground with Hitch in tow, on our way to the Anaconda Sportsman Campground.
Wolf Creek, Montana to Helena, Montana and back. 72 miles.
Today was a quiet day, but with some excitement as Aaron and Lillian asked us to attend their “Walk-through” of their new additional property that they were purchasing next door. We met Aaron’s other sister and hubby there, and we all did the walk-through together. A very nice piece of land with a large mobile home and multiple sheds. They plan to sell the mobile home and some of the sheds and keep one or two of the better sheds, and then to build an RV pad or two on the site, for friends/family or even potentially RV renters looking to spend time in this lovely area!
Afterwards, we jumped into the F350 and shot off the Helena, the State Capital of Montana, for Aaron and Lillian to sign some paperwork for the property purchase, and then headed off to the Mediterranean Grill, a fabulous restaurant serving, you guessed it, Mediterranean food. Our favorite!
Us “Old Toppies” had some trouble with the new-fangled online parking meters, and we had a good laugh while trying various techniques to get the #$%^ thing to accept our credit card and print a receipt. Unusually, there was no need to place a receipt in the vehicle. The attendants can check the status based on licence plate, on their system.
We sat outside in the warm, beautiful day, with some much appreciated shade helping to keep the comfort levels up, and had a delicious meal with a couple beers, before taking a stroll down to an old favorite bakery of theirs, a few blocks away.
We (almost) resisted the temptation to stock up on the delicious looking chocolates and baked goods, all made in-house. But, of course, we had to have at least a LITTLE baggie of various chocs to sample!
We decided to have a nice, quiet evening after we returned, as we’d been on the go for a few days and tomorrow would be packing up to head back to our campground in Dillon, about 3 hours South of Wolf Creek.
Lillian brought out the remaining delicious salad and we had a couple of brats on the grill to fill up our tummies, before heading down to the camper for our last night with our dear friends!
Wolf Creek, Montana to Gates of the Mountain, and back. 42 miles.
Sunday morning, we had a nice sleep in after the festivities of the previous evening. Lillian had booked us boat rides on a boat trip through the “Gates of the Mountains” which is a river gorge that had been dammed up after the Lewis & Clark expedition had past through here in the early 1800s.
Here, we met Aaron’s sister, Wendy, who joined the four of us on the boat trip. What a spectacular boat ride and scenery!
On the boat tour, we had a very cool, knowledgable tour guide/captain. About halfway through the tour, deep in the mountains, she stopped the boat to tell us about a tragedy that had occurred in 1949, after lightning had started a large forest fire at Mann Gulch. A team of brave young firefighters were flown in to jump into the gorge, but tragedy struck when the winds changed direction and brought huge flames bearing down on the team, who ran for their lives except for two guys. The leader started a new fire around him to preburn the area in the hopes of diminishing the severity of the main fire, a technique which had never been used before. He hunkered down with various gear over him and waited for the fire to literally run over the top of him, and survived. Another young firemen headed up the hill on the left, in the hopes of avoiding the worst of the fire down in the gulch, where all the other men had remained and tried to outrun the fire. He also survived while everyone else in that team died in the fire. A very sad and sobering story, with a nice monument to commemorate these brave souls.
Our tour guide also brought the boat up close to some incredibly old Indian rock drawings, seen here….
See the face in the rock?
The boat ended just otherside the “Gates of the Mountain”, where the captain turned us around to see the “gates” closing as we moved across the river. Note in the series of pics below, how the cliff faces on each side appear to “close up” like gates, as we moved along the water.
“Gates of the Mountain” are wide open!Gates getting closed….Almost closed!Closed!
Can you imagine what Lewis and Clark thought about this place, in the early 1800s? Their expedition trudged right through these gorges (before the water was dammed up much later).
After this epic boat trip, we headed back to Wolf Creek, where Aaron cooked up some brats on the grill, and then Wendy left to head home, while we settled in for the night.
Tomorrow, we planned to go out to a nice Mediterranean Restaurant in Helena for lunch. Yum!!!
Wolf Creek, Montana to First People’s Buffalo Jump State Park, Giant Springs State Park and back. 127 miles.
Woke up to another beautiful day in Wolf Creek, Montana!
We picked Aaron and Lillian up from their house on the hill.
I took a couple of pics from their veranda before we all headed off to the First People’s Buffalo Jump State Park, near Great Falls, Montana.
They have an eagle’s nest in a tree up on the hill above them.
Spot the Eagle’s nest int he tree???
The State parks we were going to visit are North-East from Wolf Creek, near Great Falls, Montana. We arrived at the State Park visitor center, which was open but not doing any tours. They have a little gift/book shop and a VERY nice exhibits area in the form of a circle with a huge outdoors wildlife scene mural painted on the circular wall surrounding the many stuffed animals and life-size exhibits. It was incredibly well done, and is a very worthwhile visit if in the area!
The Buffalo Jump is a historic site where the Native American Indians would wait in hiding for a large herd of buffalo to be grazing on the flat upper plateau of the area, and then cause a stampede from the rear while having a buffalo-skin covered runner in front of the herd acting as the lead buffalo, and directing the whole herd towards the steep cliff-face on the one side of the plateau. The runner would run as fast as possible towards the cliff with the stampeding herd following him. At the very last second, with the animals literally right behind him, he would jump off the cliff onto a small secondary ledge to safety. The panicked animals would come hurtling over the top of him, to fall to their death on the rocks below. The few buffalo that might have stopped on the edge were pushed over by the crush of the rest of the stampede, so that hardly any buffalo escaped. This is why it is called the “Buffalo Jump”.
Some pics from the top of the cliff-face, with Aaron, Lillian, Karen and Yours Truly!
Inside the visitors center exhibition area….
After the Buffalo Jump Park, we headed to Giant Springs State Park, in Great Falls. We stopped at a pullout on the road to look out at the large Black Eagle Falls dam wall built in the late 1890 as the first hydra-electric power on the Missouri river. Amazing construction for that day and age, but a new concrete dam was built in 1926 with 26 feet high x 753 feet long concrete walls and spillways.
We initially assumed that the little visitor center next to the dam was our destination, but the Giant Springs State Park is actually a mile and a half up the road, so off we toddled in the truck and soon found the correct location.
This Giant Springs State Park is the site where a large underground spring emerges and flows into one of the shortest rivers in the country – the 201 foot (61 metres) long Roe River, which joins the longest river in the US, the 2540 mile (4087 kilometres) long Missouri river.
The crystal clear underground Spring water takes nearly 50 years to reach this spot, from its source in the Little Belt Mountains, and is a constant 54 F (12C) temperature all year around.
After the Giant Falls State Park, we headed South-West back to Wolf Creek, and stopped at a scenic overlook of the Missouri river on the old US-91. What a spectacular sight, looking down to the river gorge below!
Afterwards, we headed back to Wolf Creek.
Lillian and Aaron’s gorgeous house setting!
We met friends of Aaron and Lillian from across the road, Bob and Jackie. Aaron and Lillian put on a stupendous spread for dinner, with the most delicious steaks on the grill, and a very tasty salad.
After dinner, Lillian brought out the games and we played the very naughty game called Cards Against Humanity, which we’d played with friends back in South Africa. It’s definitely NOT the type of game to be played in “polite” company, haha!!!! We had a good few laughs and ended the evening with a lovely cup of percolated coffee for me. Lillian has spoiled us so much, but we certainly appreciated it all. What a wonderful, kind, loving couple! Good people!
Dillon, Montana to Wolf Creek, Montana. 165 miles.
Much excitement today as we are heading North up the I-15 to go and visit our dear friends, Aaron and Lillian, who we met in Yuma during the 2018/2019 Winter season. They live on a pocket of paradise in the hills just outside of the tiny little village of Wolf Creek, Montana, and have a lovely large grassed area next to the creek that flows at the bottom of their property, on which we could park “Hitch”.
So, we packed up Hitch, flushed the waste tank, filled the fresh water tank and checked the propane tanks – one was still full, so enough for a few weeks worth of furnace for any cold nights, and backup power source for the electric/propane fridge and the electric/propane hot water tank (hot water geyser, for our South African friends!), filled the Ford F350 diesel tank to the max, stocked up with groceries and supplies, let Maddie do her business in the doggie park (and, of course, picked up her gift she left!), and hit the road!
We had a short trip to Wolf Creek, about 167 miles or so, up the I15N, which was uneventful.
We arrived at the Wolf Creek offramp, and exited left towards the little village, then weren’t sure which way to go at the T-junction, and chose to go right as we saw the little village off to the right, but this was actually wrong, so did a U-turn at the end of the street, otherwise we’d have been continuing onto the I-15N.
Once turned around, we drove slowly through town, passed the little pub where Leigh started her first singing gig. Leigh Guest is a lovely, free-spirited young lady friend of Lillian’s, almost like an adopted daughter to her. We met her in Yuma when she came to visit Aaron and Lillian this year. She sang a collection of her own original songs for a small group of Lillian and Aaron’s friends in Yuma. What a fun evening! Her lyrics tell a story. I suspect much of what she writes is taken from her real life situations, while others are just fun stories that she sings with humor and a surprisingly good voice, while strumming her guitar or ukulele. Such a talented and attractive young woman!
Back to Wolf Creek, after 20 seconds, we were through the little village 🙂 and took a right onto the road heading out of town, perpendicular to the I-15. I guess that was heading West or South-West, and then Lillian’s directions took us to the little bridge over the creek on their property.
Such a beautiful spot!
We got ourselves situated on the recently mowed grassy area next to their creek, which Aaron had cut with his brand new drive-on mower. He had cut a huge area for us to be comfortable for the few days. It gave us a little inkling into the thought, preparation, care and generosity that our dear friends had made to make us feel so at home with them!
Once unpacked and the RV setup for a few days boondocking (dry camping), we headed up the hill in the truck to have dinner with Aaron and Lillian, who had prepared a scrumptious grilled Salmon dinner that Aaron cooked on his grill on their huge veranda overlooking their property. Some pics from the veranda below..
After the tasty Salmon dinner, we sat around the table and chatted until quite late into the night, before heading back down to Hitch for the night.
Tomorrow, Lillian had plans for us to go to visit the “First Peoples’ Buffalo Jump State Park”, and then on to the “Giant Springs State Park”, both near Great Falls, Montana. I got my little Sony camera and faithful 40-year old Canon L lens ready for some more beautiful scenery!
A small project – updating the bathroom vanity, faucet and countertop
So, we have rain and a storm in the area, so Karen and I decided it was a good day to tackle our bathroom vanity project.
The original vanity sink is in good shape but is, frankly, almost as hideously ugly as the truly gobsmackingly ugly faucets, which are that deep ’80s style of glass and gold, and with the cold faucet turning the opposite direction to the hot faucet, just enough to confuse the crap out of me after a coupla large glasses of vino!
I took the opportunity to remove the original countertop and replace is with a larger countertop that I cut from a cheap piece of pine board that I bought at Home Depot. I cut the board on the campground picnic table outside and was waiting to see if someone would come and tell us to tone down the noise from the power tools, but we finished the two cuts in less than 2 minutes, so I suppose it wasn’t too bad! 🙂
I added about 2 inches to the front and sides of the board for a little more space for toothbrushes, etc, and drilled the holes necessary for the bowl sink and the new faucet.
Of course, nothing goes perfectly to plan and the new faucet water line connectors were the more modern style and did not fit the larger RV water supply lines, so off to the local Ace Hardware up the road, for some adapters.
Once back, everything went to plan and it only took a few minutes after Karen had stained the countertop and waited for it to dry, for me to screw it back onto the base cabinet, and then mount and glue the new bowl sink and the new faucet.
We think it looks much more modern and fits better with our styling “theme”!
Old and new pics….
Old vanity, faucet and countertop
Tomorrow, we head North on the I-15 to visit our dear friends that we made in Yuma, Lillian and Aaron, in Wolf Creek, about 170 miles away. We’ll be there for 3 nights to have 2 full days with them. Can’t wait!
Sightseeing day. Dillon, Montana to Anaconda, Montana. 166 miles.
Today, we took a drive North to scout out some free camping spots (boondocking) along the Big Hole river. I had checked the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) federal website for free camping locations in Montana and Idaho, and this stretch was one of them. ANyone can camp along Highway 43 between Divide in the East and Wisdom in the West, a distance of about 70 miles (120kms).
So, we drove up the I-15N from Dillon, to the Divide turnoff on the 43, and then headed West along the 43, which hugs the Big Hole river all the way. We found two really nice free camping spots with beautiful views of the river on some Forest Service roads, but as they are a couple of miles away from anyone on rough dirt roads, Karen is not too keen on these spots. We then found another two spots in some inexpensive limited-service campgrounds at $10/night, but still dry-camping with no power or water or dumps. As our rig is setup with solar electricity and plenty of water and waste tank capacity and propane for an easy 2 weeks, this is a good option for us. I took a pic of the river, below, from one of the campsites. Beautiful views!
Karen had also wanted to visit a small town, Anaconda, in the North, so we took a side trip off the 43 towards Anaconda. Nice little town. We stopped at a DQ for a bite to eat and a small Blizzard. Even Maddie had one of DQ’s little icecream bowls for dogs. She LOVES icecream!
On the way to Anaconda, we passed a “Wildlife Viewing refuge” so stopped and took a short drive to the top of the hill to look down into the valley. The wildest game we saw was a herd of cattle haha, but we did come across a hiker with his dog. He was tanned brown as boot leather and seemed to not have an ounce of fat on him, so I asked him where he’d come from. He causally said he’d walked from Glacier National Park (which is 400 kms away (250 miles!) OK, that explains the lack of fat! 🙂
Day 04. North Fork, IDaho to Dillon, Montana. 124 miles.
We woke up late this morning. Must have been the incredible quiet of that amazing and remote valley, and perfect sleeping temperatures with our windows open at last, and snuggled cozily under the blankets. Even Maddie had a sound sleep!
By the time we got up, Dave and Robin were up and Dave had the coffee brewed and ready in the percolator on their stove top. Delicious, strong, coffee on the “stoep” (South African for “veranda”), while we chatted away in that cool, crisp, air. No traffic sounds! Birds chirping away. The only way this could have been even better was for a few elk to come on down the mountain, but not today.
No matter….this is the kind of place that my dreams are made of. Folks often laugh when I say that I’m an introvert, but I am! I’m a sociable introvert. I enjoy hanging out with close friends, but I need alone time to recharge the batteries. Karen, on the other hand, gets her energy from being with people. She does not do well being alone too long, even if I’m around. She loves to be with her people! We’ve learned to compromise, but the conclusion here is that no matter the beauty of this place, it’s not for us, as Karen would not be happy.
Anyway, after a delicious breakfast of scrambled egg, fried potatoes and salsa, we played with the dogs on the front lawn. Maddie loved playing soccer with Dave and myself. Their doggie, Goose, is a 17-year old Jack Russel! Still pretty energetic for the age!
Dave then showed me their solar shed with all their inverters and batteries and the panels outside generating the power they need to be fully offgrid.
Then we moved on to his huge workshop/garage, where he stores his GM Prowler, a very Southern Californian custom styled car that GM produced for a couple of years, with real swoopy styling. We laughed like hell at his story of a high speed run he made in that car, with his buddy, Art, in the passenger seat. I won’t go into details here, to protect the innocent! 🙂
After that, we started to pack up to get on the road for the last leg of our trip, to Dillon, Montana, where we’d booked a month stay at a little RV park recommended by our friend Julie in Yuma.
We said a begrudging goodbye and thanks to Dave and Robin for being such gracious and generous hosts. We had an absolutely awesome time with them despite the short stopover visit. I’m sure we’ll see them again before we both head South to Yuma for the next winter season!
So on the road again, retracing our steps for a a few miles until the main gate, and then turning North on the 93 to head up to the Summit instead of back to Salmon. At the summit, we turned East onto the 43 towards the little town of Wisdom in Montana.
Soon after getting on the 43, we came across a sign pointing to the “Big Hole National Battlefield” on the left. We turned into the access road to see what this was all about. It turns out that this beautiful, lush, valley was the location of an ambush by Colonel John Gibbon, on the morning of August 9, 1877, against the Nez Perce people who were resting at this spot. Between 60 and 90 of the Nez Perce men, women and children were killed before the Nez Perce retreated and regrouped, mounting a counter-attack on Gibbon and his men, and killing 31 and wounding 39 soldiers. The graves are still there today.
After the Big Hole site, we then turned off the 43 and onto the 278 at Wisdom, heading South-East to Jackson towards the I-15, where we would end the trip at our campground for the next month, Countryside RV Park, in Montana.
Day 03. McCammon, Idaho to North Fork, Idaho. 278 miles.
Today, I was determined to get off the Interstate and get onto the 93!
I called my friend Art, who lives in Idaho. He had called me the previous day to leave a message for me to call him back about alternative, more scenic, routes to Montana.
So, I called him and spoke with him about options. He suggested I can leave the I-15 at Blackfoot, in Idaho, and take the much more scenic route on the 93. Especially if we were going to stop over for the night at our other friends, Dave and Robin, which we’d hoped to do. A quick call to Robin, and she confirmed they were good to have us stay over at their place in North Fork. A plan is hatched!
So we left the I-15 at Blackfoot, and headed North-West up the 93. What a lovely road! We started to really see “Big Sky” country in this part of Idaho. Similar to what we expected to see again in Montana. Beautiful, beautiful, country!
We stopped for lunch at a little burger bar called “Pickle’s Place” in Arco. About 8 bikers had just arrived so we had to wait about 40 minutes for our two burgers and fries. The burgers were good. The fries were a little stale. Very few people wearing masks, including the wait staff. I’ll just say that I don’t understand this, and leave it at that.
After lunch, we continued along the 93 until we got to the town of Salmon, where we stopped to pick up some groceries, etc.
Then we continued on 93N until North Fork, where we left the 93 to head East on the NF30, all along the Salmon River. We turned left to continue along the dead-end road towards our friends’ Dave and Robin’s place.
Day 02. Kanarraville, Utah to McCammon, Idaho. 402 miles
Waking up at the Red Ledge RV Park, we quickly finished our ablutions, got dressed and headed out. I was still undecided about the route, as some of our friends recommended we head North on the I-15 as it is one of the prettier Interstates, especially going through Utah, but I generally don’t like the Interstates and want to make maximum use of the small travel rig and rather travel on the smaller, more scenic, secondary roads.
Anyway, I decided to stick with the I-15 for now, and so we headed out on I-15 and set course for McCammon, Idaho, which is just South of Pocatello.
The drive was uneventful, if somewhat boring. This confirmed my opinion that Interstates are boring as all hell, but we made good time, of course.
One thing that we were very happy about was that Maddie was MUCH happier in the back seat of the truck than she ever was in our Class A Motorhome, where she could never seem to settle down. Perhaps the combination of being close to us and not having as much room to move around actually helped to settle her!
During our drive, I missed a call from our friend Art, who had seen my post on Facebook asking for advice on the most scenic/best route to take to Montana, and so I decided to call him back the next morning, before we headed out, as it looked like we had options to get back onto the 93, from the I-15, and thus see more of the mountain passes etc which can be so spectacular.
After a long day, we eventually found a little CG called Crystal Springs Campground, in McCammon, Idaho.
What a beautiful little campground! Thick, lush, green grass sites, and a beautiful little creek where water from the mountain behind flowed into the pond surrounded by tall reeds. Maddie absolutely loved having a swim in the cool water, after a long, dry, hot day.
Day 01. Yuma, Arizona to Kanarraville, Utah. 452 miles.
We finally got on the road at 0745h and pointed the big Ford F350 SuperDuty Turbo-diesel truck North, with our little travel RV, “Hitch” attached to the hitch in the truck bed, following obediently behind.
We would head up the 95 from Yuma, through Quartzsite, Arizona (probably the most famous and popular dry-camping (boondocking) area in the entire world, with hundreds of thousands of rigs descending on Quartzsite for the big RV Show there the 3rd week of January, and where nearly all of them stay in the free BLM (Bureau of Land Management) desert areas, or the almost-free LTVAs (Long-Term Visitor Areas) which have a few basic facilities like central water, dump stations and trash bins for a modest fee, surrounding Quartzsite.
After passing through Quartzsite, we’d continue North through Parker, a quaint little place in Arizona, before driving through Needles in California (which was a scorching 120F / 49C) and on to Las Vegas, Nevada, before hopping onto the I-15 and heading North-East back into Arizona and past the Grand Canyon, before entering Utah, where we stayed at a tiny, cramped, rather scruffy little campground called Red Ledge RV Park, in Kanarraville, Utah. This campground was small, dusty and had incredibly tight sites, such that we could not even put out our awning, and barely big enough for our room slides without touching the neighbor’s slides!
At least the manageress was friendly and the showers and toilets were clean, with pin code access. Not recommended as a destination CG, but OK for an overnight pass-though spot, if you can fit the tight spaces. Once of the many advantages of Hitch is that she is tiny (9 metres / 28 feet long), so we had no issue fitting in.
Despite the less than pretty CG, we had a good sleep that night in Hitch!
Today is the big day! We leave Yuma and the scaldingly hot weather (50C / 120F) for cooler climes up North. Yay!
Specifically, we are headed to Dillon, Montana, to a little campground called Countryside RV Park, which was recommended to us by our friend Julie in Yuma. So, we are booked into that CG from July 13th until August 13th, thereafter we will move to another CG somewhere else up North. Perhaps remaining in Montana, perhaps moving to the Oregon coast, which we hear is absolutely beautiful, but definitely remaining up North during the peak of Summer, until Yuma cools down a LOT! Enough of that arse-burning, crazy, heat for us!
We have to be back in Yuma by the end of September as we have to move the big Montana off our friends’ site (Richard and Brent), as they have rented their lovely site to other friends of ours who are returning to Yuma on October 1.
So, the initial trip up North, from Yuma was meant to be a slow and fun site-seeing trip, but due to our delays in getting Hitch (our little “travel” RV that we bought for ease of travel and which we have been working hard to renovate since March) ready, we delayed our departure from Yuma until the last minute, and finally decided that today is the day we leave.
Karen worked her butt off getting stuff packed, and me getting the Montana ready for storage in the hot Yuma sun. I ultimately decided to leave the electricity on with one of the two A/Cs setup to switch on at 90F (32C) in order to take the edge off the build-up of heat inside the RV, which can do ugly things to the RVs. I also left two large 5 gallon drums filled with water with sealed tops on and a few small holes drilled in the tops, to allow water vapor to slowly escape and thus keep the inside a little less dry, to help prevent the wood from cracking and other bad juju.
I had serviced the Ford with fresh oil, new filter, replaced both fuel filters, pumped the tires to the maximum 60 psi (4.1 bar) Front, 80 psi (5.5 bar) rear, and greased Hitch’s wheel bearings and pumped all 4 of her tires to 100 psi (6.9 bar) in prep for the trip. We were as ready as we were ever going to be!
I’d decided that despite being late for our prepaid 1 month stay in Montana, I did NOT want to drive up the boring I-15 Interstate highway, if I could help it. We much prefer the more scenic, smaller, less busy, secondary highways which often go through the center of quaint little towns, passed farms and food stalls, and what not. This is our preferred way to travel.
Emerson’s saying, “It’s not the destination, it’s the journey!” is our motto. I love the road, not for getting us quickly from A to B, which is what the Interstates are so good for, but rather, to see the beautiful sights, see the cool little Mom and Pop places and local restaurants, for a quick bite to eat on the road, etc.
So, using mostly secondary highways, despite starting off on the I-15, we decided to take up the generous offer from our friends Dave and Robin, who we met in Yuma, and who have a lovely off-grid home in North Fork, Idaho, for a stop-over evening and night with them. Here’s the trip, as planned in our favorite trip planner, “RVParky”.
