July 2, 2008 Great Falls

The day dawned misty, rainy and cool... But we were warm and dry in our cabin. OH YEAH! The campground turned out to be nicer than many motels we've stayed at. Luxurious bathrooms, an outdoor kitchen, and they even bring the morning paper around to you.

After a fine night's sleep, we packed off to the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center in Great Falls. Interesting enough, but we were both well-versed in the Lewis and Clark expedition, amazing as that was. After a few hours at the Center, we decided to go over to the Great Falls, the place where Lewis and Clark were forced to take their boats out of the water and carry them for 18 miles. The trip getting to the falls was about as interesting as the falls themselves. There's no easy way to get there, other than by the 7 miles or so of roads around and outside of the city of Great Falls. It's pretty obvious, by the shape of the road, that not too many people actually take the time to go to the falls. In the early 1900s, they built a dam directly behind the falls. We spent a little time there taking photos and then turned northwest to Glacier National Park.

That road was typically Montana--unbelievably beautiful, with 360 degree views to the horizon at the top of each rise in the road. By 5:30, we were at the edge of Glacier's snow-capped peaks. The road on which we approached Glacier was marked by the remains of the 2006 fire.
All along the road into the valleys were charred trees. I don't think I've ever seen a burn that large.

We settled into our cabin for the evening. Tomorrow and the next 3 days we will go exploring in Glacier. See today's pictures here.

July 1, 2008 Car trouble

What promised to be another “routine” long-distance ride (about 650 miles) from Jamestown, ND to Great Falls, MT, turned out to be anything but. About an hour after our start at 8:09 (odometer reading 100370), Ray noticed that the temperature gauge wasn’t working—no reading at all. Then, he tried the air conditioning---UH OH… no air. The fan worked, and everything else worked (including the electronic message center that tells you when stuff goes wrong—like low tire air pressure, open doors, high engine temp, etc). What to do? I checked the car manual. No help. So here’s the scenario: do we just tough out an upcoming ride of 590 miles in 90s heat without air conditioning, and hope that the message center would accurately tell us if the engine was overheating? Or should we stop and get the problem diagnosed and fixed? Remember that we still had about 9 hours more to drive and it was 10:00 am.

Being the reasonably sane folks that we are, and I, being a very sweat prone person, immediately opted to get the damned car fixed. I checked online for potential assistance. Nothing. So we decided to call the nearest Chevy dealer to see if we could drive in and get help. I checked online for a local dealer and called them. The first dealer in Bismarck, ND said that they could take us “maybe later this morning”. Forget it. We need assistance NOW. Drove a bit further and called a dealer in Dickinson, ND. YAAAAAY. “Come on in.” So we plugged the address into the GPS (soooooo helpful) and off we went to the dealer, Sax Chevrolet in Dickinson. Al Meier, the service manager there, took the car in immediately. After a 2.5-3 hour wait, we discovered that the computer controller for the car was on the fritz and had to be replaced for the tidy sum of $658.00. Yeah, but at least we now had air conditioning……

So, onward, starting at about 2:00 pm…to Glendive, MT, the beginning of an amazing road that’s pretty much of a straight shot to Great Falls, a road that’s about 343 miles long. For about 220 of those miles the scenery is essentially wide open spaces, (and I do mean WIDE OPEN) with ranches that spread themselves over the miles. The only way I can give you some equivalent is this: Imagine driving from our house in NH to Alex’s place in NY and all you can see for 80% of the ride is open land as far as you can see to the horizon, all rolling hills, and buttes. This ride would be punctuated over the first 220 and last 100 miles with a few ranches whose houses you cannot see—just driveways with a mailbox on the road. Amazing. We couldn’t help but speculate where the kids go to school… We also wondered at the number of road kill on this road. Geez--didn't their mothers tell them to look both ways before they cross the road?

Then the landscape started to change. We saw trees, and the road became curvy, ending in Lewiston, MT, for this part of the country, a good sized town. By then, it started to rain—not a good thing because we are camping tonight. And it was 7:00 already and we still had 1 ½ hours to drive.

By the time we had arrived at the KOA campground at which we had reserved a tent space, it was 8:30. It was apparent that the skies had opened up here and drenched the campground. Large, deep, puddles were everywhere. We were assigned a space, and told that if it was too wet at the space to come back. It was, and we did. When I went back to the office, the girl at the desk said that because it had been raining, and was very wet, she might be able to upgrade us to a cabin. After a call to the manager, the deed was done. We are spending the night in the comfort of a heated, dry cabin.

We sat on the porch swing of our little cabin, protected from the rain that had started up again, drinking a beer, and celebrated our day.

See pictures of the day here.

Til tomorrow...

June 30, 2008 Through Wisconsin

After a quick breakfast (oatmeal and fruit) and a cup of coffee to go, we were off at 7:50 am, with the odometer at 99641. Our goal was to get to Jamestown, ND, a ride of about 729 miles. See the route here .

The day was bright, sunny, and warm. Holy smoke, Wisconsin is beautiful! Rolling green hills, and open spaces. We made a decision to come back there and explore more some time. Along the way, lots of dead deer and critters, many of which were unidentifiable in their current state. I guess road crews aren't exactly quick to do road pizza pick up in this part of the country.

Seeing all these farms out in the middle of nowhere (by eastern standards, anyway), made me think more about why the middle of America is chock-a-block with "red" states. As you drive by on the interstate, you see gigantic farms, with a farm building group out in the distance surrounded by trees. Your nearest neighbor might be miles away. Your living is the land, and that is dominated by the weather, good or bad that buffets it. What kind of strong, independent soul could live that life? Certainly not anyone who thinks that we're entitled to anything in this life. You get what you work for. That's what made America great.

Not much else to report on--I did see a sign that definitely caught my attention. Check out the site associated with the billboard that exclaimed WE DO COWS DOT COM.

See you tomorrow....

June 29, 2008 Going West

We're on our way. We left yesterday at about 10:30 am, arrived in Rochester at about 5:15 pm, and stayed with Alex and Jenna at their townhouse last night. Although Jerry (our cat) and J.B. (Alex and Jenna's cat) are not exactly best friends yet (an understatement, of course), I think that they will get to a point where they can ignore each other. Last night and this morning, there was a lot of growling and spitting. Good luck, Alex and Jenna!

Off this morning at about 8:30. Crazy weather--sunny with clouds, then light rain, then torrential rain, then sunny again. It was a mostly uneventful drive except for the few times we drove through a wall of water. God, radio across the country really stinks! At one point, the best we could scrounge up on talk radio was a discussion on rain gutters. Yikes! It made me start to yearn for a discussion on the election--talk about desperation!

Going through Chicago, we were reminded of how the world is changing...Saw a large billboard on the interstate that shouted: "DON'T BELIEVE YOU'RE THE FATHER? FAST, AFFORDABLE DNA TESTING: CALL XXX-XXX-XXXX" What a country...

So far, since NH where we had filled up for $3.92, gas prices are mostly over $4.00 a gallon, the highest at Elk Grove Village, IL (where we are staying tonight) at $4.17/gallon. We are averaging 29 mpg. Tomorrow the Impala will roll over to 100,000 miles!

June 19, 2008 Getting ready for the trip

The tent and propane stove are ready. So are the air mattresses and the cooler. We have a lantern, ponchos, hiking shoes, hats (I have my Celtics hat--Go green!) and our trusty sleeping bags (which we've had since we went traveling around the states in 1975). We're gathering all our "stuff" in preparation for our first substantial trip since 2000 when we went cross-country for 5 -6 weeks with Alex. For three weeks starting on June 28th, we'll be visiting some favorite US spots, and some new ones as well.

We plan on booking it out to Glacier National Park to spend 4 days there. I was startled to discover that the Going to the Sun road is still not open completely. The snow is up to 15 feet deep at Logan Pass .

After that, we really have no definite plans. We know we probably will stop by the National Bison Range maybe the Badlands in SD, the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD (I never did get to see that , Alex) Great Falls, MT, the Tetons, maybe Yellowstone, maybe the Flint Hills in KS, (not necessarily in that order, of course) and lots of little towns along the way. We'll decide as we go.

In the past, I've sometimes kept a diary of the days we spent traveling, and , of course, I took lots of pictures. This time, I thought I'd make my diary online, and share it with you.

I may not post every day, because Internet access may be limited in places. But I will try to post daily. Feel free to keep in touch by email.

We can't wait to be on the road again...