montemover

Click or double click on pictures to enlarge. Pictures are of: Water wheel and two story outhouse in Nevada City; Nevada City Hotel;Donna and her mother Grace; View from Betty’s backyard of the Blue Mountains; Betty and Jackie; Flathead Lake at Polson.

I picked Donna up at the airport on the 22nd and while she went off with her mother to spend some quality time, I continued to explore the Missoula area with Jackie and enjoy Ed and Betty’s hospitality. Jackie and I made a loop from Missoula to Polson to Whitefish to Columbia Falls and back to Missoula. It was a long trip with some beautiful scenery. Flathead Lake at Polson is beautiful and just happens to be where Donna’s mother, Grace, lives. Lucky lady! Betty took me around Missoula and we went to the Memorial Park where Ed was instrumental in getting a monument to law enforcement officers designed and installed, and she also took me to Fort Missoula, a fort without walls with a very interesting history. We went to the Hot Springs for a picnic with Betty’s grandchildren and Jackie and I stopped at Fort Fizzle (so named because the ambush the army planned against the indians, fizzled).We enjoyed many mornings and evenings on Betty and Ed’s back deck. What a great view they have of the mountains as well as a beautiful yard.

On the 27th, Donna and I took her mother back home to Polson and started for Gillette, WY for the Escapade (Rally) for Escapee members (or SKP’s – pronounced skips – as we call ourselves). The first night we stayed in Butte at one of Donna’s childhood friends who is also a horse person. We had a great time at Carol and Ray’s. The stories that man could tell – wow – and the food was great too. What fun people and I promised that when in the area again, I would stop. It’s always fun to make new friends and Donna and Carol had a great time reminiscing. The next day we traveled through Nevada City, Virginia City (old mining towns, now turned to the tourist trade), Yellowstone and on to Cody, WY. We’ve both been to Yellowstone several times, so we didn’t stop, but it’s still a beautiful drive through and surprisingly, there was very little traffic. We had a pleasant night in Cody and headed out on Sunday for Gillette.

Well, folks, what a trip that was. We went through some beautiful country. First it was the Big Horn Mountains. After a long slow climb up Powder River Pass to 8,000 plus elevation, we pulled over to let Monte rest at the top, and she died. Yep, there we were, stuck at the top of the mountain. Needless to say, we tried to call for help, but no cell phone service up there on that mountain. So we decided to have a little lunch and cogitate a bit on the situation. Well sir, about the time we finished lunch, a little Japanese fellow on a bike came along, so we flagged him down. He was traveling mighty light and appeared to be thirsty, so we offered him some water which he thankfully took. Seems he was riding from New York to California. As Donna was explaining our situation, I climbed into Monte to see if she’d start and lo and behold, she did. So we hastily said goodbye to our new friend and started down the mountain. We proceeded across gorgeous red rock country and then some high plains and on into Gillette. Since we were late in arriving (about 5:00 rather than the expected 2:00 pm) we missed the opening ceremonies and had to wait until after dinner for someone to direct us to our parking. At last we were backing into our site when I noticed the brake light had come on and was not going off. Oh! Oh! What did this mean?

Well I guess you’ll just have to read the next blog to find out about our adventures at the Escapade. Kris

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