SUNDAY, MAY 27, 2007

The night in the horse friendly motel was OK...quiet except for a/c which was very noisy and came on and off all nite. Did not have good night's sleep tho. The room was very small and no room to put suitcases, etc. However did have internet, fridge and microwave in room as well as coffee maker. Jerry too tired to eat dinner and not hungry, but I was so I took truck and tried a restaurant but it had closed at 9 and it is 9:15 p.m. SO, explored the town looking for place open past 9....settled on grilled chicken from McDonald's. Even the Subway was closed!

Left around 9:30 this a.m. headed for Great Falls to meet our friends, the Graingers who will be traveling with us through Alaska. It is a friendship that goes back to our Hawaii days and we are glad to have reunited and look forward to spending time with them.

Went to the headwaters of the Missouri River - there is a state park there and it was interesting but not what we expected in terms of size, etc. Actually the headwaters of the MIssouri is a confluence of 3 rivers....initially the Madison and Jefferson rivers which then join w/ the Gallatin River a bit further downstream. The confluence of these 3 rivers is the start of the Missouri River.

A security guard who spends his days fishing (he told me he had been fishing every day at the park since 1997) was appalled when Jerry took off his shoes and socks and stood in the water at the edge of the river. He informed us he would not let anyone he knew swim in the river b/c of cold water leeches that are there. However I got the picture of him in the water. He also informed us that there are lots of rattlesnakes in the area. It was a nice stop and we can say we have "been there, done that" with photo proof, but we didn't waste too much time there.

Continued on our drive up to Great Falls. One section of the road we were taking followed part of Lewis and Clark's expedition and is designated a scenic highway. The ride to Great Falls was very interesting. The 2 lane highway through the mountains posted a 70 mph speed limit! We were amazed!

The highways we took carried us through forests w/ streams alongside the roads through huge valleys and pasture land which was gently rolling and extremely green. Almost always in the distance in any direction were impressive snow covered peaks. It was a nice drive. We ran into some kids who were loading skis into their car and they came over and told us about their day skiing. Snow skiing! At Showdown Mountain there was still snow on top. They had hiked to the top to ski down. I think most of it was mud skiing, but they did it so they could say they had been skiing in May. Kids!! LOL

We stopped at a campground in the national forest and had some cheese, crackers and sardines again. There was still a bit of snow on the ground and a very small bubbling creek right there.

Arrived Great Falls about 4 p.m., found our friends and drank a couple of Bloody Marys then had a wonderful dinner of turkey tenderloin, sweet potatoes and green beans. Watched prairie dogs from their motor home and spent the time catching up on what we had been doing since we were together in West Texas in Feb. They had also spent some time in Piedmont w/ Jerry.

Will be here until Tues. a.m. so it will be a treat to spend 2 nites in the same place. Schlepping suitcases is getting old. This may be last entry for a couple of days.....we'll see what we wind up doing while we are here.

Hope all is well with everyone at home! Love y'all, Linda