Day 45

Big Belt Mountains Across the Valley from the RV Park.

Helena, MT is on the other side of the mountains. The mountains are still snow capped.

An advantage of being retired is that one can stay put during the holidays and not complete with the holiday traffic. I made an exception today and went into town to find a car wash. As you can see, traffic was really heavy.

The car wash was on the very north. After washing the Hummer, I drove south about 10 blocks to the end of town. The old railroad station was at the very south end. No sign of any tracks but there are a few abandoned rail cars with nowhere to go anymore. I then preceded a block east in search of the one grocery store hoping to find huckleberry ice cream. I did manage to find the grocery store but no huckleberry ice cream.

A couple of blocks west of Main Street (US 89) at the western edge of town is the Castle. The Castle' is an imposing mansion built in 1892 by Bryon Roger Sherman, and is now the home of the Meagher County Museum. The mansion has twelve rooms all laid with hardwood floors and covered with Belgian and Oriental rugs. In the bathrooms were washbowls and stands of Italian marble, and the light fixtures were of crystal and brass. The Victorian landmark is made of hand-cut granite blocks hauled by oxen from the nearby Castle Mountains.

Sherman installed a large water tank in the attic, supplied by pump from a windmill in the northeast corner of the yard. In 1894 he enlarged a pond on his ranch that was fed by an abundant spring, and laid a twenty-inch pipe about 150 yards down the hill to a two-story electric light plant that had two dynamos in the basement. The electricity was carried into town on bare wire strung on pine and spruce poles. The plant could run only about six hours before the pressure of the pond became too low. Consumers learned to plan their activities around the 'on' hours, but they could lay claim to living in one of the first towns in the state to have electricity.

Sherman didn't live in his stone castle too many years before retiring and moving to California.

Day 44

We headed south today along scenic route US 89 in Montana to White Sulphur Springs. We traveled just 100 miles through rolling hills and mountains. We also managed to find the rain again so no pictures. I do want to back track along US 89 in the Hummer after the 4th weekend so look for pictures early next week of the route traveled today.

We are staying at the Conestoga Campground in White Sulphur Springs. It is a RPI resort that we are members so the cost per night is only $10 with full hookups.

Tomorrow evening they are having having duck races, huckleberry ice cream and fireworks to celebrate July 4th. No huckleberry pie through as huckleberry season is still a bit off.

White Sulphur Springs is the county seat and was one of the original counties in Montana. White Sulphur Springs was the headquarters for a county that included most of central Montana. The town was named because of the white deposits around the hot sulphur springs that were found there. The hot springs have been frequented by Indians for many years. Crow Chief Plenty Coups recalled pilgrimages by warriors to the medicinal mud baths. In 1886 James Brewer stumbled onto the area as the stagecoaches rumbled through the Carroll Trail. Brewer first called the spot Brewer Springs and developed the hot springs into a stage stop and resort.

The Smith River Valley, with White Sulphur Springs as its trading center, was once the home of buffalo and later of prospectors working the Castle Mountain lead and silver mines. Since the days of Fort Logan, White Sulphur Springs has been famous for its fine cattle. Weathered homes and out-buildings at the nearby ghost town of Castle are all that remain of the 1880s silver mining boom.

Day 43 – Great News

 

Last night we had a call from our daughter-an-in-law,Jane, the Colonel had landed at Baltimore International Airport. He was met by his uncles, aunts and cousins. He will be on his way home to his family today.

Today we continued our journey around the top of our route and turned south towards Great Falls, MT. We will spend the night at the Flying-J in Great Falls. Our route today took us along the Old Whoop-Up Trail.

As you may recalled, we spent last night on the Blackfoot Indian Reservation. The Blackfeet know now to celebrate the Forth of July.  Or at least, they get an early start. There were fireworks all night into the early morning. This morning when we woke at 7:30, there was not a sole in sight, not even a Blackfoot dog.

 

Click to enlarge

Day 42

We are on the road again. This morning we departed Marion, MT for Great Falls, MT. We arrived at Browning, MT about 3:00 PM and decided that it was time to call it a day. Browning is the capital of the Blackfeet Indian Tribe. There is a excellent museum that covers the history of the plains Indians and the Blackfeet.

We are staying at the Blackfeet Indian Casino that allows overnight RV parking. There is no charge to spend the night.

We had a great visit with our friends over the past week.

Middle Flathead River

 

 US 2 just south of Glacier National Park

Day 37

Today we received the following message from our son, Col. James Reed II who has been serving in Afghanistan for the past year. He is in charge of all the Airman serving in Afghanistan. His 1 year tour of duty is coming to an end within the coming weeks.

All is going well. The staff held a going away luncheon for me on Wed; the wing commander stopped by and presented me with the Bronze Star medal. Normally, the decoration would be presented at the Change of Command ceremony, but my replacement will arrive here at Bagram after I leave. It bothers me not to have a change of command ceremony, but it is really more for the new guy then the old guy. We have made arrangements for an Assumption of Command ceremony for him on Monday, 6 July.

The going away luncheon was very nice and heart-felt words spoken by all. I will miss the men and women of the 755 AEG, I will miss the mission and the responsibility...but at the same time, I recognize it is time for me to stand down. I am tired, I can not keep up the pace and of course, I miss Jane, Ryan, Chelsea and Ashley.

Col. James Reed II (JR / Smokey)

As you can see, we are very proud of our son.

On a lighter note, yesterday Don & I completed the conversion of his RO system from just drinking water to RO water throughout the coach. Electronically, all checked out well, the next step is to leak test it and see that it actually works. We should get around to the final test tomorrow.

Today was somewhat of a rest day except for cleaning the windows on the coach and H3.

Day 35

 

Four accomplishments today, washed the Hummer, wash the coach, fix a short in the boat and planted trout in the lake. Tomorrows schedule is to stake the road and finish the RO system in Don’s coach right after pancakes with pecans, maple syrup and sausage breakfast.

 Waiting our turn to pickup trout

 

      Picking up a load of trout for planting in the lake

Days 33 & 34

Day 33

We travel from Missoula, MT to Marion, MT just around 140 miles. First we ran into long stretch of road construction and rain. The road was muddy and both the coach and the Hummer were well coated with mud. It looked as we were traveling in Alaska. After clearing the road construction, there was an accident that blocked the highway. The two incidents added over an hour to the trip.

Flathead Lake

We arrived at Don & Karen’s mid afternoon to more rain, wind and forty degree temperature. The northwest is having a wet and cool start to summer.

Lake McGregor

Day 34

Today seems like our first day since leaving Tucson without rain. The sky cleared, light wind and temperature made it up to 63. We even made progress in converting the RO water system in Don’s coach from just RO drinking water to having RO water throughout the entire coach. The re-plumbing was completed today and tomorrow or the next day we should complete wiring the controller.

Day 32

Today we relocated to Bretz RV & Maine in Missoula, MT. Bretz is where we purchased our coach. We will spend the night here, top off the propane tank in the morning and continue our journey to Don & Karen’s home on Lake McGregor.

The rain is still following us. We have had rain almost everyday if not every day since we left Arizona on May 21st. I hope northern Montana needs rain as we are sure to bring it with us.

Day 31

 

Spring Gulch – Sula, MT

More overcast skies and rain. No sun, no solar charging so I have to run the generator to charge the batteries and run the heat pumps to warm the coach. It is only 54 degrees at 2:00 PM. The low last night was 48. Not much daytime warming.

This area has an interesting history, the pictures tell the story.

Click on the pictures to enlarge.

Sula Montana  

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Meeting Place 

How it looks today 

 

 

 

 

 

Trout Fishing on the Bitterroot River

The Bitterroot Mountains

Highway History

Day 30

Today we traveled a whole 80 plus miles to Spring Gulch, MT. Now one might ask, why drive so little? Well there are two reasons. One is when retired, why hurry. The second and more important is, Don needs time to find Montana Huckleberries and Karen needs time to bake the huckleberry pie before we arrive at their home on Monday.

Today’s drive took us up over the Bitterroot Mountains. It is easy to see why the Bitterroots cause such a difficult time for the Lewis & Clark exploration party and why they lost so many horses to falls and exhaustion. The forest is so thick that one cannot see what lies ahead and the mountains are very steep.

We are camped in the Bitterroot National Forest alongside the Bitterroot River. We plan to spend two nights here. There is cell phone and internet service plus one TV station, NBC.

Spring Gulch Campground

Bitterroot River

Day 29

Today was spent in camp relaxing and catching up on housekeeping chores as the next couple of days will be dry camping along side the Bitterroot River.

The country store near the campground received huckleberry ice cream today. Desert was huckleberry milk shakes. Mik enjoyed his cut of both Raija’s and my milk shakes.

Hopefully Karen will have homemade huckleberry pie with huckleberry ice cream on top when we arrive.

Day 28

We are camped at a small RV Park in North Fork, Idaho along the Salmon and the North Fork of the Salmon River. The North Fork Salmon River joins the main Salmon River here. Lewis and Clark explored both rivers in their quest for a water route to the west coast. Just north of here along the North Fork they encountered some Flathead Indians. The Flatheads spoke a language that none in the party recognized.

 

 

Salmon River

 

 

Old Mine Pump House on the Salmon 

 

 

Elk Herd Across the Salmon River

Day 27

Wouldn’t you know it! Today the sun came out and it is our departure day. We continued north on 93 along the Salmon River to North Fork and an RV Park with full hookups so Raija can do the laundry. There is no cell phone service the RV Park does have WiFi.

We just missed by minutes having a car broadside us. I had the coach parked in the parking lot while I went in to pay for our site. I then moved the coach to the RV Sites and we chose a site. When I walked back up to the store to tell them my site number there was a car slammed into two cars right where we were parked. It appears that the driver had a stroke or heart attacked, ran off of the highway into the parking lot, broad sided a car parked in the same spot that we where we were parked. The force of the impact pushed the car that he hit into the side of another parked car.

I was able to get some better pictures of the mountains with snow now that the sky cleared.

Click picture to enlarge