Why Wyoming, Montana and Idaho...

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Why Wyoming? Well, we needed to drive through Wyoming (a huge state) in order to make our way west across I-90 towards the Pacific. We spent only one night there, at Peter D's RV Park in Sheridan, and coincidentally, friends of ours have been stuck in that very same town with a fuel pump that quit on their motor home last week. They departed from Croton Point Park soon after we did and their family of six and two dogs have been just a few hundred miles behind us, until last Tuesday...

While passing through most of Wyoming, I remember thinking that I would never want to break down here, because all we had observed were miles and miles of hay fields and farms.

As ever-resilient RV'ers, our friends have decided to tent camp in Rapid City, SD until the necessary parts and installation can be completed (projected to be at least another week). Their decision to push on is a true display of optimism and determination. They have decided to make the best out of the worst of circumstances. Our best wishes for beautiful memories and smooth travels to the Garay Family!

 

Here is a photo of Little Miss parked in Peter D's.  This place was a welcome site at the end of a long travel day - a clean campground, pull thru site, full hook-ups and very nice owners. They had a cute main office and store set up with local pottery and hand-crafted items.

There were no amenities, but what they had was all we needed.

I got a kick out of the fact that they asked you to "wipe your feet" before entering the restrooms.

The main office and store stocked with lovely hand-made crafts and pottery.

Montana's Welcome Sign

Since leaving Michigan, the view out of our window turned golden. We saw miles and miles of hay fields, corn, wide-open prairie land and cow herds. There were lots of mountains that were a sandy color, making all of my photos seem pale. 

Lyrics to the song, America The Beautiful, kept going in and out of my head. "Amber waves of grain," "purple mountain's majesty" and "above the fruited plain." I didn't see any fruit in those plains, but boy, did we see wheat! "Holy Cream of Wheat, Batman!"  There were hundreds of miles of wheat, prairie, protected land and nature preserves.

Yellowstone River in Montana

Breakfast by the side of the Little Bighorn River in Montana.

Totally enjoying the view - even more than my coffee!

One of our last stops in Montana was a quick drive-through of Bozeman. If you are familiar with the sit-com, Big Bang Theory, you would understand how I associate the character of Sheldon Cooper with George. In one of the episodes, Sheldon's apartment is robbed and he decided to move to Bozeman, MT, because his research revealed that Bozeman, according to their Chamber of Commerce, was the "Most Livable Place to Live" in the US. Turns out, once he gets off the bus in Bozeman, someone steals his suitcase. Great episode (CLICK TO SEE A CLIP).

Anyway, when I saw our route took us through the infamous town, we had to stop and snap a photo of George with the "Welcome to Bozeman" sign. We were so glad we detoured through the town, because it tured out to be a sweet, little, hopping place. We caught it on a Saturday, during its Annual Sweet Pea Festival. I fell in love with the "Old Amercana" feel of the town and could actually see myself living there.  A funny observation, for only a drive through, but everyone seemed infectiously happy and fun-loving. Another town I did get to snap a few photos of was Ennis, MT. These small towns sure do bring you back in time to a better way of living. No big box stores anywhere to be seen.

Busy Main Street near the Ennis Cafe

The Trading Post and Theater

Ennis Pharmacy has a soda fountain and restaurant!

Willie's Distillery - didn't stop.....no place for us to park.

Idaho was quite interesting. We actually parked for four days in Idaho Falls and did very little except rest, food shop and catch up with laundry and paperwork. Idaho seemed to be a lovely state in which to live. It had been recently voted the top place for First Responders to live, based upon salary, job security and satisfaction. 

The town, although I didn't get any photos of it, was similar to the towns of Bozman and Ennis in Montana. All reminiscent of old town Peekskill, or any 1950'ish city, where Main Street was the bustling center of activity. The busy stores that lined the main street were located in original, restored 19th century buildings. Some of the stores I observed were a bridal shop, several restaurants and pubs, a pharmacy, antique stores, clothing stores (like Genung's), banks, a candy store and an ice cream parlor. We ate dinner at Snakebite Restaurant and enjoyed every "bite...." Only disappointment was similar to our not getting any cheese in Wisconsin - we didn't get any Idaho Potatoes in Idaho.

After leaving our respite at Snake River RV Park, we stopped along the route to visit Craters of the Moon National Park. While we didn't have the time or stamina to do any hiking (temps hovering just below 100 degrees), we did get to watch a video explaining about the volcanic eruptions that have hit the area over the last several hundred-thousands of years, learned about lava tubes and strolled around the Visitor's Center. The lava beds looked just like broken bits of brownie. It was a striking contrast to see after driving through so many miles of golden prairie land. I didn't consider it to be "moon-like" at all, just barren and chocolatey-looking. 

A wooden piece of art replicating the shape of a lava tube, which are empty spaces created by the hot, bubbling lava flows. You could actually hike down the hills and explore inside some of these tubes.

 

Pieces of (brownie) lava.

The journey continues westward. We crossed the border into Oregon on August 12th and have spent  one night in the town of LaGrande and one night in Fairview, which is close to Portland and right along the magnificent Columbia River, both of which will be covered in the next entry. 

Deep thought for the day:  

 "Life handed him a lemon,
As Life sometimes will do.
His friends looked on in pity,
Assuming he was through.
They came upon him later,
Reclining in the shade
In calm contentment, drinking
A glass of lemonade."

"The Optimist," published in The Rotarian,1940 and dedicated to the Garay family.