Date: 28 May 2001 (Monday of Memorial Day Weekend)

Start: Fishing Bridge RV Park, Yellowstone National Park, WY

End: KOA, Three Forks, MT (188 miles)

We woke up to a cloudy, cool (36f), day.

After breakfast in the "little house in the big park", we hooked up and left via the south loop of the lower part of the figure eight, then out through West Yellowstone, MT.

On our way out of the park we saw a bald eagle surveying his domain from a dead tree and a big elk right next to the road with huge velvet antlers. Then a small herd of bison walking on the road toward us, and a bird (either an osprey or immature eagle) rising up from the river with a fish in its claws.

We headed west on US20, into Idaho, then north on Idaho 87. This action gave me bragging rights to say I’ve been in each of the 50 states.

We stopped early at Three Forks, MT. We did laundry, drove around town, and took in the "Headwaters of the Missouri" state park. Lewis & Clark came up the Missouri but when they reached the meeting of three equal rivers; they stated that the Missouri started at that point, and named the three merging rivers for Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin (Secretary of Interior?).

The folks at the local visitors center, located in an old Milwaukee Road caboose, gave us a suggestion for dinner – a local beef place called the "Steer In".

We left there and retreated to the little house in the face of a line squall coming through that made a lot of noise and a little rain. This area gets about 10 inches of rain a year. The mountains to the west scrub off the moisture before it gets here. They may call it "high plains" but I’d call it "high desert".

At the Steer In, I ordered a top sirloin and Dolores ordered a T-bone, and we ordered a bottle of Riesling (D likes whites). Dolores’ T-bone was massive, measured in pounds, not ounces; it was at least an inch and a half thick and done the way she wanted. Mine wasn’t quite as big, but it was good and there was plenty of it. The bill was under $50.

We came back to the little house and took a walk around the campground, then called it a night.