Long page, pictures below.

20070711 Wednesday
Yellowstone NP WY to Great Falls MT (Malmstrom AFB FAMCAMP)
330 miles
Cool AM, warm noon, hot PM

The temp was 48*F as we rose and made ready to roll. The diesel started hard, but started and smoked up the place. 

I noticed as I was cranking up the rear support legs that the base of the awning leg at the rear of the trailer seems to be pulling away from the side of the trailer.

But we started out anyway and went up to Canyon, then west to Norris, south to the Madison junction with the west exit road. On the way to Canyon, we found a big clump of picture-takers. When we had a chance to glance into the valley, we saw a bear with cub. They were way in the distance, so we couldn't tell whether black or grizzly, but black is much more likely.

We also saw elk, deer, and antelope on the way out.

Leaving the park, we got onto US287 north and stayed on it until it merged with I-15 at Helena MT, going through West Yellowstone and Three Forks. We stopped at D&D RV in Helena for advice on the awning leg, but they were running short-handed. But they did give us the name and number of a place in Great Falls. When we said we were going to stay at the FAMCAMP, they said to say "hi" to Bruce & Elizabeth, the campground hosts.

We ran the rest of the way to Great Falls (getting warm - 86*F) and straight into the FAMCAMP. Bruce greeted us, so we said 'hi" from D&D. He got us all set up and gave us the name & number of the local Mobile RV Doctor - Bret. We finished setting up and called Bret. He came by to look at the problem, then said he could do something for it and would be back before noon tomorrow. I told him we'd pay cash, which he liked.

I put back into place another piece that had worked loose, had an Alaskan Amber, and started this computer work.

After a bit, we did a pork chop, pasta, and salad dinner. 

We decided to look at the base & did a short driving tour of the base. It's a typical Air Force base, lots of new-looking buildings, well-kept, new construction on-going, ball game going on at the diamond. It has a tiny mini-airplane museum next to the front gate with a B-25 and bunch of others I didn't recognize as we passed by.

Then we took a short driving tour that included the downtown business district, some residential areas (looks like 1960's Holland in toward downtown), and the "strip" along 10th Avenue South. This strip has all kinds of casinos, shopping, restaurants, strip malls, car dealers, bail bondsmen and more - quite a street.

Now, we're back at the little house in the nice FAMCAMP. It doesn't have cable TV or wifi, but it has a great view to the west and a nice laundry. Wifi is on the list for installation soon, but it's not there now - we'll go to the base library tomorrow to get these notes off. But first, we'll do laundry in the morning and wait for Bret to show up later in the morning to work the awning.

Oh, yes....  the temperature over the next couple of days will rise to 99*/100*. Goody.  
 

20070712 Thursday
At Great Falls MT (Malmstrom AFB FAMCAMP)

Cool early, warming thru the day to 86*F

We stayed practical today (mostly). First, we did laundry & trailer-cleaning.

Then Bret the RV Doctor came along. He figured out the problem with the awning leg and improvised a solution that will safely get us back home (and farther). But it does show that we've put this poor thing to uses for which it was never designed. Jayco rated this trailer as an "Occasional Weekender". Instead, we've taken it on six extended (multi-thousand mile) trips and a bunch of shorter ones. I computed once that we've dragged it more than 65,000 miles. Dolores once counted the nights we've spent in the trailer on the road and came up with over a year's worth. I guess we've got our money out of it. So, on with the trip.

We scurried to the base library with both laptops. The librarian suggested we set up shop in the reference room. We plugged in, got on-line using wifi and got caught up on the digital world. The wifi worked well; in fact, she told us we could probably pull up to the back of the library and reach it from the truck, if we had that need. It is a beautiful library, small perhaps, but it looked quite complete.

The librarian told us a hilarious story about the spottiness (is that a word?) of cell phone coverage up here. Seems that travel takes you into canyons where you can't get a signal and/or mountains get in the way. She said her husband has a hunting shack in mountains west of here and that there is one (just one) spot near that cabin where the cellphone will communicate. He has to hike to it, then use it.

The commissary was next on the list. We went with the intention of replacing used items, but still got carried away since we will be in Canada for two weeks. The Canadians have good stuff, but there are some things that just taste a little different. 

We returned to the little house and put things away. Then out to dinner at Borrie's in Black Eagle. Dolores had the king crab special (1.5 lb) and I had a nice steak. The place has a mixed steak or Italian menu, so even the steak dinners start wtih minestrone, then a large salad (a dressing selection is brought to the table), then the main course, which you can have with fries, baked potato or spaghetti. One of the entrees on the menu was a 26 ounce steak. We both sailed through the whole works, but we won't need to have any snacks for a while. People must eat big out here in "Big Sky Country".

Back at the campground, we fell into conversation with two other couples who were standing in the road with their dogs. We compared a lot of travel stories and learned a few things. One of the guys had been here at Malmstrom in 1955. They'd both traveled a lot, and both couples live in Tucson though they hadn't met till now.

Then into the little house to relax. D went to bed early because she got all caught up in a computer game last night and stayed up late. I'm up late doing these notes & then I'll retire.

Tomorrow's high is expected to be 96*F and it goes higher after that. We intend to tour the place, but it looks like we'd better move from one air-conditioned place to another.
 

20070713 Friday
At Great Falls MT (Malmstrom AFB FAMCAMP)

Cool early, warming thru the day to 94*F

We did our duty as tourists today. We visited a bunch of places and left money at most of them. But we had fun doing it.

First was the trip along the Missouri River where the great falls gave the town its name. Dams now build up lakes over most of them, but enough remains to get an idea of what Lewis & Clark had to do to get around them. The portage route happens to lead right past the FAMCAMP gate. The US Forestry Service has an interpretive center here that speaks to their problems and others. Beautiful facility. Many pictures.

Then we went to the Charles M. Russell Museum. Charley Russell was a great Western artist here who worked in many media (oil, watercolor, sculpture, whimsical structures, etc.). He went west in the 1880's and worked cattle for 14 years while drawing and painting. His last cow trip accompanied cattle on the railroad to Minneapolis where his works were on exhibition. He married; his wife was astute in business, so they did fairly well. He died in 1926, but did his greatest works from 1890 to 1926.

The Museum consists of a new, low-lying, brick building on 3rd Avenue. Behind it lies the museum's greatest artifact - the cabin in which Russell painted while there. The family house is next door, but the studio is a log cabin made from telegraph poles. His possessions have been preserved - rifles, paints, robes, his sashes (which he wore instead of belts and called himself eccentric for doing so), and all the rest. There's much more than I can desribe here.

When we entered the brick building we were charged our admission, then told to go behind the brick building for our free root-beer floats. We each had two - they'd made too many. Then we looked through the studio. Dolores did the house while I went through the gift shop. Then we toured the galleries inside the brick building.

Russell was prolific as well as good. We were told there are at least 4,000 pieces of his work known. Locally, he was a character. We were told this story.

Charley was in the Mint Bar one day and pulled out a wad of clay. His long fingers fashioned a beautiful representation of a horse. A barfly offered him five dollars for it. Charley said no, that it was worth ten dollars. The barfly said that he had only five dollars. Charley wadded up the horse into a clay ball, split it, and put half back in his pocket. With the other half, he fashioned a smaller but still great horse. He pushed it down the bar and said, "there's your five dollar horse".

The Mint Bar was Charley's hangout here. He traded a bunch of paintings to the owners for bar bills and good will. They displayed many of them and kept them. When the place closed after WWII, the owners offered the paintings to the town for $62,000. The town fathers refused the offer, so Amon Carter of Dallas got them for something like $250,000. It's still known here as "the one that got away".

We went downtown then, and left Bob Hunt's regards with Penny at Penny's Gourmet-to-Go. She appreciated hearing (however remotely) from him and we had a nice conversation for a few minutes. We took a self-devised auto tour using an obscure map, but we think we appreciate the things we saw, including the old Milwaukee Road train depot.

It was warm in the sun and the low humidity made us thirsty, so we stepped into the local VFW. We pulled up next to a couple of guys who were very open and entertaining. We had a great time chatting with them and getting another sense of the town. They said they were going to dinner tonight at Borrie's, where we were last night. They told us we should try the Bar-S down US87.

So, we did. Again, more food than we could handle. I had another steak but brought part of it home with D's part of a prime rib dinner. Good salads, good service, good bread, good everything. But you must be big to handle all this food. The trip there showed that we're in the big country - we could see for miles to two distant mountain ranges.

Then, back to the little house. We thanked the campground hosts for their help, and started putting things away for travel tomorrow - when the temp is forecast to approach 100*F all over this part of Montana. Maybe the hills in Alberta will be cooler, but we doubt it. Anyway, we consider this town a keeper - one a person could live in.