On the road yesterday - longest day yet - 582 miles - sore butts!! We came through Sturgis, SD in the morning, site of the big motorcycle rally each August - I added to my bandana napkin collection with some really strange examples! I'm now the proud owner of a Sturgis 2009 motorcycle rally pin - bet none of you can say that! And speaking of motorcycles, we've been seeing thousands of them on the road, particularly in South Dakota. It does make you wonder, the number of riders who ride without helmets - if they don't have brain damage before, [View Full Entry]

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Day 4. Thursday September 3, 2009. I, myself, woke up refreshed this morning. We grilled chicken last night for supper; a boneless, skinless, dry chicken breast for Nan and a couple of bone-in, skin-on, juicy chicken thighs for myself. The sides were smashed taters and beans, chased down with some chilled Chardonnay. Not too long after supper, it was a cleansing shower in the rig for me quickly followed by twelve hours of restful sleep. This morning, we drive into Three Forks for breakfast at a local café. The one we ate at five years ago during our trip through the [View Full Entry]

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Many Glacier Inn, Glacier National Park Thursday September 3, 2009 Thursday Karen and I pack up and again head over the “Road to The Sun” to the town of St. Mary on eastern entrance of the park. This side of the park is the Blackfoot Native American Reservation. After a great bowl of beef chili and a slice of pie at the Park Café we head north through to the town of Babb and the eastern and only entrance to the Many Glaciers area of the park. Many Glacier Hotel is another hundred-year old inn that was built for tourist by [View Full Entry]

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St. Regis to Three Forks Montana Day 3. Wednesday, September 2. Today was just a hard day of driving up and down mountain passes, and long stretches in “Big Sky” country. On the climbs, I put The Beast in tow mode and chugged up with the 18 wheelers. Going down, tow mode causes the transmission to help brake the rig. The speed limit for our weighted rig on the downhill side was 25 mph. I used tow mode and the hand toggle for applying the brakes in Uncle Joe. This was a handy feature and helped control our speed of descent [View Full Entry]

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Day 2. Tuesday, September 1. Boy howdy; Tuesday was a long day. Monday night was a long night. Monday night, we relived a previous night on an outing in Uncle Joe about air management. At Nan’s age, she gets hot during the night. At my age, I don’t like a whole lot of loud noise or commotion during the night, like the sound of the loud ceiling air vent in our bedroom in Uncle Joe. This was voo-de-jay. Forget the details, we figured it out to nobody’s satisfaction. Tuesday morning, “Honey, I’m going to check the air pressure in that tire.&rdqu [View Full Entry]

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Lake McDonald Lodge, Glacier National Park Tuesday September 1, 2009 On Tuesday Karen and I moved from the motel in Kalispell to the Lake McDonald Lodge that’s inside Glacier National Park. What an improvement this is over the roadside Econo Lodge. The McDonald Lodge is a small lakeside inn that was privately built here almost a hundred years ago. It’s now owned by the National Park and operated by a private vender. The building has been recently updated and is the nicest Inn we’ve stayed in at a National Park. Our first floor room is large, clean and has a nicely [View Full Entry]

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Kalispell, Montana August 31, 2001 On Sunday Karen and I headed east for our visit to Glacier National Park. Joining us on our travels to Kalispell were Maxanne, Colleen, Warren, and AJ. We’re all heading to the city at the entrance of Glacier National Park and it’s a 200-mile ride. Driving east on route 90 to Kalispell Montana is a very interesting and lovely ride as it passes through river valleys and mountain passes. We left the highway in St. Regis, Montana and headed north. The countryside is just unbelievably beautiful. The rolling hills and ranches are just what you imag [View Full Entry]

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We headed to Montana to find a city we could have our mail sent to and catch up with the world. We found White Sulfur Springs, MT. 40 miles from the nearest stop light! No phone service. Lots of horses in Montana. While there we took a day and drove to the capital, Helena, just 75 miles around the mountain. The population of Montana is less than a million people. The capital building has a statue of Senator Mike Mansfield (under President Johnson.) Today he would be a Blue Dog Democrat. There are spectacular sunsets in Montana. Guess that's why they [View Full Entry]

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History & Heat Yesterday we had a leisurely morning and left West Yellowstone for a van tour of the area west of the park. There was only one other couple in the 8-passenger van, which was nice. Laurie was our guide. He's lived in the area for many years, hiking, hunting and fishing all over, including in the high country. He showed us the area affected by the huge earthquake of 1959, which created a lake, caused a 20 foot shift in the shoreline, and caused 49 people to lose their lives. If we'd just driven by it, we'd have [View Full Entry]

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This entry actually covers 8-23-09, and after reading it, hopefully you'll see why we were too tired to do it last night. 4 the number of states we were in yesterday: Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada; 2 the number of scenic river valley we drove along: Logan & Snake Rivers; 4 lakes: Bear, Lewis, Jackson, and Yellowstone; 2 National Parks: Grand Teton and Yellowstone; 1 spectacular mountain range.......of course, the Grand Tetons; 2 number of cities in Wyoming with elk antler arches: Afton and Jack [View Full Entry]

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