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We woke up this morning with more snow on the ground than last night. It was quite pretty, but we were all wondering what our drive out of West Yellowstone, Mt. was going to be like. At around 8:00 the five RV's were all lined up and ready to go. Dorrie and Quentin, Sue and Allan, and Tom and Peggy were heading to Great Falls, Mt., and Ray and I along with John and Diane heading towards Missoula, Mt.. Although the roads were snow covered, they were already melting when we left at 8:00 AM. We took Rt. 287 and I must say the scenery along the way was quite beautiful. There were majestic snow covered mountains surrounding many lakes. We drove around Lake Hebgen, about 40 miles north of Yellowstone, and Ray would have like to fish it. There were lot's of boats in the yards, and you could tell it was a fisherman's paradise. As we drove, the snow cover along the roads lessened, and soon we were looking at rolling meadows filled with cattle. This is high grazing country with Mountain ranges on either side of the vast pastures. We stopped for gas in Ennis, and when Ray
left the RV to pump the gas he could not believe how cold and windy it was. There was sign coming into town that said "Ennis, population 840 people, 100,000,000 trout. As we proceeded toward Butte, Mt. the temperature started to rise, and by the time we stopped for lunch in Albertin, it was in the high 50's.
After we passed though Butte we all commented that the landscape looked a lot like New England. We decided that it would be too early to stop in Missoula, MT as we had previously planned, and to push forward towards Coeur d' Alene, Idaho. This plan changed, however, as Ray and John were getting tired and thought it might be better to stop earlier, and check out the Coeur d' Alene golf course in the morning. Now we were on the prowl for an RV park. Ray put one of the towns showing a park in the GPS, but after stopping and realizing that the WiFi could only be used in their bar, we decided to go to the next town. Again he put the info in. We started up this steep, winding mountain road which kept going higher and higher.
It reminded me of the old Arlo Guthrie pickle song, with a mountain on one side of me, and a cliff on the other side. I asked why it was taking us this way and he said that it was the shortest route. I looked over at the GPS and it was saying that it was going to take 40 mins and it was only the next town! Ray decided we should turn around, but the road was very narrow with a sharp drop off on one side. Luckily we found a small area to back in to and turn around, and after a nerve wracking drive down the mountain we were off to find the RV park that Diane had found in the next town. After some more confusion, we finally arrived at a lovely little park in Osburn, ID. After the obligatory cocktail hour (we're going to need more wine), we had dinner and crashed early. Another time zone change today, so my body is going be really messed up tomorrow.
Not a lot of pictures today, as it was all highway driving.
Miles - 409
Total - 1548
Wildlife sightings - Deer, sheep,
lots of cattle and horses.
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