September 1, 2016 – Havre, MT to Fort Peck Lake, MT

The casino didn’t open until 10 am so we skipped breakfast.  We went to the county park to see what we’d missed and got to see the other end of “Road 100 S” which Google had as our major route to the park…a dirt road, which would not have been bad if we were not facing a severe weather warning. 

HAVRE BENEATH THE STREETS (Havre, MT)

This is a 1-hour tour through the underground shops that existed during the early 1900’s.

HWY 2:  In Montana, between Havre and Fort Peck Lake the highway continues to follow the route of the Great Northern Railway.  The tracks run along side the highway then disappear only to reappear later.  It’s all still part of the Great Plains – man is that an understatement!  We’ve been driving across the Great Plains for over a day now!  Towns come and go, each has roads that intersect Hwy 2 but they are mostly dirt and/or gravel roads.  It’s a two lane highway with no shoulder.  There are no passing lanes, no pull-offs and very few rest areas.  If you want to stop, you stop in a town, all of which have welcome signs that are made of metal.  You can’t assume a town will have a gas station or a restaurant.  Many of them don’t!

FORT PECK LAKE – We arrive and find out that there are no first-come-first-served sites available.  Our only option is an overflow site which we take in the West End Campground.  It’s dry camping (no power, no water) but it sits on top of a hillside where we have a gorgeous view of the Milky Way and a lightning show in the distance, free showers and we’re providing banquet food for the local mosquitos!  It’s time to break out the insect repellant!  It’s in the high 90’s but it’s supposed to cool off and rain over the weekend.

Camping:  West End Campground, overflow area, Fort Peck Lake, MT

Dry camping, flushing toilets and showers, $2.50/night with pass, good Verizon cell reception

August 31, 2016 – Missoula, MT to Havre, MT

We’re heading north again to US Hwy 2.  Our plan is to get to Fort Peck Lake on Thursday so we can grab a first-come-first-served campsite for the Labor Day Weekend.  After Labor Day we’re planning to not sweat it getting sites.  We’ll see how that works :-)

LEWIS & CLARK HISTORIC TRAIL INTERPRETIVE CENTER (Great Falls, ID):

We’ve been crisscrossing areas that mention Lewis and Clark for several years now so we decided to get the lowdown on exactly what they did and how they did it.  This center does a great job.  We started out watching a movie then we walked through exhibits that guided us through their expedition until we arrived at the Pacific Ocean!  The amazing fact is that Lewis was only 29 years old when he started.  That’s how old our son is!  Clark’s maps that he drew by hand are still accurate today and their notes are used by historians!  They planned for over a year and carefully picked their crew.

SEVERE WEATHER WARNING:  Our plans were to camp at the Beaver Creek Park, the largest county park in the USA.  About 45 mins from arriving we noticed in the horizon a storm brewing in the north, where we were headed.  As we got closer, we realized there was a severe weather warning and we happen to see what looked like a funnel cloud starting to form ahead of us (but it never did) so we pulled over and had dinner to let the storm blow by us.  On the road again, the warning was extended and the storm was right over the area where we were headed.  Rather than risk it, we pulled into a casino parking lot to camp for the night.  We’ll have breakfast in the casino restaurant to thank them.  We’re not gamblers.

Camping:  Northern Winz Casino, 10 miles south of Havre, MT

Dry camping, free

August 30, 2016 – Missoula

It’s a “down” day so we did dishes, laundry and went grocery shopping in preparation for going north.  We need more “down” days.  The day is filled with chores.  Little time for reading or relaxing.  We’re working on this!

Smoke from nearby fires fills the air and hides the neighboring hillsides.  Yesterday, driving along Hwy 200, there was smoke and flames near Thompson Falls from a fire that’s been burning for over a month. So, we decided to visit the Missoula Smokejumpers Visitor’s Center. 

MISSOULA SMOKEJUMPERS VISITOR’S CENTER:  It’s an awesome tour.  They explain what they do, how they do it, what training is required then take you around their facilities.  We didn’t realize that they make a lot of their own equipment and patch a lot of their parachutes and equipment with heavy-duty sewing machines.  When they are not training or jumping, they are exercising to stay physically fit, practicing maneuvers or packing equipment.  Part of the tour takes you INTO (!!!!) the jump plane where you find out how they actually jump out of the planes into a forest filled with fire!

UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA:  The University of Montana is in Missoula.  It’s a very big part of this city and it’s culture.

August 29, 2016 - Laclede (Sandpoint), ID to Missoula, MT

We’re supposed to be following Hwy 2 but we’ve been through this part of Hwy 2 on both our last 2 trips (Canada and Glacier NP) so we decided to deviate from it and take Hwy 200 south to Missoula.  Then we’ll go northeast to Havre, MT to catch Hwy 2 again.

NOTE TO MARCIA:  Just after you go from Hwy 2 to Hwy 200 towards Missoula, there is a TURTLE CROSSING!!!!  There are 2 ponds and apparently turtles cross the road to get to the other pond.  We wanted to stop, take pictures, figure out what kind of turtles but there’s no place to stop with a big RV.  A Rialta might find a spot to stop...

Camping:  Jim & Mary’s RV Park
Full hookups, laundry, showers, poor WiFi, okay Verizon cell reception, $38/night

August 28, 2016 - Coulee City, WA to Laclede (Sandpoint), ID

HIGHWAY 2 - We picked up Hwy 2 just west of Coulee City, WA. No sooner than we got on Hwy 2 than we got right back off to go up and see Grand Coulee Dam.

After the dam, we rejoined Hwy 2 in Wilbur, east of Coulee City. The drive takes you through golden wheat/grain fields that are later interspersed with old lava flows that transition to forests of conifers.  It follows the path of the Great Northern Railway, crisscrossing it all along the way.

The area around Sandpoint, Idaho is along what is called the “International Selkirk Loop”.  We traveled this loop during our trip to Canada and highly recommend it.  As we approached Sandpoint, ID, we chose an Army Corps of Engineers campground called Riley Creek Recreation Area because it would be half price with our USA senior lands pass.  So, a fee that’s normally $25 becomes $12.50 per night with electricity, water and warm showers!  As we arrived, it seemed familiar.  It’s a place we had a picnic last time we were in this area. It’s on the river with big, spacious campsites filled with families.  Kids ride their bikes all over, like we used to do as kids.

Sandpoint, Idaho area

Camping:  Riley Creek Recreation Area (Army Corps of Engineers)
Electricity, water, warm showers, bike and hiking trails, $12.50/night

NEXT TIME:  Come and stay awhile!

August 27, 2016 - Moro, OR to Coulee City, WA

HWY 97 – Highway 97 goes north from Weed, CA through Oregon, Washington and into Canada!  It’s an easy, gradual climb so you hardly notice it until you find yourself above 3000 feet.  It travels through confers, high desert areas with grasses and old lava flows and tubes you can walk through.   

NEXT TIME:  Stop at Peter Skene Ogden State Scenic Viewpoint, between Redmond and Madras, OR on the left-hand side of Hwy 97.  It’s a beautiful view of the Crooked River gorge. We keep forgetting about it until we’ve passed it.

About ten miles north of Moro, Highway 97 crosses the great Columbia River then up into Washington state’s Yakima Valley.  The first time we saw this river coming in on Highway 97 it took our breath away.  It still does with Mt. Hood and Mt. Adams watching guard over it and wind farms lining the ridges above the deep, wide gorge.  The constant strong winds and the river’s enormous size remind you that it’s a river you need to take seriously.

Sights along US Hwy 97 heading north through California, Oregon and Washington

Before starting to head east on Highway 2, we will visit the Coulee Dam so we camped nearby.  The skies were clear and visibility was great until after we parked then a sudden wind storm blew through with thick dust for several hours hiding all views of the surrounding bluffs, partially lifting off our windshield cover, pulling tent stakes out of the ground and chasing off several camping groups.  It stopped as suddenly as it started.

Camping:  Sun Lakes-Dry Falls State Park, electricity and water, $45/night (ouch!)

Where we picked up US Highway 2 for the first time on our travels east

August 26, 2016 – Mt. Shasta City, CA to Moro, OR

We stopped for one night at Sherman County RV Park which is a public campground in Moro, Oregon.  It’s by the fairgrounds which we didn’t know.  When we arrived, we found that the 107th Annual Sherman County Fair started today and it's HERE!  We're dry camping within a short stroll of the fair.  It's a real old fashion fair with animal breeding competitions, pie baking contests, bull riding, cattle sorting contest and, of course, an old-fashioned car demolition derby.  

We watched cattle sorting tonight.   They have calves, each with a number 0-9 on their back, all bunched together in one pen and another pen is empty.  The judges call out a number and the pair on horseback have to move the cattle one-by-one into the empty pen starting with the cow with that number on its back then going up from there sequentially.  There’s some kind of time limit but we couldn’t figure it out.  If a cow goes into the pen out of order or if a cow without a number gets in then they are disqualified.

Camping:  Sherman County RV Park, Moro, OR – dry camping due to no reservations.  $10 with showers, Wi-Fi, and night sounds of the Sherman County Fair.

August 25, 2016 – Saratoga, CA to Mt. Shasta City, CA

Today we left the Bay Area to resume our travels.  We left our hearts and prayers in San Francisco.

It’s been almost 2 months since we traveled.  It feels good to get back into our RV routine.  Campgrounds are still booked on the weekends so we’re trying to get as far north as possible, as quickly as possible to get into less crowded areas.  We think Labor Day weekend will be a challenge.

We stopped at a small RV campground for one night.  When I asked “What time is checkout?” He replied “When you leave”.   Yes!  We sat in a swing, sipping wine, watching the birds, cows and geese as the sun set.  Our bodies are here but our minds are elsewhere.

The view across the street of the pasture and hills.

Camping:  Chateau Shasta RV and Motorhome Park, Mt. Shasta City, OR.  Full hookups, WiFi, great Verizon cell reception.

August 5-24, 2016 – Saratoga, CA – Jim and Louise’s lower driveway

We’re back!  Big Thank You to Jim and Louise for being so generous and gracious about allowing us to hang out here.  Also, thank you to our friends who loaned us their car for the entire time we have been back.  It has been a tremendous help.

We are very grateful to all of our friends who have offered showers, laundry, cars, whole homes, meals, understanding and friendship.

Parked again in the lower driveway.

August 1-4, 2016 – Sanborn County Park, Saratoga, CA

We had to move the RV to get it serviced, so Monday night we decided to camp at the local county park.  We liked it so much that we have decided to stay here 4 nights before returning to Jim and Louise’s.  The down side is we have little to no cell or internet but the up side is we are camping again.  Warning…text messages may take 8 hours to be delivered!