August 31st

THE WEATHER: It’s been in the 60’s today, partly cloudy and a cool breeze.

THE DISTANCE: 190 miles to Butte, Montana


Montana is a beautiful state that where you are driving can be as flat as a pancake but there are mountains in the distance that soar to 12,000 feet. Gary told people before we left on this trip that he wanted to be on the east side of the Rockies before the snow fell. Well, he didn’t quite make it because there is fresh snow fall on the mountains that we drove through today.

Bruno has been making the rounds. He’s been introduced to all our friends and he’s such a social guy! First there was a friend of Gary’s who used to run a fly shop in New Hampshire. George now runs a fly shop out of Missoula Montana. So we dropped in unexpectedly to see him. It was good for them to get reacquainted and share fish stories. And then there was Harold. Leaving Missoula we finally made our way to Butte by 4:30. Harold, his friend Mary and an old acquaintance of ours, Dennis were at the KOA parking lot to greet us. We met Dennis 16 years ago on one of his gold claims. He is one of the last claim-jumpers in Montana. That means if someone leaves a claim he legally can jump on to that claim and work the mine. He also hunted rattle snakes for their skins in Arizona. There were hugs all around, everyone saying hello and then off we went to dinner. It was so good to catch up on this old friendship of 24 years. Harold was noticeably walking with a limp and when I asked him about it he said, he broke his foot while riding bulls, one of the bulls stomped on his foot and it never healed. He is such a character!

So we are now settled into the RV for the night and prepared to cover some miles tomorrow.