Traveling through Montana

        After a great breakfast and more conversation, Estelle took us up to her barn that her father had built.  The first Saturday in August each year she throws a barn dance for her neighbors, and it's quite the social event.  Great barn for it, and she leaves the lighting up and stage for the band in place year round.  We of course let the dogs run free and tire themselves out, and it was good as they slept most of the trip!

       We had planned to drive as far east as Bozeman, MT that day, probably about 450 miles.  The weather was great as we left, and the scenery through eastern Idaho and Western Montana just spectacular.  We went through or over one mountain pass after another, and had no idea we would be doing so. 

      As we were in our "touring" mode, we drove through the small silver mining town of Kellogg in Idaho, and then stopped in another even more interesting town called Wallace.  These were very productive Silver towns, and then later Wallace became a major rail depot for the Northern Pacific railroad.  They boast a mining, railroad, and bordello museum among other things, and a quaint and well-preserved downtown area. 

       Western Montana is also very beautiful, and quite mining intensive.  We sure got a surprise, though, when we got to Missoula and were hit with SNOW!  It came down continuously, and made driving more difficult than we had encountered up till now.  Going over Lookout Pass, the day was getting longer and we were both getting pretty tired.  Becky suggested we change plans and stop at a small town 1/2 to Butte called Deer Lodge (yes, that's the town name, not a hotel!).  We pulled into a small KOA

 there and were one of 6 Campers on the site, and we had a few inches of snow on the ground.  Dogs enjoyed walking around, and Dudley in

 particular got very excited when he discovered we had black Angus cattle adjoining the site!  

      We did some shopping at a local Safeway, and then settled in for the night.  Temperature was supposed to drop to 28 degrees, so we loaded up our water tank and then disconnected the hose.  The good news is that it only got down into the mid-30's, and we didn't use up much propane on the heater.