Day 57 Friday June 24, 2022 We had an uneventful drive before stopping for the night at Rowley's Red Barn, another Harvest Hosts. This morning before we departed, Lena set the crock pot in the sink with chicken in it to cook while we traveled down the road. Our motorhome has an Inverter on it that produces 120volt electricity from our batteries so it runs the refrigerator also as we ride down the road. The chicken was done when we got setup so we had a meal called Amish Chicken, mashed potatoes and broccoli ready to eat in just a few minutes. Yummy!
Then we went to check out the goodies in the Red Barn. We got some homemade bread and strawberries. They had more varieties of dip ice cream than we have ever seen in one place. We were full from our lunch so we went back to the motorhome to relax for awhile. Then we returned to get two more pounds of strawberries, since they were only $.75 a pound and were very juicy and a cantaloupe and two waffle cones of Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream.
Day 58 Saturday June 25, 2022
We had a good driving day, saw snow on some of the mountain tops. Today we drove down in a huge valley between two mountain ranges on either side of us. Sometimes we were right up at the base of the mountains on the right and then way out in the middle of the valley.
We passed 1,000's of acres of hay fields, cows and horses. From Provo to Salt Lake City there was about 70 miles of city, smaller towns, commercial and industrial area all run together. We were glad when we got through that area. Driving was not too bad as the road was usually 4-6 lanes in each directions so the traffic was not bottled up.
We stopped at the Visitor's Center once we got passed the Utah border. One thing we noticed in Idaho, they don't believe in rest stops along the interstate. We passed one the entire time we were on the interstate in Idaho. We ate the remainder of our Amish Chicken while resting at the Visitor Center. Idaho was the 5th state on this trip that we had not stayed in before in the motorhome. I think that makes 36 states we have stayed in with a motorhome.
We stopped in Blackfoot, Idaho for the night at The Idaho Potato Museum, another Harvest Hosts. They have a nice level asphalt parking lot. We parked about 15' feet from the railroad tracks beside a chain link fence.
Then we toured the museum. We toured a Potato Museum on Prince Edward Island in Canada on our 2019 Maritimes Trip. This area grows a lot of potatoes. A few potato facts. One out of ever $7 generated in Idaho originates from the production of potatoes. Idaho produces approximately 30% of the nation's potatoes, with the Russet Burbank the most prevalent. In 1995 the potato became the first vegetable grown in outer space on the shuttle Columbia.
When we finished the tour they gave us a packet of mashed potato mix they call Free Taters for Out-Of-Staters. Then we walked around town a bit and took photos of the murals that we could find.
The train came by at 9PM and again at 3AM and since there was a crossing a street at the end of the parking lot they blew the train whistle as they came through.
Day 59 Sunday June 26, 2022 We pulled out of the parking lot at 6:30AM and stopped about a mile away at a McDonald's for breakfast. There was a large parking lot nearby for some stores that hadn't opened so we used their parking lot for a short while.
We drove 350 miles today through some of the most scenic views we have seen so far on this trip and we thought we had seen some great views but today was the best yet. In Idaho it was 1,000s of acres of potatoes, hay, wheat, lots of cows, horses, a few sheep and snow on the mountain tops. They do a lot of irrigation of the fields here. Their farms here are huge. The type that you need to pack a lunch when you get on the tractor to work the fields because it is a long way back to the house.
Lena has been taking photos of all the state signs at the border but Montana did not have one on this interstate. Montana had the best views, high mountains on both sides of the road and lots of large streams/rivers with rushing water, large lakes and water reservoirs. These are the first streams of water we have seen from the road in several days as New Mexico, Arizona and most of Idaho is very dry. This part of Montana is much different than the Eastern side where it is just miles and miles of flat wheat fields and no trees except around the houses way off in the distance.
We saw several houses a long way up the side of the mountains, not sure how they get to them or back down to the highway in the Winter when the snow falls. Montana is the first state we have ever seen Cattle Guards on the off/on ramps to an interstate. In case you don't know what a cattle guard is, it is iron pipe or iron bars laid across the road flush with the pavement over a dugout area. Cows will not walk across them for fear they will get their hooves hung up in them. So if a cow was to get out of the fields they would not wander up the ramps and get on the interstate roads.
We got to our stop at Jim and Mary's RV Park in Missoula Montana about 2PM and set up in site A7. This is a very popular RV Park based on the reviews. It is really clean, large pull through sites, lots of shade trees and the most flowers we have ever seen in a RV Park/campground. There are dozens of flowers beds with whimsical settings all around the park. They even have 2-3 greenhouses where they grow their flowers. They even have green grass between sites that is watered ever night with lawn sprinkler systems on a timer. First green grass we have stepped on in many days. Feels good to the feet.
Day 60 Monday June 27, 2022 I noticed a few days ago one of our front tires had some cracking in it that kind of worried me. We don't need a blow out in some remote place or any damage to the body of the motorhome. We have had one blow out on our last motorhome and it is NOT fun. So today I made a couple of phones calls and found Les Schwab Tire Center here about 8 miles from the RV Park that had the tires we needed so we drove the motorhome to the shop and had the front tires replaced with new tires. We fell much better now. They take you in first come first serve and we were in and out in two hours. They had large selection of tires in many different sizes for large vehicles, etc.
We were lucky as this is the last large town/city we will be in for a long time and the size tire we needed just every tire shop does not carry. On Sunday, I had called two truck stops here that have truck service bays and they don't even carry the tires we needed.
We were sitting outside in the evening and a couple was walking by and had seen on our licenses plates that we were from North Carolina so they stopped and chatted with us for awhile. They are from Raleigh. In our talks we discovered that they had worked for the same man that I had worked for at one time while we were working for the US Government. Small world.
The Cottonwood trees here in the park are shedding their “cotton” and sometimes when there is a breeze it looks like it is snowing.
Day 61 Tuesday June 28, 2022 On our way to The Historical Museum at Fort Missoula we stopped at a coffee shop and were disappointed again. The Lattes were rather pitiful and their pastries that we didn't buy looked like they were at least a day old, maybe more.
We did a self guided walking tour of the grounds and buildings. We didn't know that from 1941 to 1944, during WWII that hundreds of Japanese, Italians and Germans were interned here. This was a interesting stop.
On the way back to the park we decided to stop at Taco John's since we stopped at one in 2015 on our way to Alaska. Lena had said at the time that Taco John was a cousin of Taco Bell. Well we found out they were only doing drive up window service due to short staff. We checked two more fast foods places on the way back to the park and they had the same issue. Yet we have seen several men and women standing at intersections holding signs begging for a handout. Hard to understand and we have seen signs at some of the fast food places that state they are paying $16 per hour to start.
Just about the time we were going it cooled off a bit so we could set outside a windstorm blew through. Must have been at least 30 MPH gusts for a few minutes then it gradually calmed down.
We put away our outside chairs and hooked up the Jeep so we would be partially ready to leave in the morning for Blue Lake RV Resort near Bonners Ferry Idaho. Out last stop before crossing the Canadian border on Saturday.
