Rolling Rolling Rolling.......Bowman, ND

Yesterday was chore day. Judy called a local Lutheran Church in Laurel, was told the service starts at 10am (just like the sign in front of the church said), we arrived a little before 10am......as church was ending! Ha Ha on us. We did the laundry and I washed the bugs off the trailer front cap. We did a little visiting with other campers and that was it.

Today we drove 290 miles to Bowman, ND. Half the trip was on I94 and the last half on US12. There are still some hefty looong hills in southeast Montana! I wanted to do some traveling on the secondary roads and US12 fits the bill. No road shoulders or cell service if we should have a problem. One 15 mile stretch of US12 was a meat grinder & we are glad the rig didn't bounce apart. The land is starting to flatten out into long rolling hills & lots & lots of nothing up here. There are BIG farm fields all over. We are in a nice 100 or so site CG (no water or sewer) maintained by the city, we are the 3rd rig in the entire CG. We arrived about 3pm and are sitting comfortably in the A/C, 84 & sunny outside. We stopped for fuel 30 or 40 miles back so didn't disconnect the truck, it's the first time this year we haven't. Lots of bugs on the trailer & truck. Bummer!

We have seen some unexpected animals out here, in Wyoming there was one field that had bison & 5 camels. In Montana we saw several white pelicans on the Madison River, & today we saw two zebras on the Montana North Dakota border. I wasn't expecting to see those critters around here.

4th of July parade in Laurel, MT

Today we went to the Laurel, MT parade. They did an excellent job and the parade lasted one hour. I was impressed when the train went by and on top of that there was a fly over by two F15 fighters. Probably coincidence but they did fly over during the parade and a pretty low level. I think the survivalists came down from the mountains and joined the parade, there were several families with anti government posters. Judy invited several of the other families camping in the park over for a cookout this afternoon. I believe there are a few families here that are not near as fortunate as we are and I'm proud of what Judy did. Tonight we went down to the boat launch ramp and watched the fireworks across the river. They lasted 45 minutes and were the largest in the area if not the state, it is the fire departments 100th anniversary & they put on the display. Hope everyone had a good 4th of July!!!!

Bear Tooth Highway

Today we went on a 6 hour ride up and over Bear Tooth Highway in Montana & Wyoming. Lots of switchbacks, a fair amount of rain and some sleet, felt sorry for the bikers. Temperature was 37 around the peak. I've seen enough mountains but Judy likes them. I prefer various shades of green hills & blue sky. We saw one mule deer & a balk eagle. We also followed the path of the Nes Perce Indians as they evaded the cavalry, those folks were tuff. I don't have many pictures of the serious mountains with lots of snow due to the rain and lots of clouds.

Battle of Canton Creek

Today we were joined by Nancy & Vern, fellow HitchHiker friends. They pulled into the park also for the holiday weekend. We all went to lunch after they set up and then drove a short distance to the site of the Battle of Canyon Creek between the US Calvary and the Nez Perce Indians lead by Chief Joseph. There's a small fire pit inside the memorial containing feathers, burnt sage, & bead bracelets left as a memorial by native Americans. In the afternoon Jeff & Susan stopped by again & the six of us had a nice visit.

As the sun was setting Judy took the picture of the refinery across the Yellowstone River, good shot huh? We also learned that the several stone buildings here in the city park were built by German POWs during WWII and used as their barracks. They worked on local farms also until the war ended, interesting tidbit.

Laurel, MT

Today we had another long drive.....120 miles to Laurel, Montana. We wanted to find a place to "hole up" for the fourth of July holiday so we were off the road and in a campground. We are in the small Riverside City Park beside the Yellowstone River. Our neighbors are mosquitoes, and there are many. The front of the rig is headed east toward Michigan so here we come Devyn! Jeff & Susan Collingwood are also in Laurel visiting some friends and they all stopped over for cocktail hour.

Bozeman, MT

Today we were at the Ford dealer at 7:45 to have the "check engine" error light problem investigated. The intermittent problem was found to be the EGR valve so it was replaced under warranty......saving us $329! We then had an early lunch at Subway, stopped at Home Depot, fueled the truck & did some grocery shopping and were home by noon. Lazy afternoon, Judy did some house cleaning while I was on the PC and cleaned the truck inside. Temps were in the mid 80s before the afternoon thunder storm rolled in at 4pm breaking up our outside rummy game.

We have noticed that we have not seen a Michigan RV for 6 or 7 weeks. Where are the MI RVers?

If the rain backs off I should have the chance to wash the truck this evening.

Yellowstone & now Bozeman, MT

Sunday we sat by the park office in the morning bidding farewell to most of our HitchHiker friends as they pulled out. At noon we joined 8 other couples that stayed over for a Yellowstone bus tour looking for wildlife. We did the northern Yellowstone loop and several side roads. We returned at 8:30pm and had a chicken box lunch. In all that time we saw lots of bison, few hundred of them in the Lamar Valley. We saw one large bull elk and one coyote. Some claimed to have seen a wolf resting in downed trees at a rivers edge. We did see lots of nice scenery.

Monday morning we said good bye to a few more HitchHiker friends and started out of the mountains. We made the 120 mile trip north to Bozeman, MT and arrived a little before noon. We are planning on spending two nights here and have the trucks intermittent "check engine" error looked at Tuesday morning.