Saturday, May 14th
This morning we sadly left Casper Wyoming and Nick and headed north again. We crossed into the southeast corner of Montana and ate lunch at “Little Bighorn Battlefield” where Lt. Col. George Custer and 260 of his men met their death in 1876. We stood on the hill where Custer made his last stand and looked out over the white marble stones marking where each soldier fell along with the red marble stones marking where the Indians died. This was not the site of a massacre, but a battlefield where 2 powerful opposing forces fought bravely for what they believed was right. The allied tribes of Cheyenne and Lakota Indians led by Chiefs Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse won the battle but it ultimately led to their destruction in the next few years.
We ended the day in central Montana at a tiny town called Harlowton built around 1900. We stayed at the city’s beautiful park/fairground where we had the place all to ourselves. This is about as opposite of Vegas as you will find. We walked through town and ate dinner at “Jail House Pizza” – and yes – it is in the old jail house.
Sunday, May 15th
Toady took us up through Great Falls, Montana. It was not what I had pictured; no mountains, just rolling farm/ranch land. However, I had always wanted to go there because my idols – Lewis & Clark - had great difficulty here on their way west. They spent 12 days doing a grueling portage around the falls. It was a bit disappointing in that the falls have been tamed by a series of dams to produce electricity. The NPS Historic trail center was very cool and to stand on the shores where my heroes trod was worth it. We spent the rest of the day’s travels calling each other “Dave Lewis & Lori Clark”. We’ve done alright so far, no major disasters (if you don’t count…losing the spare tire cover, breaking a handle on the grey water drain valve, crunching a wheel well cover, had the new space heater quit, bent the bike rack and lost the magnetic vent covers).We stayed in Shelby, Montana for the night at some crappy campground while the wind blew like a hurricane, at least we had better accommodations than my heroes.
Monday, May 16th
We’re in Canada, eh !! We crossed the border this morning after going through an RV cavity search, eh. The hoseheads made us pull the MLS into a giant garage where they closed the doors, asked us to open the slides and all compartments and told us to wait in a separate room while they looked for guns…drugs…or ???, eh. After 45 minutes they let us go and told us it shouldn’t take 2 more weeks to get to Alaska, eh. We didn’t stop till we made it to “Banff National Park” driving through more rain/snow. We camped near Lake Louis next to the still partly frozen “Bow” river and tried not to freeze to death. Its freaking May, eh?!? What’s wrong with these crazy Canadian hoseheads, eh? We blame Canada, eh!!
Tuesday, May 17th
Woke up to snow falling – almost an inch or two – but very beautiful. We took a short drive up to Lake Louis which is fed by 3 glaciers and was still frozen over. The mountains disappeared into the low clouds which were still dropping snowflakes. We have yet to see the steep, rocky ice-capped mountains this area is famous for. We planned to stay another night here (guess we like freezing to death) so we had time to explore. We did a 3 mile hike up a spectacular canyon trail to some waterfalls. Then we waited for a train to descend the mountains through a spiral railroad tunnel while my camera battery went dead (no really) so I didn’t get the cool pic of the train going into and coming out lower a short distance away. Oh yeah, we almost hit a young black bear as he tried to cross the highway and did squish a squirrel as he tried to cross.
Wednesday, May 18th
We continued north along what is called the “Ice Fields Parkway”. Lori was worried about the 150 mile leg and kept calling it the “Ice Road” and was sure we would die. Really, it is considered one of the most scenic drives in North America and for good reason as it winds through very steep, glacier carved mountains with many ice fields on their tops. We were blessed with blue skies (for the first time since we left) and were lucky enough to see a big, male grizzly bear forage for food 100 yards from the highway. After a pretty steep climb we dropped into “Jasper National Park” and spent the afternoon riding bikes through aspens and pines in a great campground. And the best part…we DIDN’T die on the “Ice Road”!! We thought we would celebrate by buying a six pack in town until we saw they wanted $16 for a six pack!!! Canada sucks, eh?? We did use the new BBQ and the propane in the ass I had with it before we left made the chicken taste like the bestest chicken ever.
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