Appleton Inn Bed and Breakfast Helena

12 passes

41,788ft climbed

Highest pass 7,056ft

Ridden 730 miles

About 2000 left to go

From fernie, we shot down a beautiful gravel road with trees over hanging us which helped keep the temperature down just a little. It was a hot one. A few pickups passed, one which had three, drunk, full bearded small town Canada hicks. They drove along the side of me asking q's and joking that I should hold on the truck for a free ride. Later ...

... deli being run by a gal trying to make a real go of things. But the menu is quite good offering a number of nutritious choices. One interesting thing was a "Make Your Own Sandwich or Panini" selection and they had slips of paper and a pencil at the table for you to check boxes of what you wanted the sandwich or panini to be. A 1/2 sandwich was $6.95 and a whole sandwich was $7.75. You could get various salads, hamburgers, gyros and broasted ...

We day tripped in the car to Great Falls today. Jane drove the entire day and the two of us are still on speaking terms! We visited the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center. Even though it's about the third center we have been to, each one has taught us something new. Lewis and Clark were told by the Native Americans that they would know they were on the Missouri River if they saw the great falls. There is a dam there now, but the falls are ...

Last night we decided that we would really like to get to Great Falls on this trip. We figured that if we could get to Helena early enough for a capitol tour this afternoon, we could spend tomorrow in Great Falls.

We managed to leave Hardin before 8:00. The drive was long, but not too difficult. We spotted our first antelope of this trip in the fields along the way. We followed the Yellowstone ...

 This morning it rained again and Jim and I finally got to sleep in a bit, although everyone else was up about 6:00 AM to take my sister to the airport for her flight back to San Luis Obispo.  When we woke up Jim talked to his Country Coach advisor, ran some errands and then had to make some fixes to our light system for the ...

... 8220;Last Chance Gulch” was once a large mining claim but is now a row of shops and professional offices right in the heart of the city. We also went to Reeder’s Alley, the now-defunct fire lookout tower, and finally the hand-carved Great Northern Carousel. (***Please look for the video of this that I uploaded ...

 After cleaning up the various snow messes this morning, we checked out of our RV park late and went to the Yellowstone IMAX movie in West Yellowstone.  By the time we emerged (not terribly impressed with the movie, mind you), the clouds had cleared and it had turned into a lovely afternoon!  That made me feel a bit disappointed then ...

... was Holly who was really keen so we got her into the water to learn. Fortunately we had brought the kids shortie wetsuits so we were well equipped for water skiing. Holly was very determined and nearly got up on her skis. However it was getting pretty dark and she got very tired so we put Zach and James on the "biscuit" and pulled them along behind the boat until we could hardly see them in the fading light and we gave up. They had a great time and we had a lot of ...

... ago, how romantic! Last night we were at Three Forks where the Jefferson, Madison and Gallatin rivers come together to form the Missourri headwater. We're in Helena, the capital of Montana, tonight. It's got style, but expensive. Tomorrow we will have to climb again up to 6,500ft and that will take us over the Continental Divide. Exciting eh! Love you all, bye.

... very few people in England go hunting. With a puzzled look the two camouflaged clad men asked "well what do you eat?" You see it's not only a way of life it helps to sustain life too. Leaving the market we walked past the Cathedral swooshing through the leaf covered streets (it really is time to head south) past many of those grand houses I mentioned. One we didn't pass was the old Governors' mansion, we were just in ...