Great Falls Inn

We drove from Grande Prairie, Alberta to Black Diamond, Alberta yesterday. We caught Hwy 22 South just east of Whitecourt, Alberta on hwy 43. The drive down hwy 22 is very beautiful. Rolling hills, I say hills, but they are more than hills really. Maybe small mountains, but they are rolling and easy. Many cattle ranches and grain fields. As we come over every top of the mountain, it opens up to another beautiful valley. The ...

Two years ago when we did a house swap we spent a month fishing the Missouri river , so when we came back into town we stopped at the old house, filled the water tanks , and headed for a small campsite on the river, only known by the locals. We spent two nights here, Brent fished the river with a friend, and Jo knitted socks.

Also our computer died and we feel we are missing our right arm, hence the short entries

... car and spend the weekend with Dave and Lisa. It's about a 5 1/2 to 6 hour drive to Calgary but the highway is excellent and there was little traffic. The pictures show how heavy the sky was.

We really enjoyed the weekend and had a great salmon meal on Saturday with Dave and Lisa. They certainly are a busy pair! Saturday afternoon I was able to connect with Lynda, my new favorite hairdresser, and got a much needed ...

Don finally slowed down enough today that when he tried to watch a movie he fell asleep. We walked a bit after supper and I had to share my Montana sunset with you. There is a small park just outside the fence of the park. Although we are located on a noisy corner where two main roads come together it is shady and handy to downtown.

Today I travelled with one of the two 'supper wagons' into the remote areas east and north of Great Falls, towards the Canadian border. I've been hearing about this area since the beginning of the trip and how one of the more remote farms is a breeding ground for rattlesnakes. In previous years they have actually seen nests or balls of rattlesnakes. The land is beautiful and I had an opportunity to talk to one of the farmers and asked her about the remoteness. Cathy's ...

Even though it was the last day, we decided to check out the Montana State Fair. The livestock was gone but there were enough exhibits to keep us busy for a couple of hours. The afternoon show featured Amanda Overmyer, an American Idol Season 7 finalist.

Don was talking to some ...

June 29 and 30, July 1 and 2 - Great Falls, Montana, United States

June 30 - Last night we dry camped at Dick's. They didn't have any spots with hookups since there is another Alaska Caravan camped here. When they leave, there will be plenty of spots for our caravan members to move in.

Today, I've arranged a surprise for Art. Our good friend from Kirtland, OH, Mitch Behnke, who worked at ...

... lunch at the 5th Street Diner, walked a circuitous (lost?!) route back to the hotel, then rented bikes and did it all over again, riding farther upstream than we had walked - all the way down to the Lewis and Clark National Historic Interpretive Center. We are a bit worried about all the sitting-on-the-bus time in the next few days, so I think we overdid the exercise today. (I keep mixing up "up river" and "down ...

... up the Vegas Strip thinking I can get to the campground faster. I don't know if there was a shortcut, but I did find a pharmacy for some eye drops. I had never been down this block of the Strip before. I had hesitated numerous times before going this way. The eye drops I had to get stood out for some reason. I guess it's part of the magic formula to give me my 20/20 vision. Instead of continuing the way I was going I returned to the route I knew. Actually I did continue then ...

... though hardly anything to worry about. However the outlook was for more throughout the day, but we decided to go for it. The minute flakes soon turned to sleet and then to rain and our drive to the border was murky and uninspiring, along a surprisingly quiet road. An hour after arriving at Coutts(Canada) that is Sweetgrass (USA) we were on our way once more. The American adventure begins ...