Motel 6 Helena

... pass, 6200ft, to Lincoln, had lunch while watching the locals playing softball, getting ****** and riding 4wheeler bikes around. As they were heading home that evening they gave us all there leftover food, very much appreciated. yummo!

Well due for a rest day we didn't want to stay in Lincoln and so we pushed it out two more days so we could get to Helena, Montana's Capital. Unfortunately these were the two hardest days we have had. At our lowest ...

... and the bottom of Canyon Ferry Lake. US-12 then turns toward the northwest and in about 30 miles we are in the capital of Montana....Helena.

We got checked in to the Super 8 which is not too far from the capital building and this place was a mess with half the parking lot closed for resurfacing. Then we rushed over to the historical museum to see if we could catch a tour bus that takes you around the city and tells one all ...

... in front of the dam. We feel like Lewis and Clark as we were at the falls on the exact date (June 13) that Meriwether Lewis first saw the falls. We were justt 204 years late. They were awesome falls. Lewis and Clark also found an additional four or five cataracts above the great falls. They had to portage over 18 miles around these falls, and were delayed almost a month.

We alsovisited Giant Springs, also discovered by Lewis and ...

... until it turned south at the town of Livingston (what a great name!). Suddenly, we were back along the Missouri River near Three Forks where the Madison, Jefferson, and Gallatin Rivers join to form the Missouri River. We visited the Missouri headwaters the last time we passed through this area.

We made it to the RV park 8 miles north of Helena about 1:00. Originally, we thought we would ...

... toad" (aka the car "towed" behind an RV!).
 
 

 In the afternoon the weather turned nice again and we tried one of the local mountain bike trails, which my aunt tells me the city of Helena is making a new push to popularize.  It was very pretty but mountain biking is not really for me – too fast to see ...

... to be hundreds of years old, as well as some interesting rock formations and a nest of bald eagles! I was especially interested that the tour also went past Mann Gulch, the site where 13 USFS smokejumpers were killed in 1948. This event was detailed in Norman McLean’s book, “Young Men & Fire”, and was the ...

... and stay that way for several days after we got done there, so I suppose we will be back soon enough.

 

 Anyway, once we got on the road I felt much better because the scenery was so pretty that seeing it in the sunshine was quite worth it!  We were also starving close to dinnertime so we looked online for any place ...

... cost less, but because of the amount of tooth that had broken off he was concerned that it may not last the trip and then we would still be paying money to have it fixed at a later date. As I am a terrible patient and get very stressed in the dentist chair and we didn't want this to drag on any longer than necessary with further unknown costs, we decided that we would have the crown done and get our insurance to pay for it. Communicating with ...

... entire return distance (which meant going out of his usual fare zone). I was too sticky/stinky to be proud and would have gladly paid three times the cost of fare to ride in "aircon" (the Filipino slang for air conditioning) at this point *smile* That evening, after this old lady showered and changed, we relaxed at a posh Japanese restaurant. Remember, we're in Manila, just across the water from Japan.... This was the "real deal," folks. Claudette even caught my first-ever semi ...

... blast and it was also good for her because she's going a little crazy staying cooped up in her parents house. So we spent most of the weekend hanging out with her and staying up too late talking. Then drive back and hit a snow storm about 30 miles from Helena and that takes us about an hour and a half to get through. Really light small snow that was just blowing across the highway like a sand storm and covering the lanes and stuff. Really weird and spooky ...