THURSDAY, SEPT 25

THURSDAY, SEPT 25:

     Rained lightly most of the night.  We loved it!  And oddly enough, I didn’t even mind it yesterday afternoon & evening – in fact, I kind of welcomed it.  With the chilly temperatures, it just seemed as autumn’s official welcome, I guess.  We felt so cozy wrapped up in our warm clothes last night!

      Up early this morning, to get a (relatively, for us) early start.  A beautiful sunrise greeted us,


                                                                               

as well as 2 deer right outside our RV a little later.  
                                                            

We left at 8:30.

      Our plan was just to drive as far as we comfortably could, knowing that we didn’t need to be in Bozeman (almost 500 miles from Grand Coulee) til Friday.  That’s when we'd made arrangements to meet my cousin Larry’s daughter Leslie for dinner.  The drive was really scenic most of the way . . . alternating between high desert, with interesting buttes, and mountain pine and fir forest, depending on elevation.  It would be up and down through the passes . . . a couple were long and pretty hairy, and again, Bill was earnestly checking all the gauges.  We had to pull over a couple of times to let the engine cool off – the warning light had come on.  This picture tells the story (at least part of it)!
                                                                                

 

But gorgeous, absorbing Rocky Mountain scenery surrounded us during those mountain passes, especially after we were on the eastern side of Missoula.  Oh the western side, skies were pretty hazy – another forest fire??

     When the road followed a valley, we made really good time.  By the time we reached Butte, we realized that we only needed to go another 70 miles or so til Bozeman.  Then we could set up there for 2 nites and not have to move.  So we continued on, arriving at the campground just before dark, with an easy pull-thru site.  We didn’t get a good look at the RV park, but it looks very nice.  We’ll take a closer look tomorrow morning.  Both tired, but glad to be here!  We think that the Lord needs to start paying overtime to His angels in charge of engines and brakes!

     Very warm today – turned on the fan in the RV and changed into cooler clothes right away, even though evening.  Fixed a frozen PF Chang skillet dinner.  All we needed.