Day 22-July 10, 2012
And so we start week four. Travelled 284 miles in 6-1/2 hours today. Didn’t realize we were only a half hour from Montana ‘til we got to the “Welcome to Montana” sign. Weather is crazy, we went from 92 at 10 am to 103 at noon, down to 73 for 10 minutes during a storm and then back up to 104 by the time we stopped for the night in Malta, MT. One woman told me they have 9 months of blizzards and 3 months of blistering heat.
We followed Route 2 West which is only forty miles south of Saskatchewan, Canada in some places. Stopped for groceries in Wolf Point, MT at an Alberson’s which made me want to kiss the Stop ‘n’ Shop and Publix (and Sainsbury, Heather) people. This store not only had no selection but most of the shelves were empty. And it was the only grocery store we saw for over 250 miles, glad we stopped when we did. Got enough staples to last a while, though.
Ran into a big storm west of Glasgow, MT, lots of thunder, lightning and rain but we were through it in about 10 minutes. Got to the campground and heard there’s more storms coming with hail and we’re starting to get some wind and rain. Campground is in the rear of an inn (seems to be a lot of that here) right next to the Milk River. We walked down to the river and saw three baby black furry somethings that we think are beavers because they were around a beaver’s nest. They were really cute playing and jumping in the river. We’re surrounded by lots of trees, the only ones I can identify are the aspens with their silvery leaves. It’s nice to be among trees again after driving through 280 miles of flat, open ranges and big sky. Tomorrow we continue through Montana to Glacier National Park.