Update for July 5th thru the 7th.
Well, not too much exciting except for we are finally near the mountains. We’re camped tonight just north of St. Mary’s, MT at the eastern entrance to Glacier National Park at a private campground. We thought it would be quieter than the KOAs around here. From here we can see the mountains in the park and the sun setting over them. There is a big dark cloud in the middle and the sun shining on the clouds at the North end and a hole in the Southwest. Really a pretty view, but my pictures don’t really show it. We are on a hill and to the North we look down on a long lake (Lower St Mary’s lake) that we are going to drive North along tomorrow.


July 5 was mostly driving from thru North Dakota, up to Minot and across the Northern part of the state on Hwy 5 into Montana. We saw lots of oil wells, but none of the traffic that everyone was warning us about. Some oil trucks and some pickups, but nothing of significance other than 6 trucks that were leaving one drilling site. That was the only drilling site we seen, but there were some other spots they may have been getting ready for drilling. Stopped at the Wal-Mart in Minot and didn’t find empty shelves, another thing we were warned about. Also no lines, in fact of the 7 cashiers open when we came in, 3 had no one to check out, and when we got ready to leave we walked right up to an empty cashier. We were there at 9:00 AM on a Thurs morning, but it wasn’t busy at all and seemed to have plenty of help at that time. They did have help wanted signs out, as did most of the fast food places. Pizza Hut was advertizing for help starting at $15 per hour.
Spent the night of July 5th at the Downstream recreational area near Fort Peck, Mt below the Fort Peck Dam. Very pretty campground and it was pleasant weather. There was a 2 mile paved path around the grounds that we walked. Next to the campground was an interpretative center that talked about all the dinosaur fossils found near here (Malta, MT.), and the building of the earthen dam. The building of those big dams always amazes Dale. We visited the center on Friday morning before heading out toward Glasgow and our appointment at a Ford dealer. Arrived there around noon in time for a 1 o’clock appointment.


After checking in the MH we walked down into town to eat lunch at a pizza place. Turned out it didn’t open until 4pm so we walked up the street to the McDonalds. It was about a mile and a half downtown, downhill and we thought it would be bad walking back up the hill after a meal but it wasn’t bad at all. A good breeze and a stop at a quilt shop helped while away the time!! They finished up the work on the motor home about 3:30 PM and we were on our way. We spent the night at a Wal-mart parking lot in Havre, MT. There were lots of campers there. We went in and spent our obligatory money :<), but less than the $150 average we heard about. There is always something we need; I had forgotten rubber thongs to wear in the campground showers.


Today, Saturday, July 7th we had a pretty drive up toward the mountains and Glacier National Park area. We drove through a lot of wheat country and some of it looked pretty dry. Some of the wheat was turning brown and I don’t think it was ready to mature. The big wide open fairly flat plateaus with the big wheat fields between big valleys is really different terrain.
Tomorrow we start into Canada and should make Calgary. Much of the drive is along the East side of the Rockies, so should be a pretty drive.