Missoula

We had a nice uneventful drive over to Missoula except for a bit of a backup getting on the interstate.  Turned out there was a cattle drive through the on ramp and that certainly comes before anything else:-)

We have been noticing a bit of wear on the front tires of the truck and had attributed it to towing it with not frequent enough rotations, but on the rotation we had done in Maine before we left they told me the alignment was out.  We couldn't fit it in right then, so now with even more towing and driving and looking we realized our tires were reaching the end of their time.  We have driven them 37,000 miles and towed them over 20,000, so we think we did okay:-)  We scheduled an alignment here and sure enough it was out a significant amount.  We went back and forth with thinking we'd wait until fall, but the more we looked and thought about the mileage on them, and the fact there is no sales tax in Montana, we ended up ordering tires.  We try to do most of our tire business with Discount Tire, as they are national and all over the southeast.  They have 2 places here in MT, one in Kalispell and one in Helena.  The one in Helena had the tires in stock so we set that up, it's only 125 miles:-)  With that taken care of, off to one of our favorite Irish pubs, Stone of Accord for lunch and a Guinness.  We each had a Guinness and we split a steak sandwich and the amazing champs!

Our daughter Kelly and her husband, Brian arrived later that day for their 4 day visit.  They have a unique setup on their truck where they stayed.

Kelly showing her mother their room in the sky

The next morning Kelly and Brian left early to go drive the Going To The Sun road in Glacier National Park and I left early for our windshield replacement on the truck.  Well, mine only lasted 5 minutes because when I asked to confirm it was an OEM windshield and was told no, I declined and had to make another appt the following week for the correct windshield.  So while Kelly & Brian were sightseeing, Jan and I went out for some Chinese.

We split this enormous bowl of delicious Hot and Sour soup,
and barbecued pork!  Superb.

We had a really great visit, together for the excellent dinners Jan made, and breakfasts I made, lunches out, and cocktails and cigars in the evening.

One of our lunches

We took a ride south to Hamilton, then Darby, and then a little farther south to show them the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch:-)

After a nice evening, we said goodbye, and both Kelly and Brian; and Jan and I left very early the next morning, they to head home and us to go to Helena for our new tires.

It was a pretty drive for us, and once we got there, we were in and out in less than an hour, visited a Costco across the street, had lunch out, and had a nice drive back.

We hope to fish this upcoming week, get the windshield finally fixed, do a few more errands and one little project, then we will be on the move again.