Ah Montana!

We have always liked this state, but we are enjoying it more and more as we spend a greater amount of time here.  We left Bear Den in Grangeville, ID for Missoula, the long way around as I mentioned to avoid Rt 12, and we were so glad we did, the drive was fabulous, wonderful scenery, no where near the amount of curves, and it only took an hour or so longer, worth it!  

We got a great site at Jim and Mary's RV Park, one of our favorites, settled in and took care of some business and errands, grocery shopping, Costco, and a pharmacy.  We hadn't been to a Costco in about 6 weeks.  It's funny, a lot of our time and enjoyment used to come from eating out a lot, mostly lunches, but now with the virus, we hardly do.  We do try to get take out at least once a week, but the good news, I guess, is we are spending a lot less now:-)  So we do splurge every once in awhile.

Costco had them on sale,
and yes, they were yummy!

So we took a few day trips mainly to fish.  We went where we had good luck last year, the Blackfoot, and this year, not so much, as in nada.  The next day we took a break and drove to Rock Creek for a picnic.  We were joined by this inquisitive guy.

Then on the way out the road, we found a short hike through a new conservancy and gave it a whirl.

Jan setting the pace

A gorgeous day!

An original log cabin where a homesteader lived

Then we went south to the Bitterroot near the town of Darby to fish.  Did a little better there, I caught one, had several bites, and unfortunately Jan only had one bite. 

Even if the fishing wasn't stellar,
how can you argue with the surroundings?

 

Fished a few more hours after our picnic on the shore, very peaceful.  I should mention that even though Missoula has 3 rivers through it, the Blackfoot, Bitterroot, and the Clark's Fork, the fishing is quite a drive.  For example, when we fish the Blackfoot it is 65 miles away, the Bitterroot near Darby is 75, and Rock Creek the closest is only 45.  But who cares when you have the scenery like you have here?

Of course Murphy had to find us, things had been going too smoothly.  We noticed that our bathroom vent fan lid sounded like it was opening, but nothing was happening.  The lift motor splines had worn out, so we helped it up, and ordered a new part for our time down the road in Ennis.

The offending part

Then as if that wasn't enough, after our showers one day, we opened the cabinet door under our bathroom sink and wowser, did it stink!!!  What?!?!  Our coach like many have under cabinet vents to cut down on the holes through the roof, that way when you dump, or drain gray water, you don't suck the water out of your P-traps.  These vents are mechanical, like a check valve, built to open with negative pressure and close with positive.  It is certainly not unexpected for a vent to fail after 13 years of constant use.  And to be proactive we will replace each of our vents, this one, the one under the galley sink, and the one in the toilet compartment sink.  Easy job, screws in and out.

The black item is the vent

Then while we are on the subject of equipment, I can report that the first several drives went very well with our new tow bar.  It is a much cleaner operation and look as compared to the old one.

All hooked up

So after our week in Missoula we moved over to Bozeman.  Unfortunately Bozeman is one of those places where there are very few acceptable campgrounds.  In fact about the only one that will fit us is the Bozeman Hot Springs Campground, which was a bit of a mixed bag and very expensive.  Part of the expense problem is included in your overnight fee, whether you like it or not, is admittance to the hot springs facilities.  The site was fairly nice with a patio, but they aren't real big, they have a ton of rules, and they don't really keep the place up like they should for a $100/night site.  But, it is the only place in town, and we wanted to be close to Bozeman for a few days.

A little tight but not bad

This is the area at the rear of the sites, not impressive

I'll leave you with a few pictures to give you some idea of why we like the area so much.  Big Sky Montana!

Awesome, right?  Today we drove down to Ennis to do something we don't often do, we are going to spend a whole month here.  It is absolutely gorgeous, the Madison Valley is one of our favorites, we plan to do a lot of fishing, exploring, enjoying town, taking day trips, enjoying our drop dead view from our site, and of course helping the awesome meat market in town stay in business:-)

Not too shabby, huh?