Today it's Thursday the 18th of June. I'm just reminding myself since we sort off loose track of the days and dates. The morning greeted us with another mixed bag of weather. Mostly cloudy and a bit of sun. The temperature was a balmy 13 deg C. Lucky for us, as the morning wore on, the clouds started to thin and the sun came out. The temperature climbed to a nice 16 deg. In other words, weather wise, we had a pretty good day.
Today we're pushing on and we got onto the I-90 and made good time. As I mentioned in my last blog, we crossed 
into another time zone when we entered Montana. It's a lot harder to adjust to being short an hour than gaining an hour we find. The scenery does indeed change when travelling east from Spokane, WA. We're now off the Channeled Scablands plateau and starting to get into the mountains again. Shortly after leaving Spokane we crossed into Idaho. Here we really are back into the mountains. The landscape is very scenic with lots of forest and mountain rivers. I-90 twists and turns up, down and around the mountains. Too bad we can't stop where we want, to take pictures. Being on an Interstate Highway is fast but it limits you to where you can stop to admire the surroundings.
into another time zone when we entered Montana. It's a lot harder to adjust to being short an hour than gaining an hour we find. The scenery does indeed change when travelling east from Spokane, WA. We're now off the Channeled Scablands plateau and starting to get into the mountains again. Shortly after leaving Spokane we crossed into Idaho. Here we really are back into the mountains. The landscape is very scenic with lots of forest and mountain rivers. I-90 twists and turns up, down and around the mountains. Too bad we can't stop where we want, to take pictures. Being on an Interstate Highway is fast but it limits you to where you can stop to admire the surroundings.We did manage see a few deer along the road and a wild tom turkey
. We stopped at a large gift store along I-90 that was heavily advertised already starting shortly after leaving Spokane. There was a lot of stuff but we didn't buy anything except a cowboy hat for me. This area is also known for its mines. A lot of silver is mined in Idaho as well as other minerals, including gold. We visited an outdoor display of historic mining artifacts. I've got to say that modern man does
n't know what hardship and hard work is. If you compare what our great-grandfathers had to do to make a living to what we do, then we have it super easy today. No wonder that the average lifespan then was so much shorter than today.
. We stopped at a large gift store along I-90 that was heavily advertised already starting shortly after leaving Spokane. There was a lot of stuff but we didn't buy anything except a cowboy hat for me. This area is also known for its mines. A lot of silver is mined in Idaho as well as other minerals, including gold. We visited an outdoor display of historic mining artifacts. I've got to say that modern man does
n't know what hardship and hard work is. If you compare what our great-grandfathers had to do to make a living to what we do, then we have it super easy today. No wonder that the average lifespan then was so much shorter than today.Once we drove into Montana, the landscape changes again. Everything is much drier and the spruce and pine forest become smaller and sparser. Also we see our good friend the sage brush starting to make it's presence know again. The mountains are further away but still very much visible. After passing through Missoula we leave the Bitterroot Mountains behind and start getting into the Rocky Mountains again. The Rockies are definitely higher and are snow and glacier capped.
When we got to the town of Butte we decided we had done enough driving and stopped for the day. Today being Friday, we were a bit nervous about getting a hotel room. In the past we have found that on weekends lots of families go somewhere and stay in hotels/motels and if you don't have a reservation you may have to hunt around for a room. This time, they still had one room and we took it right away. The room is very nice and priced very reasonably to boot, so we lucked out for today again.
Here in Butte (pron
ounced Beaut by the locals) there is a giant statue on one of the mountains behind the town. It's called the Lady of the Rockies and is a 90ft white statue of Mary the mother of Jesus. It overlooks the town at an altitude of 8510ft.
ounced Beaut by the locals) there is a giant statue on one of the mountains behind the town. It's called the Lady of the Rockies and is a 90ft white statue of Mary the mother of Jesus. It overlooks the town at an altitude of 8510ft.I haven't talked about the bug situation on our travels. That is because we have hardly seen any. The only place where we had a bit of a problem was in Northern BC when we stopped at a campground for a pit stop. There were swarms of mosquitoes there, but that was the only time we were bothered by any insects. I guess that when the temperatures go up eventually, the bug problem increases as well, but for us it was a bonus.
Well that's about it again for today. Goodbye and good night to all.
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