April 30th
To day  we will head North west from Lander, Wy. Toward Idaho.
We will go over the Grand Tetons, because the Yellowstone Park roads to the  south and west remain closed for the season.
This will cause  us to skirt the eastern  edge of Idaho  then  we will then  be able to go straight north into Montana.
We will be visiting my Cousin`s , Nancy and Susan in Bozeman, and Randy`s nephew , Sam Blad, in Helena.
We left  Gail and Lee`s,around 12:30pm.  It  was very  exciting trying  to turn our large rig around and get it down, her steep and winding  driveway.
Lee moved many vehicles around and helped me guide  Randy in  getting the rig going in  the right direction.
We were on the road in good time.

We were going north west toward Jackson Hole, Wyoming, we were going through the canyons and hills around Lander.

Which then opened up into the most beautiful painted hills, of limestone, Sandstone, rich in ore, giving them there beautiful colors, the aboudant sage as a back drop.

We kept going and the mountains to become more promenent. We were getting closer to the Tetons,  but were unable to see the Grand Tetons yet.

We continued to climb and the land scape increased in rocky outcrops, large canyon walls protraing beautiful colors, as if they were anouncing the coming of the Grand  Tetons.

We came to the Grand Tetons and they are beathtaking. Even though I had seen them before, they never cease to amaze.

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We climbed for some time and reached the top of the pass. Completly snow covered except for the road. It was a 10% grade which is the highest we had ever taken our rig up or down before.

It was slow going, going  up and very tense going down,

Randy white knuckled it all the way down the pass, thanking  God all the way for the Jake brake.

Even with the compression brake the brakes still got hot.

We continued on into Idaho for a short distance,  to a little town I believe it was Driggs, we got groceries,  and I got a coffee at a little shop in the store, the barista was telling us the Pass was just opened yesterday for trailors.

We were thankful we were not a day earlier.

We drove on and were getting pretty tired, but were ;unable to find a camp site.

We then came to a little town called  IslandPark, , there was a very nice RV parkthere that had just opened for the season.

It had full hookups and was a very welcomed site after such a long day.

May 1st we awoke well rested, we took our time getting ready, and visiting with the owners of the park.

We were heading to Belgrade Montana to see my cousin”s Nancy and Susan.

We went through very large farms with huge fields, that were flat, with out terraces or any hedges to prevent wind and water errosion. We  latter realized these were potato  fields.

 

We had a very pleasent drive, going through and beside the bitterroot moutains.

We arrived at Nancy`s house 1st  as Susan and Patrick were still at work. This was nice to be able to spend a little time with her alone and get caught  up. It  had been so long since we had seen each other and been able to visit.

She had been on many  trips with another one of our cousions, itwas fun to hear about all of them and to see all of her beautiful pictures. She also had pictures of us as little girls, this was so much fun to see.

We then went over to Patrick and Susans house, along with their 2 sons Conner and Tigen.

We had a wonderful supper of barbecue.

That night we went to a state Park Susan had suggested The Missori Three Rivers Park.

We camped there  that night, we had electrical hook  ups, and were very comfortable.

It was a beautiful setting, with many hiking trails.It is on the Lewis and Clark trail which thrilled Randy as he is a real Lewis and Clark  buff.

 

View from the hiking trails.

On May 2nd We headed toward Helena.Mt  to see  Randys Nephew Sam Blad and his family.

It was a beautiful drive through vast wheat fields and hills.

We reached Sam and Christi`s house and had a wonderful visit. We were so blessed to see how well they were doing, their folks can certainly be proud of them.

From there we went on and stayed in Choteau, Mt. At a  little RV Park the owners had just purchased and were beginging to renovate.

Again we wered thankful to find it, We had water and electricity We slept well.

The  next morning May 3rd we got up rested in and started for the Canada boarder.

The landscape changed again to high arid plains with large rock outcropings, as we went through the blackfeet indian nation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then again changed to large wheat stuble fields as we  neared the Canadian boarder.

On May 3rd we crossed into Canada with out any complications.we plan to spend about  3 weeks in Canada, beforecrossing into  Alaska.