3 Days in Missoula, but it's time to move on...

Well, it's been a cheap 3 days in the city of Missoula, Montana but we really didn't want to stay here this long. The weather is still overcast with showers, although it looks like that will finally be clearing up tomorrow.

We are moving on today one way or the other. We filled up with cheapest ever propane at $0.99 a gallon. Sherman has a big 20 gallon propane tank, but it's a shame we only needed 11 gallons to top it up!

Brand new and it's already junk

We didn't originally plan on staying in Missoula this long, but the weather is not the best. Overcast and with a 50% chance of rain all day, it's tough to plan a couple of hours of outdoor activity. And it's now supposed to be like this through Thursday!

But, we got lucky yesterday late morning when we took the bikes off to go for a ride. We were out for about an hour and a half and did about 10 miles (16 kms) and it was only when we got back to the motorhome that it started spitting with rain.

Researching European motorhomes

We left our free camping spot in the hills early again, doing our driving right when we got up. We didn't really encounter any wind to speak of, which is what we've been trying to avoid. However, we did get some rain.

We haven't had many rain days since we arrived in the United States in early April. And in fact, yesterday wasn't really too bad either, but it was a mixed bag, and so once we arrived in Missoula it became a bit of a lazy day.

Odd art around Lincoln, Montana

We headed out from the city of Great Falls before the wind picked up. We were on the road at 8:30am. Nice drive through rolling hills, but not much vegetation... and not many vehicles either!

We made it to the town of Lincoln (pop 1,100) where we stopped at the Forest Service office where there was a grizzly bear display, but unfortunately it was closed.

Bike ride in Great Falls, Montana

We left our overnight spot in the Lewis and Clark National Forest at 6:30am. It's now light out by 5:30am, so we like to get our driving done while there is no wind and hardly anybody on the roads.

From the time we got on the highway, it was downhill pretty much the whole way. In fact, there was one section where I didn't touch the gas pedal for over 20 miles (33 kms)! Amazing. Sure, at one point we were down to 35 mph, but with nobody on the roads there was no need to speed up.

A visit to "the castle"...

We said goodbye to Bob and Denise at 7:30am, but we will likely see them again over the next couple of weeks. We headed over to the library to do some more free internet and then drove up to "the castle"...

There are a couple of interesting attractions in the town of White Sulphur Springs (population around 1,000). One of course is the hot springs themselves that are part of a small motel complex. You don't have to be a guest to use the springs... they cost $7 USD for a soak.

What footprint is this?

We set out with Bob and Denise at 8:30am yesterday morning. The trail we were doing is actually 15 miles (24 kms) round trip, and I don't think we were quite that ambitious but we didn't have an actual plan.

The skies were mixed, with a little bit of sunshine coming and going but the temperature was nice for hiking at around 60F (15C).

Everything You Need To Know Before Your First Backpacking Trip

Everyone loves to travel around the world from time to time. However, you mostly don’t like to move around with a lot of luggage. Your best solution is a backpack. If it is your first backpacking trip, you’re probably wondering how to go about it. Worry no more; you’re in the right place.

Before you leave for your trip, here are a few tips on the things you must know if you are a first-time backpacker.

Warning. Contents may have shifted.

Tuesday morning, we left Gardiner at about 6:15am. We were surprised at the number of people up and about at that hour, but of course it gets light out so early right now.

Most of the traffic was heading in the opposite direction though. Hardly any cars in our lane going north.

We hung around Gardiner

Which turned out to be not a bad thing. We kind of like the town and the area. Reminds us a little bit of Dawson City, Yukon!

But, had we known that the weather wasn't going to be nearly as bad as they forecast, we probably would have done things differently. Oh well!

So far, they have been totally wrong

We knew they had been forecasting this stretch of bad weather, with Monday (today) being the worst of it. But we woke up this morning expecting to see a dusting of snow on the ground... or at least some rain. But nothing. No precipitation at all so far.

We made a point of going out for a long hike yesterday because we kind of figured we would be stuck inside all day today. But that may not be the case now. We'll see.

Drive through Yellowstone National Park

Once again, we got up early and started driving right away. There's some bad weather coming this way, and we wanted to get into Montana. Our route would take us right through Yellowstone National Park, and all of the campgrounds in the park are still closed.

And, it was a bit of a drive with lots to see along the way. In fact, we took almost 125 pictures. I whittled them down to about 50, so prepare yourself for quite a few photos in this blog post!

Camped with a view?

We were on the road by 6:30am on Friday morning. We're not having any problem getting up early now that we're approaching the longest day of the year. Even now, the sun doesn't set until after 9:00pm, and it is light again by 5:30am!

And, it looked like another nice day although once again they were calling for the winds to pick up after lunch.

Camped beside the river

We got all our driving done in the morning, well before the afternoon winds picked up. Sooo much nicer driving when it's calm. Stopped in Pinedale to have breakfast and use the internet, then headed a bit further north.

We pulled in to the Warren Bridge BLM area. There are nine different free camping locations spread along the Green River over a distance of about 8 miles (13 kms).

Back on the road

We got a bit of a late start Wednesday morning. We had left the mechanic shop before they opened and headed to Walmart to do a bit of stocking up. When we left there, Sherman's volt meter was reading low. I figured maybe there was a bad connection related to what the mechanic had done since they had the alternator removed as part of the job changing the water pump.

So we headed back to the mechanic shop.

Motorhome repair and maintenance costs... and Sherman's future

We are back on the road this morning after spending another $798 USD ($1076 CAD) on repairs, this time to Sherman's water pump. But, we not only got a new water pump, we also got a new fan clutch, a new serpentine belt and a new thermostat. The labor and the parts were split pretty much half and half.

Rock Springs Auto Repair looked after us really well, They gave us an accurate estimate before starting the job, they ordered the parts right away, and they got to the job as soon as the parts showed up. They were also very fair on the labor costs, charging a total of 2.5 hours when I know the guy spent close to 4. I would not hesitate to recommend these guys if you need something done while in the area.

Stuck in Rock Springs, Wyoming

But, it shouldn't be for too long!

We left the Flaming Gorge Reservoir early. We didn't have any internet access from there, so we got up at 6:30am and drove into the town of Green River and found some unsecured free WiFi. We spent some time there, but we needed a laundromat and I wanted to do some driving before the wind picked up again so we continued on to Rock Springs.

May Expenses

Well, here we are in the month of June already!

May expenses have been tallied, and here are the final numbers... we spent a total of $2,116 CAD ($1,560 USD at today's exchange rates). Not bad, considering we bought a bunch of "stuff" including a new phone.

Hello Wyoming!

Yesterday, we met up with Bob and Denise again just before the entrance to the Flaming Gorge Reservoir.

We crossed into Wyoming, and then set about to find a place to camp for the night. There are some beautiful free campsites on the shores of the reservoir, but some of them require a 4 wheel drive to get to. Still, we managed to find a great parking spot with a beautiful view.

How are we able to be out of Canada for so long?

We had a question yesterday from someone on our Facebook page...

"I'm curious how you are able to be out of Canada for so long."

And we've had similar questions from other people over the past several weeks that we've been in the Unites States. Prior to this virus thing, we were originally supposed to return to Canada in April for 10 days, and then again starting May 1st for most of the following six months.

National forest boondocking

We left Duchesne, Utah at around 9:30am and headed for the town of Vernal where there is a free RV dump station and water fill. Got that done, and then went looking for some drinking water to fill our 5 gallon jug. Usually, we can find self serve purified water places, and they are quite common in Texas and New Mexico but not so much here in Utah. Or at least not in the towns we have been in.

Ended up buying two single gallon jugs of spring water (on sale at $0.79 per gallon) to get us by until we can find somewhere to fill the big jug.

Seemed like business as usual...

We got on the road at about 9:00am. Finally, a day with very low winds, but warm... the high was about 86F (30C) with an overnight low about 60F (15C).

Had to do a few miles on the Interstate highway... speed limit is 80 mph (128 km/h) but of course Sherman toddles along at only 60 mph (102 km/h) on these types of roads.

A scenic drive, a quick visit to Moab, and another great campsite

We left the Devil's Canyon Campground as soon as we got up and headed in to the town of Monticello. Our first stop was the visitor's center where we figured they would have free WiFi. But they didn't. The visitors center was closed due to Covid, as we expected, but if they ever had free WiFi, they must have shut it down.

We carried on to the library where we sat and used that free WiFi and had some breakfast.

What a great day we had

We left Bob and Denise at about 7:00am and drove into the town of Blanding. There is not good cell service in much of these out of the way places in Utah, so we have been moving every day, but stopping at small towns to use the free WiFi at the libraries.

Yes, the libraries are closed but so far they have left their WiFi on.

Happy hour with Bob and Denise

We left Bluff, Utah and headed north to the town of Blanding. Just a short drive, and we sat at the library there and used the free WiFi while we waited for friends Bob and Denise who were coming south from Moab.

After they arrived, we had some lunch and then backtracked a little bit to a free campsite in a valley west of Blanding.

Hello Utah!

Heading west from Farmington, New Mexico is the town of Shiprock. There had been some discussion in the comments section here a a couple of days ago about things to see and do in and around Shiprock, but in our opinion, it's not a very nice town, and really not a very nice area.

The only thing worth seeing is the "shiprock"... a huge piece of volcanic rock jutting out of the ground.

In hindsight, we did the right thing

The other day, one of our readers made a comment that we had made the right decision to continue traveling the way we are during this pandemic. Now that things are starting to "open up", I've been reflecting on that.

And we agree, for us it was the right decision. But it's only in hindsight that we can say that. At the time, thinking back to two months ago, we certainly didn't know for sure that this was going to be the right decision.