Saturday, July 27, 2024

Big Sky

My phone said it got down to 50 this morning. It was 59 when I got up at 8 o’clock.

We headed down to Big Sky today even though this is the same highway we will take to Yellowstone tomorrow. We didn’t think we would want to take time from our Yellowstone visit to drive back to Big Sky from Yellowstone so we made the trip today. We drove along pretty Gallatin River which was running pretty hard -- we saw white water in several places, and they raft on this river through here. 

Our plan is to drive to Big Sky and back, and not take any side roads which is how we end up with those 260 mile days.  We’re going to avoid that today.

As soon as I said that, Joe found a little road to pull off to drive down to the river. It was really just a little driveway loop so that wasn't too bad and it was certainly worth it. The scenery was beautiful and there was a girl across the river fly fishing.   I kept hoping she would catch something, but she didn’t while I was standing there.  A little duck drifted by going about 100 miles an hour.

This is one of the prettiest drives we’ve been on in Montana. The Gallatin River is rushing north. It’s a little deeper here than a lot of the rivers we’ve seen, and we’ve seen several fly fisherman.  There are rock cliffs right behind the river, and the other side of the road is mountain.

We saw some white water rafters, and the bus and the rafts getting ready to put in. There’s some really nice campgrounds along this road too.  We always wish we knew about these beforehand.

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We made it to the town of Big Sky in less than an hour but the drive up to the resort and the ski area is another nine or 10 miles.  We had to drive around to find out where to go for lift tickets.  We could see some of the ski trails coming down the mountain.  And we could see a few pockets of snow.  This looks to be a pretty upscale ski resort.  Lots of condos here, and more being built.

The walk from the parking lot to the lifts was more than we wanted, but we did it.  The tickets were $41 each, and are good for all day so we could use them multiple times and on multiple trams.  We only saw 2 trams running.  We got right on the first tram, no wait.  The ride was very enjoyable.  Something we hadn't seen before, they have trails to ride bikes down from the top of the ski lift.  They load the bikes right on the tram, with the bike riders in the car behind the bikes.  There are all kinds of bike trails we could see from our seats, and we would occasionally catch a glimpse of the bikers.  The trails had lots of curves and jumps.   The cars on this tram held 6 passengers.  On the second tram, the cars held 8 passengers.  They left the empty cars closed, but you could imagine in winter weather that perhaps you could pull the top over to keep a little warmer.

When we got to the top, we got off and walked around just a little.  The elevation up here was 9,100 ft.  Joe was having a little trouble with the thin air, but it didn't seem to bother me.  We got back on and went back to the bottom, then walked over to the second tram and got on it.  It was another very pleasant ride. The elevation for this one was 8,800 ft.   We would catch a glimpse of the bike riders every once in a while from both trams.

The riders load their own bikes, then walk behind them until they "lift" off.  They always seat the riders in the very next car so they can grab their bikes.

When we got off of the second lift at the top, the agent told us they were on "lightning hold" right now. There was lightning in the area. They would know in 30 minutes whether or not we could go back down on the lift. Otherwise they would take us down by vehicle.

There were restrooms and a lodge (closed) with a deck area on this one and so we sat down to wait it out.

   About 10 minutes after we got off, they shut the lift down.  Just a few minutes later, the attendant announced that there was a van going down for anybody who wanted to go.  We debated but decided we didn’t want to get stuck up on top in a thunderstorm so we opted to get in the van and come on down.  It was a 15 passenger van, and I think we had 12 in it.  

If there’s lightning within 10 miles, they shut down the trams and the zip line. I talked to the attendant at the bottom and he said lightning was 8 miles out right now. They had had one update after the initial alarm, and updates were due every 30 minutes, the next one at 2:38.   We had thought we might ride the first one again, but decided not to wait it out.  Some of the people were on their very first ride and were wondering about a refund since they only got 1/2 of a ride.  It sounded like some of them were on a time schedule and not able to hang around to see if they restarted the trams.  We didn't check into any of that since we had 1 1/2 rides. 

 By the time we walked to the car, there was thunder in the area. I took a shortcut, and Joe picked me up so I didn’t have to walk all the way back to the parking lot.  I did spot two deer working their way down next to the ski slope while I was waiting for him.  Joe picked me up about 2:20. Within five minutes, it started sprinkling on us.  

We had talked about eating at the ski resort but were afraid we would get stuck there in the rain so we headed back out to the highway.  At the intersection of Hwy 191, there was  gas station and a taco bus.  We were going to sit at the picnic table, but by the time Joe picked up our tacos, it had started sprinkling again, so we ate in the Jeep.  We thought of Dave and Mazie, we had eaten halibut "at the bus" in Alaska, one of our very fond memories with them.

We got back on the highway and headed to Bozeman.  The rain increased.  We found the rafters, now they were dealing with rain in addition to the white water.  A few fishermen were still on the water, but most were packing it in.   Due to the rain, we managed to not take any side roads, although it was a point of conversation a few times.

When we got back to Bozeman, it had rained in some areas, including the campground.  But the temperature was lovely.  We were both tired, so we did not sit outside like we did yesterday.   Our drive today was about 120 miles, easy peasy. It was about 4:30 when we got back.

Tomorrow we move on to Yellowstone.  Can't wait.

 Friday, July 26, 2024

A Quiet Day

Today we stayed home and basked in the cool air of the new A/C, although the temperature only reached 84 degrees, so it didn't kick on very much.  Yesterday wore us out, so we took the day off.  We did venture out to Walmart this afternoon.  Joe is calling this my new RV, but it sure makes shopping at Walmart easier.

I guess our entertainment for the day was watching a 40-ft Tiffin RV, pulling a trailer with a Jeep on it, run over a sign on the Walmart parking lot.  Must have been his first time out.  He did get out and look at his RV once he cleared the corner.  

We drove by the rodeo grounds and there were horses there but we did not see any formal activity.  I had every intention of cooking dinner tonight, but when the time came I just wasn't in the mood.  We had noticed Audrey's Pizza earlier in the week and thought we should eat there before we left Bozeman, so tonight was the night.  It was also a craft brewery so I'm not sure Audrey would have approved, and their pizza wasn't as good as hers, but it was OK.

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We had a little rain storm move through, so I had to bring out the cold weather clothes again. It's hard to imagine this with the temperature back home at 106, but that's why we are here.

We were ready for a day off, where we didn't have to de-camp and head across town.  We have enjoyed seeing Bozeman.  There's a lot of evening activity available.  They have a live production of Mary Poppins at the performing arts theatre, Ellen Theatre, but I checked on tickets and they were $129/each so we decided against that.  But we drove down Main on our way to pizza, and downtown was hopping.  There are lots of eateries and bars on Main, and a lot of tourists on the street.

Saturday is our last day here, and then we will be moving on to Yellowstone National Park.  Really looking forward to that.  I believe my right knee is better, and I'm still wearing the brace.  I'm certainly glad of that.  Now, if the geysers will just behave, we hope to enjoy our few days there.

 Thursday, July 25, 2024

Bozeman - Mission Accomplished

We had a message this morning that the A/C unit was in and we could have it installed at mid-day today or tomorrow. We opted for today and took it over about 10:00, then went back to OverEasy for breakfast, a little restaurant right on Main Street.  There are always people walking the streets  in downtown Bozeman -- tourists, people walking their dog on the way to coffee, business people.  We walked down past a couple stores just to say we walked Main Street.

Then we headed out for a scenic drive to Bridger Canyon and Bridger Bowl Ski Area, 16 miles. We drove up to the ski resort, there’s some beautiful views along this road.  We knew the trams did not run in the summer but thought we should see the place, at least.

There are beautiful views coming down the mountain but the trees prevented a good picture.

Of course, we didn't turn around here.  Oh no, we continued on past and made a 260-mile loop drive out of it.  We saw our first wildlife, a deer laying down just inside the guard rail by the road.  We almost missed it, we weren’t looking that close.   Then we eventually saw two antelope off in the trees.

We took a side road to Shields River Road and the Custer Gallatin National Forest. The road is rather bumpy. We’ve seen one deer on this road. 

We stopped and walked over to the bridge and looked at the river. I looked for fish, but didn’t see.  We were so sleepy we considered taking a nap under the shade tree, but we continued on for a few more miles instead.  Joe thinks this house should have a good view.   

He was thinking about turning around here, but instead, we took a side road off of our side road to Porcupine Creek. It took us past the driveway to the house on the hill called Quill Hill. (I first thought it said "Chill Hill" which I thought was a better name for it.)   We just went a few miles on this road. It looked the same as what we’ve been seeing so we turned around and headed back to the main highway to finish our loop. We started out on 86, then 89, then  east on Highway 294, then 12, to 191, then back to I-90 to complete the circle.  On 294, we saw an antelope,  a deer and two sandhill cranes.  I had seen two sandhill cranes a few days earlier.

Coming out of Wilsal, there was a statue of Thunder Jack, famous from the Lewis and Clark history.  We had seen a statue of Thunder Jack several years ago after we left Yellowstone with Jeff and Brenda.  I don't know if there are multiple statues of him, but we knew we had seen him before and we had never been on this road before.

When we got to Highway 12 we ran into road construction -- probably at least 20 miles so that slowed us down.  Then we realized that we were more than 100 miles away and we were going to need to pick up the motorhome before 6:00 so Joe kicked it in high gear and we hustled back toward Bozeman at 80 mph.  That's as fast as the Jeep had in it. We saw a small herd of antelope right by the freeway between Livingston and Bozeman. We had seen one more deer and one more antelope on 191. We hit rain showers several times.  Joe corrected me. He said these are more like raindrops than showers -- just a drop every once in a while. But then we hit 27 mph wind gusts as we wound through the canyons  --that got our attention.  A truck pulling a camper in front of us just decided to pull off and wait it out, but we’re on a time schedule so Joe just forged ahead. It’s now 5 o’clock and we are almost to the east side of Bozeman, where we know there is more road construction and the RV dealership is on the far west side. Joe just said we needed about a 20-minute hard rain to get rid of the bugs and -- whoop whoop -- there you have it. We’re now under thunderstorm warnings and it’s pouring on us. The temperature has dropped 15°. We got to the dealership at 5:35 and our service writer raised her arms and shouted YEAH. The rain continued off and on, and my windshield is clean. I don’t know about the motorhome, but the jeep is good.  (Joe said the motorhome windows were clean too, so he got his wish).

But our day wasn't over.  I had mentioned to Joe that at least we shouldn't have to watch for pedestrians on Main Street since it had rained, and we were in 5:30 traffic.  Wrong!  It had quit raining, and they had 2 blocks of Main Street shut down for a music festival. And there were lots of people on the streets walking to the festival.  So we had to detour through side streets to get around that.  That wasn't fun.

We got to the campground, and again, a pickup was parked in our space.  So we both got out and rounded up someone in the office, who went and found the owner and got it moved.  I asked the people across the street if they had the new internet up, and told her about our problem with getting the TV online, so she volunteered her son (I think) to come look at it, she said he was an IT guy.  So he came over, but still no luck.  Then we headed back to town to get something to eat.  We passed a rodeo that we would have loved to go to, but we were too tired.  Wished we had known about that earlier.  We finally finished our day and called it.  But we are SO HAPPY to have the back A/C working.  Better days ahead!