Joe & Wilma's Excellent Adventures

 Sunday, July 21, 2024

To Bozeman, Montana

We have a short drive today so we were in no hurry to get started.  The McDonalds near us has a beautiful picture, almost a mural, of the "Lady" statue.  Since we didn't go up there, I took a picture.

 By the time we fueled and Joe got the roadkill off of the windshield, it was about 11:15.  The highway between Butte and Bozeman is supposed to be scenic so we’re looking forward to that.  We could see the Blacktail Canyon Fire off to the south, the one we spotted yesterday. 

We had a truck pass us with an "oversize" sign on it. He had a helicopter on his flatbed. We don’t see that every day.

I thought I should elaborate a little on the Pizza Ranch restaurant we like. That chain was started in Iowa and the first one we went to was in the town where John Wayne was raised, Winterset, Iowa, several years ago. They don’t just offer pizza. It is all you can eat, and they have four "islands": one is a pizza buffet and they usually have 6 to 8 different types on it.  The second is a fried chicken bar with mashed potatoes, pasta and a couple vegetables. The third one is a pretty decent salad bar. And the fourth is a dessert pizza bar. They also have ice cream.  So a family could pretty well get anything they want. With our senior discount and veterans discount, both of us can eat for about $21.  It sure beats bar food. The pizza is pretty good and the chicken is better than KFC.

Today's drive was a lot different than the one from Helena, but although we’re in the mountains, we’re not really in the forest. We see more rolling hills and low mountains. We did see a herd of five antelope and there’s always cattle and horses.  Montana has a lot of both.

Today's drive was only 90 miles, and we arrived at 12:40.  This is a nice campground, and well it should be for the price we are paying.  But we are having trouble getting the internet to work on the TV. 

Tomorrow is our appointment at the repair service to determine what's wrong with the back a/c.  We hoping for good news and a quick fix.  It's supposed to be in the high 80s, low 90s all week, with the lows in the 60s mostly, so it's heating up here, just like every place else.

After we got set up. Joe messed with the TV. We’re supposed to have Wi-Fi but we could not get it to connect on the TV, although it did connect on our phones and on his notebook.  We even called the office and they sent their guy over but he couldn’t figure it out either. We finally gave up and went for a drive. Joe wanted to see where the RV repair place we’re taking the RV tomorrow to. It’s actually a straight shot across Main Street, about a 15 minute drive.  We passed a Texas Roadhouse on the way and Joe thought that sounded pretty good so after we went to the RV dealer, Bish's' we stopped and had a nice dinner at Texas Roadhouse.   When we got back to the campground, Joe got the lawn chairs out of the jeep and we actually sat outside.  I think that was the first time all summer we’ve done that. This campground is really nice and our spot is really nice because we have a little room on the side.  Even the weather was nice.

We saw interesting things in town.  A bank has a very nice elk statue display.  I think there are 7. 

 

They have more of those electric box wraps.  Here, they seem to be almost on every corner.

Main Street was hopping.  They have a lot of eateries with outside dining, and they seem to be very popular.  I think everyone is enjoying  this short "summer" here.