The first 3 days on the road

Bridgeview Campsite in Lethbridge

Well we got off on time, Monday morning fresh from the polling station after doing our civic duty. The weather, just fine. Blue skies and dry roads. Pulled into Lethbridge around 5pm. John noticed some oil and dust on a rear wheel. Possible rear axle seal gone? Had it checked the next day at Brake Fleet in Lethbridge. Two mechanics checked it and no leak. Thank goodness! I thought our first tour might be of Lethbridge, which don't get me wrong, would be fine but I am itching to get to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming before the weather turns bad.
Day two: Into the good ol' USA at the Coutts border crossing. We got "selected" by US Agriculture Border Services to be checked so we pulled the rig over. A very friendly and talkative inspector climbed aboard and asked a bunch of questions. At the end of it all he confiscated my lamb shanks that I had purchased at the St. Albert Farmers Market. :(
We decided to pull into the rest stop just past the border to make a sandwich before we made our way down the road. Picked up a really good map of Montana at the rest area building.

On the road, northern Montana

Into the mountains, near Helena, MT

Drove south to and thru Great Falls, pure ranchland, and on down to Helena, into mountains, where we found a campsite just the other side. Set up camp and went into town to pick up a few necessities and supper.
The campsite was right beside the hiway and a lovely creek ran beside it with small trout darting about. The traffic we have found in the evening dies down to nothing at night here thankfully. It was a VERY chilly night. Realised the vent has to be in the Off position or cold air will come into the rv. Every day we learn a little more about our home on wheels.
Day three: Got up early as we had hit the hay early the night before. John got up and made coffee. The pot didn't finish brewing as the circuit it was plugged into stopped working. Ahh, another little problem to fix.
We headed into Helena to visit the Archie Bray Foundation for Ceramic Arts. Plugged the address into GSP and away we went. "Samantha" guided us just fine and we spent a couple of hours looking a lovely pottery and self-touring the whole grounds. I was so pleased we went. I picked up a few glazes and tools at the little shop. Woo hoo, no shipping costs!

The old brick works at the Archie Bray Foundation

Afterwards we went back to the campsite, loaded the car and headed south to Butte. We traveled some steep and windy roads but the scenery made it worthwhile.

Some lovely pieces by one of the potters in residence at the ABF

Our Lady of the Rockies, Butte MT. This statue is as large as the statue of Liberty

Butte is in a wide valley and was established because of mining. There are still many remnants of mines here and the city is full, full, full of old historic buildings from the mining era. Apparently it was a rip snortin' old west town full of hard working and hard "playing" men and women.

Butte valley

We found the Visitor Information in Butte easily and they were very helpful and the RV campsite was right next door so super easy today. Booked in, set up, unloaded car and set off to explore Butte. You can just feel the history!!
As I am sitting writing this I just happened to look out the window to see the statue of Our Lady of the Rocky Mountains statue in the distance is all lit up at night. Cool!
There is a little Chicken/Fish and Chips shop at the campsite so John set off to get us some for supper.
This KOA campsite in Butte is the first time we've had wifi. It's not as available as we thought it would be. Same goes for rv campsites. We got a very good KOA campsite guide at the office here so I'm hoping it won't be so by gosh and by gar that we find one. At night the Butte valley is lit up, Our Lady, the big M and the mining towers. Very cool!
Day four: Today we will leave Butte and head east to Livingston, MT. Approx. 2 hrs. drive. We called ahead to the campsite and were told there is a pull through available for us. Livingston
is near the road that goes to Yellowstone Nat'l Park. About 54 miles or 86 kms. I'm sooo excited to see the sights! (still converting distance and temps).