We started the week in Livingston, MT and planned on staying at this RV park for a few days:
What you don’t see in this photo is the trailer park 10 feet away where shirtless ruffians were lighting off fireworks. We stayed one night and left the next morning.
Good thing, because we found a great RV park about 30 miles down the road in Bozeman, MT, the appropriately named Sunrise Campground. It was a very friendly place.
The next morning (4th of July) there was a local benefit race that we all ran in. Amy ran the 5k, and the girls and I ran the 1k. I was the only adult in the 1k, so I crushed my elementary-school-aged competition. I’m not a runner, but the scenery made it quite enjoyable.
Later that day, we took a trip to Nebraska City, MT:
It’s basically an old-time-y, “step back in history” kind of place with historical buildings and people walking around in-character. Em did a sack race…
…and Amy and I sawed some logs:
This struck me on the drive back; a Montana plains neighborhood:
Back at the RV park, there was an ice-cream social going down:
I tend to take a more reclusive approach to RV’ing, so the idea of anything with the word “social” in it gets a little weird for me.
But the “ice-cream” part of it was compelling. My children’s children will be talking about the spread they had here. Seriously, it was amazing. And I’ll admit, it was nice getting to know our temporary neighbors and feel a little normal again.
That night, we drove out to the Bozeman fairgrounds to catch the fireworks. Great show, and hardly any crowds or traffic to deal with.
These are just a few items that I am unable to work into an cohesive narrative, but I wanted to capture nonetheless:
At every campground, Emily gets right to work on her fairy houses:
I enjoyed working outside during the week. This surprises me.
Amen:
The town of Bozeman and the Sunrise Campground was probably our favorite stop so far. We had only planned on staying one night, but it felt so nice we stayed the whole week. We’ve since decided that we will not make anymore reservations anywhere so we can freely stick around when we like it, and leave when it’s lame.
This afternoon we landed in Missoula, MT:
Although it doesn’t seem as kid-friendly as the last campground, it’s a nice place and their sign is simply spectacular:
I stayed back at the RV to finish my work, but Amy and the girls took a side trip to the National Buffalo Range about a half hour away (Natalie affectionately calls these “buffies”):
Perhaps I should have gone; it looks beautiful:
It should be a fun weekend, and it looks like the weather will be perfect for Amy’s marathon on Sunday.