Author: Jon Arnold

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.

This will be quick. We’re in Montana now, but I wanted to post a couple photos that Amy shot from North Dakota because I think they’re great. First, this sunrise from one of her early morning bike rides:

And then this one from later in the day from the car window! She took the girls back to Theodore Roosevelt National Park during the day and came upon some wild horses crossing the road:

On Saturday, we hit the road and made our way to Montana. I took this from atop Custer’s Last Stand Hill:

Deeper into Montana, we took a side trip up a mountain on some pretty rough roads…I drove in first gear at times. It would have been fine for, say, a Jeep, but it was a bit of a challenge for the lil’ Scion. Let me take a moment and express how much we love having this car with us. It was a lot of work getting the RV and the Scion ready for a flat-towing relationship, but it was so, so worth it. I can’t imagine being on this trip without it.

While on our hike:

On our way back to normal roads:

We’re loving this campground we’re at. More on that later.

Found a little local benefit race going on in Bozeman Montana, so we decided to join. Amy is doing the 5k; everyone else is doing the 1k.

On a hike in Livingston, Montana

Arrgg…a pedal from one of the bikes on the bike rack scratched the front of the Scion, presumably during a tight turn somewhere. (letting it go….letting it go…)

This has been our home this week, the Red Trail Campground in Medora, ND:

Not amazing scenery, but not bad either. Theodore Roosevelt National Park is just down the road (where we saw the buffalo), and that’s where all the good sights are. We’ll be visiting there again tomorrow.

Cotton from the cottonwood trees float through the air all day long, and it gets pretty thick on the ground:

Our girls spend hours at the playground. Here they are, sporting their favorite footwear:

And then there’s Vern and Rita, the nightly entertainment. I’ll put it this way: Vern is a liberated musician, free from the shackles of time and pitch. I like him.

Most nights we eat in the RV, but the weather has been pleasant enough to enjoy a couple outdoor dinners:

This place has a trashy charm that really grows on you, and it’s been a great place to spend another work week. We’ve had full hook-ups (that’s electric, water, AND sewer connections for you traditional civilians) so we’ve gotten a bit spoiled.

We’ll be here for another couple nights, and then we head off to Montana!

We are at the Medora Musical in Medora, ND. Let your jealousy sink in.

We took a side trip this evening to Theodore Roosevelt National Park (hardly even a side trip really — it’s just a couple minutes away from our campground.)

So we’re driving along enjoying the scenery and came upon a handful of buffalo. We felt like we struck out on the buffalo thing in South Dakota, so this was a real treat:

We encountered some more buffalo grazing right by the edge of the road. We shut the car off and just listened to them munch for a few minutes.

And then enjoyed another cool sunset:

I didn’t think North Dakota could live up to the beauty of South Dakota, but after tonight I’m reconsidering that position. Well played, North Dakota. Well played.

Sort of a rite of passage tonight: boondocking overnight in a Wal-mart parking lot.

It’s crazy to think that at the end of a gravel road, amid cattle grazing on peaceful rolling prairies, there was a 90 ton blast door ready to retract and allow a nuke-tipped missile to go annihilate the inhabitants of some Russian town.

This missile silo has of course been decommissioned, but I learned today that at the height of the Cold War, there were 1000’s of active sites like this all over the country, mostly out West. Now there are a mere 500 or so.

Unleashing nuclear devastation from such a serene, beautiful setting is pretty ironic.

I’ll definitely be checking out more Cold War stuff whenever I can.