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Filling up the RV water tank to this beautiful Washington sunset.

People at these RV parks are so friendly. For example, this random grandfatherly man just gave me these fresh picked cherries.

Amy and the girls picked fresh blueberries this morning, so it’s blueberry pancakes and bacon for dinner. Mmmm…

I’ve been meaning to mention this for weeks now: we see these little drive-thru coffee booths all over the northwest:

Last weekend we made our way to Missoula MT where Amy ran the Missoula Marathon. This was the scene the day before when all the runners sign in, get their race packets, etc.:

It was at a nice city park with lots of stuff for kids:

As usual, Amy did great:

Resting afterward:

This big hill (with the big M on it) was very close to where Amy’s race was:

While she soaked her feet in the nearby Missoula river, I hiked up to that “M” and then to the top. It was way harder than I thought it would be.

A couple days later, Amy hiked it too (note that she’s above the clouds):

Having been on the road for a month, the vehicles were looking pretty grubby. Nothing $10 worth of quarters can’t fix:

Next we landed in Lolo, MT, at square-dancing RV park!

The internet was horrible here, but it was an otherwise lovely place. Nice trees.

It rained a bit, but Natalie didn’t mind:

Bill and Carolyn were our awesome neighbors. They had us over for drinks one night.

We HAD to check out the square dancing action, though this night was merely a practice:

For me, it was hard not to think of square dancing as a little goofy, but it honestly looked pretty challenging. And these people were clearly having a great time, and that made me happy.

After Lolo, we went to Lolo Hot Springs and stopped at an RV park that was hosting a little bluegrass music festival.

Our camp site was right next to a river, which made the girls happy:

The music festival was called “greengrass” since it was bluegrass music but with an earth-friendly, “green” theme. Think Hee-Haw meets Woodstock. That night was the Shook twins. They were excellent.

The next morning, Carrie and Nat slept in while Amy, Em, and I went for a climb at the edge of the campground.

The air smelled like pine. And I wished there was a zip-line!

Last night we made our way to Hell’s Canyon Stat Park in Idaho, but all the camping spots were taken. They took us to an “equestrian parking” lot covered in horse manure at the top of a hill where we could basically just park for the night. It was either stay there or find a Wal-mart parking lot.

We stayed, and had a nice quiet evening.

We had the whole place to ourselves.

Today we are heading to Burbank, Washington. We don’t have reservations (as is our policy now), so hopefully they’ll have a spot for us.

My office this morning.

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…)