It was raining as we left Salt Lake City at 9 am Thursday morning. As we go further out of town, the rain slowed and eventually stopped. The rest of the northern drive was dry. I like driving the bus when it’s dry! Just prior to Dillon, MT, the wind really picked up. Had to fuel up there, so it was a bit shocking how windy it was when standing out in it filling the tank. I ended up filling up at the same Sinclair station we filled up last summer. Back then it wasn’t on Gas Buddy so I added it. Was glad to see it was still listed when I started to plan the next fill-up. $3.12 per gallon, almost reasonable for diesel. I pumped in $400 worth. We will top up the tank once we get closer to the Canadian border as I am seeing their prices are like California diesel costs.
We stopped overnight in Idaho Falls at an Elks Lodge for $10 a night with 50 amp power and water. It seemed pretty nice until around midnight when we woke up to someone screaming (presumably into a phone) about a fight he had with his girlfriend, and he was pacing the parking lot around us. He finally walked away and I fell back to sleep, but Kathy stayed awake waiting for the nightclub across the street to empty at 2 am. She told me there was a lot of yelling and cars screeching about. There were houses right across the street also. Not sure how those folks deal with all the noise late in the night. (unless they are the ones drinking in the bar) So far we have stayed at 2 Elks lodges. Neither place were peaceful at night.
We headed out of Idaho Falls around 10 and drove the 250+ miles to Helena. I called the fairgrounds and made reservations for a few nights just prior to heading out. Now that we are here, $21 a night is a great deal. It’s actually at the outskirts of the city but seems like we are in the middle of nowhere. Trees and grass all around, extremely quiet place. Dusty seems to really like this place. No stickers in his paws so far. In Montana it seems campgrounds near cities are few and far between. I noticed this last year when looking for a spot in Missoula when visiting my Niece.
The ride to here was fairly uneventful except for the wind gusts in the mountains. I think we saw at least 3 Continental Divide signs on the drive here from Idaho. 6000+ summits, not too tall for the Rockies. I remember driving to Denver a long time ago and the Eisenhower Tunnel on I-70 was close to 12,000 feet. Mostly I just remember the Toyota I had was having a hard time getting enough oxygen to give me any power to climb to that point. Thankfully it was mostly downhill after that. I wonder what this diesel would act like at that elevation.
On to Canada…next Stop!