May 28, 2015 - Three Forks, MT to Shelley, ID

Today was the beginning of our planned journey for the summer after spending 8 weeks in Three Forks, MT.  The first 6 weeks were spent on taking care of Keri and Dustin's five kids while Keri stayed in Billings, MT to care for her baby, Kalista Hope, in NICU. Kalista was born premature on February 17, 2015. Keri's husband, Dustin stayed with her and the baby until the first week of April before returning back to work full-time.  They had several people look after the kids from Feb 17 until April 2. After we left Jacksonville, FL on March 30 we drove for 3 days, arrived in Billings, MT on April 2nd, met with Keri and Dustin to discuss plans for taking care of their house and the kids.  We took over the responsibility on April 3rd.  We stayed there until Keri and Kalista came home from Billings on 7th of May.  We were planning on staying around one more week to allow Keri get adjusted to the routine after being away from home for 3 months.  However, Edith decided that one week stay was not enough, so we spent another week (actually, we really enjoyed spending time with our adopted family)

Kalista Hope

Our adopted family
Dustin, Sasha, Conner, Nikkol, Zella, Keri and Hunter

It was raining, but it was not cold.  The temporary state license tags that were issued when we purchased the motorhome and the Jeep were replaced with the new ones (still temporary).  We have ordered personalized tags and that takes 4-6 weeks before we get them.  Because of that we were advised not to enter and visit Canada this time, so we cancelled that section of our route.

Getting ready to check out of the campground

The Jeep before getting towed to our Lil Home (LH)

Setting up the tow bar for the Jeep

Our LH and the Jeep getting ready to hit the road!

The sun was trying to peek through the thick cloud cover.  There was a small sky break in the distance and we were hoping the weather gets better later on in the day.

We left Missouri Headwaters State Park campground at 9:30 am.  It took us a while to get everything put away in our Lil Home (new name for our Class A motorhome) and the Jeep ready for towing.  Setting up the towing system for the Jeep took a while because that was the first time we had done it. We should have practiced setting it up during our downtime, but there was almost never any downtime for us. (No excuse, we know!)

We decided to get on I-90 Westbound to Whitehall, MT (Exit 249). Because we were towing the Jeep for the first time, we wanted to stop at Exxon gas station in Whitehall to check to be sure it is ok.  So far so good!

The sun finally came out, but there were still lots of rain clouds all around.

We went on Highway 55 South and the road was narrow, but manageable.  The scenery was very beautiful.  There were thousands of sheep and lambs.

Highway 41 was used to go to Twin Bridges, ID.  Edith took a picture of the most famous round red barn in that area. It was built in 1882 by Noah Armstrong. It has 3 floors: first floor has a saddle room, a veterinarian's room with medicine and supplies, grain bins, an office, and living quarters for the stablemen. The second floor  is for the storage of hay and grain for feeding and had chutes going into each horse stall for easier feeding. The third floor has a large water tank to provide water.

Historic Round Barn near Twin Bridges, MT

Along that same route there were lots of Canadian geese and the babies in the pond.

We pulled into the Chamber of Commerce parking lot in Dillon, MT. We decided to leave LH there and used the Jeep to get around the town. Before we set out we went inside the Chamber of Commerce to get information. There were lots of Western displays inside.  

Our twins!!!

"Ghost"
The asking price is $9,000!!!

In front of the Chamber of Commerce building
 Note where we parked our LH in the rear parking lot

Lots of life sized bronze statues in the town

There was an interesting attraction that had lots of knick knacks outside, but the place was closed and off limits. 

We spent time browsing inside Galloping Horse Interiors store that sells Western themed furniture pieces. There were so many nice stuff we would love to have, but we wanted to be minimalist. Besides that, there is no room for more stuff inside our LH.

Antler Door Handle

For lunch we had crispy Malibu chicken sandwich with sweet potato fries at the Klondike Casino/Restaurant.

Edith wanted to check out Western boots at Atomic 79, tried on several, liked one, but she wanted to have red color in it and they did not have it in stock. It was surprisingly very comfortable when walking.

They have Spiderman boots for kids!

As soon as we walked back to the Jeep from Action 79 store the rain started to came down very hard.  One drop of it was like a gallon!

Leaving Dillon, MT we were on Business 15 to get on I-15 to Idaho Falls, ID.  Some nice looking barns here and there and Edith found a perfect one with the snowcapped mountains as the backdrop.

We made a first rest area stop in Dubois, ID. Black rain clouds started to appear in the distance.  There is a dump station for RVs with no fee, but we decided to wait until we check into campground later in the evening.

It started to rain when we left Dubois.  We could not believe at how much litter were lying along I-15 W.  Thousands of wind turbines south of I-15. In spite of the litter it was a beautiful drive with snowcapped mountains, low lying clouds, valleys and more!

Wind Turbines

We got off from I-15 at Exit 128 in Osgood, ID to see what giant cans of Sprite, Coke and Diet Coke were like. They are actually above-ground storage tanks for gasoline and diesel fuel.  Clever idea!

It was 5:30 pm when we arrived Idaho Falls, ID.  We decided that we were going to camp out in Shelley, ID, which is few miles south of Idaho Falls.  We overlooked the sign to North Bingham County Park campground and had to make an U-turn.  The campground office was closed, but there was an envelope to leave $ in and to mark which site we reserved. We got the site #2.

Sunset

We did not want to take a chance of venturing away from the campground park after supper because the gates close at sunset.  Instead, we stayed behind, took a walk inside the park.

Erwin really enjoyed driving our LH and Edith was impressed with his ability to maneuver it in towns/cities.  

Miles driven:
LH - 240
Jeep -5

Today's route:
A - Missouri Headwaters State Park Campground, Three Forks, MT
B - Whitehall, MT
C - Dillon, MT
D - Dubios, ID
E - Shelley, ID