Mission

We were going to sleep in late but that didn't work out as I am going through this no sleep episode again.  As there was no food in the house for breakfast we went to IHOP and ate.  They were really busy as it is Columbus Day today and I guess there was no school or work or whatever.  After breakfast we went to COSTCO for groceries and then headed on over to WalMart for more groceries.  COSTCO is fine if you want bulk items but for two people it sometimes doesn't make sense.  We piddled around the house, Hardy working on something for IEE and I washed a load of clothes, cleaned a little house, got everything put away that we had brought down and then watched a little TV.  it took some time this year to get the TV up and working as we have to switch the local channels from St Louis to McAllen and visa versa when we go back north.  We had a hard time getting that taken care of but Hardy finally got it figured out and we were up and running before too long.  Hardy has a doctor's appointment in the morning so it is to bed a little early.

Houston

We got out of Houston fairly early and drove in rain, sometimes pouring, from Houston to the "valley"  We came down what will soon be I69 out of Houston and it will run all the way to Brownsville, TX, if they ever get it completed.  About 100 miles out of Mission it quit raining so driving was much easier after that.  The speed limit on that stretch of road is usually 70 to 75 mph so you can cruise right along and make some pretty good time.  We made it to our home in Mission around 6:00 p.m. and unloaded the car.  The house was in good shape and even smelled good.  The only problem we found was some rust in the freezer portion of the refrigerator.  The yard is nice and green and had been freshly mowed.  The shrubs have been cut back so it looked really nice.  Our local Mexican restaurant, Las Margaritas was not open so we opted to eat at Whataburger which is right up the road from us.  They are doing some construction on Bentsen Palm Dr so had to go a little out of the way to get back home but not too far.

Stuck at the Motel

I did not venture too far from the hotel as it rained most of the day.  I spent my time working on Ancestry and reading along with playing on the computer while Hardy was at his meeting.  We stayed at the Marriott which was a nice enough hotel and the prices were good for a Marriott.  That night we went to another restaurant with the IEEE members and it was really good.  I was a little less willing to overeat but I had a super steak and we shared a deserts between the six of us at the table.

Houston IEEE Meeting

We did some geocaching along the way to Houston and found caches in six more counties.  We are still working on completing the Texas County marathon.  Texas is a huge state with many counties so this might take awhile.  We arrived in Houston in time to go to dinner with the IEEE group and lo and behold...Mexican again.  I consumed way to many chips and salsa along with several margaritas.  We did meet Jeff Handal's new girl friend and she and I sat together at dinner and had a great time.  She is quite lovely and from Nicaragua, I believe.

Texas Here We come

After a dentist appointment in the morning, breakfast and stopping for gas, we were on the road to our winter home in Texas.  We decided to go down US 71 which will be the new I45 from Kansas City to New Orleans.  Some of the road is finished but there is much to be done before it will be a full blown interstate.  Arkansas was beautiful at this time of year with the trees starting to turn their beautiful colors.  We stayed in Arkansas the first night at a little motel that used to be a Super 8.  Unfortunately they did not serve breakfast but we certainly had a good dinner at the Mexican joint right next door.

A Drive in the Mountains

A Good Place for a Cabin in the Woods

Wednesday we took a drive with Judy's brother Frank in the mountains SW of Helena MT near the Continental divide.  It was cold and snowing! Here's a nice spot for a cabin in the woods.  This spot was near the end of telegraph creek road off US 12 west of Helena. We were headed back to town after driving down (and I do mean DOWN) Ontario Creek Rd to the CD trail and Judy's nephew's elk hunting camp. The road goes on to Ontario Mine and is more like Ontario Creek than road. We saw quite a few deer from the road but no other critters.

Ronan, MT

Mission Mountains

We drove to Ronan following Frank and Shila.  We stopped along the way for a geocache and then made it to Kenny and Cindy Clairmonts to set up our camp.  They have a beautiful place and lots of room for campers in the pasture.  Their house sits right under the Mission Mountain Range.

Seely Lake

Drove to Seely Lake to check out accommodations for the 2014 reunion.  The hall is nice and they had camping behind the building that we could use.  We checked on motels too but the area is expensive and the other campgrounds in the area are forest service.  It is a beautiful area but I am afraid that most of the family would have a hard time with the expense of the area.

Old Baldy

This was the site that greeted us when we got back to Townsend.  This mountain is a landmark for all of us that were born and raised in the Broadwater County area.

Dry Creek

It is cold and windy again today.  We had breakfast at the Mint with Frank then bought four cards and mailed one to Jean Holt.  We filled the water tank and dumped the gray water.  We spent the afternoon at the museum which has a good internet.  I found some obituaries on two of my ancestors and spent a pleasant afternoon with Linda Huth who works at the museum.  We had dinner at Woods Cafe (my parents old grocery store) and then took a drive up on Dry Creek.  We saw some antelope, deer and a herd of elk!

Dry Creek Elk Herd

This is a herd of elk near the top of Dry Creek.  This is a beautiful site!  The road was a little muddy in spots but it was a pretty drive.

Castle Mountain

After breakfast today we headed to White Sulphur Springs, MT and Castle Mountain to try and find a cache that we were unable to find last year.  We stopped on US 12 for a Smith River cache, which was missing.

Castle Mountains

 Hardy replaced the container at this cache as it was wet and cracked. This is a pretty area before you get to Lennup and the old Milwaukee Railroad used to run through here

Lennup Merchantile

We then went on to Lennup and took some pictures of the old Merchantile.The town is still alive and is an old railroad town.  Many of the buildings are empty but this one is still in pretty good shape.

We took off up a forest service road to the cache site on Elk Creek.  It was an easy enough find and a good road after we finally got on the right road.  We hit rain on top of the mountain and started down one road and turned around before we got stuck and took a different road.



  We then went into WSS for dinner and to check out the Conostoga RV Park which is where we will gather next year for the reunion.    We got word that a good friend Al Holt had passed away and that my cousin's husband, Leonard Stark, was not doing too well either.

Strawberry Hill

Today is sunny, at last, so we filled the water tank then took off to Montana  City and Strawberry Hill for some geocaching. 

This is called the "Dugout" which was in the side of the hill and a very pretty site.  Apparently there was an old homestead or some other type of building in the area and this is all that is left. 

This is Strawberry Hill just outside Montana City.  You can see the remains of the fire that swept across the mountain several years ago.  There are many new houses down below near Montana City but in this area there are just a few cabins and logged out areas.

This is Brother Frank on his digger at the ranch.  He is digging out his water hole that had sloughed off during the winter.  he is making it larger so he can get more water to use on his plants and to water the animals.  He lets a local area rancher run cattle on his place and wanted to make it easier to get water for them.

The Big Punkin Mine

We had breakfast with Frank and then drove to Helena and COSTCO again. I dropped Hardy off at McDonalds so he could work on the computer.  We did some geocaching around the capitol.  Frank is busy with the excavator so we went down and inspected his work.

Montana State Capitol

Frank the Excavator

COSTCO Membership

It was 45 this morning and cloudy but dry and very windy.  We dumped our tanks and filled the water tank.  Hardy checked the fence wheel and found that it needed  stop ring and washer.  We had lunch with Frank at Penny's then were off to Helena for shopping and geocaching with Shila.  Hardy had worked on some bottle cap geocaches yesterday.  We took the Nexus to Helena and found a good internet at Penney's so he got it set up for me.  He also downloaded a camera app for it and some books.  We went geocaching and found a good pipe maze cached.  We also went to COSTCO and bought a membership and did some shopping.

Heat Wave

It was warmer last night at 49 and raining again today.  We had breakfast at home but had lunch with Frank and Bonnie after doing the laundry.  The library is closed until the end of May so we have no internet connection through them but we were able to connect at the Mint and at the WiFi Park on Front Street but they were basically unusable.  We took a ride around the lake and had dinner at McCauley's Pub near Canyon Ferry.  We found a small cache at yacht Basin which was a cute little vial with a rusty bottle cap glued on it.

Hair Cut Day

It was warmer last night at about 47 degrees.  It rained off and on all night with a nice little drizzle which should green things up quite well.  We had breakfast at Penny's with Frank then then went to Helena for a haircut and geocache at the Helena Mall with Shila.  We found three at the mall.  I got a Nexus computer while in Helena and Hardy got his prescription filled after a bunch of horsing around between the doctor and WalMart.  I also checked on some fencing prices for Kelly.

Lillianna

Lillianna Peters

Hardy and Shila went geocaching and we later had dinner at Carino's with Frank and Shila, Gary and Doreen and Michelle and Lillianna.  Lillianna is a very good little girl who looks just like her mother did at that age.  She is a sweetie!

Gary's Camp

We arrived at Gary's Camp on Indian Creek.  The goal was to cut down the elm tree at our house in Townsend which we did.  It was quite a project with Gary and Hardy sawing and Frank running the tractor to hold the tree steady.  Some guy came along and told us we were going to fall the tree on the house so he proceeded to try and shinny up the tree.  He was too fat, too old and couldn't make it.  He came by later after we had the tree down to see our progress.  By that time we had the tree down and the limbs picked up and hauled out to the ranch.

Mountain View RV Park

Hoosegow

We left Kelly and Shonas and headed on toward Townsend.  We stayed at an RV park near Columbus before and really liked it although it is a bit windy there.  We did some more geocaching.  We did Golden Valley, Petroleum and Carver counties while camped in that area.  This little jail was interesting and had a cache inside on an old bed frame.  There was a little robin doing her song and dance while we were there and she had a nest inside the bars on the window to the left.  She was really excited about us being in her space.

Wolf Point Bridge

Yellowstone River Bridge

Yellowstone River Bridge

Kelly and Shonas went with us geocaching and Kelly took us around the area showing us the oil wells and his work place.  We went to an old bridge that crosses the Yellowstone River and then goes through a tunnel.  We looked all over for a geocache but I had given Hardy the wrong coordinates.  The highlight was the huge bull snake that came off the hill and across our path.  We then went to Culbertson and had dinner at a nice local joint and then went over to Gary Turney's to see his place.

Kelly and Shonas

We made it to Kelly and Shonas's house in Sidney, MT.  We drove around Richland County and did a bit of geocaching while waiting for Shonas to get off work.  They have built a nice hiking/biking trail and hooked it into this bridge.

Medicine Rocks, MT

My geocaching hero

Sunset at Medicine Rocks

Carter County, MT Courthouse

We drove 400 miles today to Medicine Rocks State Park near Baker, MT.  This was a very nice park and primitive but quiet.  Basically this was a Forest Service CC with pit toilets and a hand pump for water.  We were alone but it cost $20 per night.  We drove to Ekalaka, the count seat of Carter County.  We are trying to finish up the geocache challenge in Montana buy caching in all 56 counties.  There isn't much in Ekalaka but a few bars and the Wagon Wheel Cafe which had a super good steak, baked potato and salad for $8.  Hamburgers were $1.40.  We found the geocache.  For millions of years the wind has sculpted the soft sandstone into many strange shapes.  There is also quite a bit of non-wind erosion with strange shapes.  Choke cherries provide browse for the local deer.  There is also a rock with a hole in it. 

Snake Creek, SD

We were on the road at 6:40 and drove 550 miles to Snake Creek , South Dakota off SD 44 and Missouri River.  We had stayed at this campground before and found it quite nice but a little more expensive $18 camping fee plus $6 entrance fee for an electric site.  There was a huge party with an ice cream reefer truck that ran all night.  They also have hooded street lights but no outside light at the rest room.  Missouri is still the best bargain but 550 miles is too long.

On the Road Again

We left Rolla about 9:40 and had lunch with Stacie in Columbia at IHOP.   We arrived at Long Branch State Park near Moberly, MO.  The park is really nice and we were in Site 2 with a cost of $19.  We got five new counties geocaching with the last one in the Moberly City Park about dusk.  There were a few mosquitos but still nice.

Getting read for the trip

Earlier in April we had the wheels bearings repacked on the Casita in preparation for our trip back to Montana.  We are going earlier this year as we have benefit in Ronan, MT for my cousin Karen Campbell Linderman.  She needs knee replacement and eye surgery.  Hardy pulled out the Casita to flush the tanks and sanitize the water system.  He ran the pump and filled the hot water tank, flushed the black water tan with two gallons of water and two of treatment.  He stated sanitizing at 2:00 p.m and filled the 16 gallon tank.  He checked the lights and fridge to make sure everything was working.