Campervaning in the USA.

In the US they are "RV's" (Recreational Vehicles), to the rest of the world "Campervans".

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Home    Back to USA 2002 Index     Part 6 Wyoming-Grand Tetons

"Not he who can extricate himself from difficulties is the prudent one, but he who cautiously bewares not to intricate himself." - Chinese Proverb

Part 7  - Wyoming - Yellowstone NP & Montana.

26/5/2002 Old Faithful area, Yellowstone NP, WY. Having entered Yellowstone NP from the south we proceeded via Grant Village to the Old Faithful Geyser area, stopping off frequently at scenic spots to view, and at one of the plentiful picnic spots for lunch.

Sharon built a snowman, her first, so she just had to have a photo with him. I'm not jealous, he's frigid!

There is still several feet of snow on the ground with some snow drifts along the road up to six feet (2 metres) thick. With elevations around 6000 to 8000 feet Yellowstone has a very variable climate and even now almost into summer can be very cold at night if you are not accustomed to such climates.

Sharon and her new boyfriend. ©

Perhaps most famous for its geothermal features, the Yellowstone NP also offers extensive opportunities to view wildlife, short and extended day hiking and back country wilderness hiking. There are about eight campgrounds scattered throughout the park, as well as a full range of hotel, motel and rustic log cabin style accommodation for car based tourists.

We are of course interested in boondocking opportunities and if you ask at one of the visitors centers they have a listing of campgrounds both private and National Forest outside the park. However some of these are considerable distances from many of the main features of the park, and as the official campgrounds are often full in the peak season, I would not want to have to be driving in and out of the park each day. There are many large parking areas near all the main scenic attractions, as well as a number of scenic loop roads off the main roads, and picnic areas.

All of these are potential boondocking spots, although the absurd National Parks policy is not to permit overnight parking, even though they clearly don't have enough campsite capacity for the peak seasons in June to August. Dumb policy! Are the BLM and National Forests wrong in sanctioning it in adjacent areas? Is the NPS starting to turn a blind eye, we weren't hassled?

Old Faithful, on cue as usual. ©

I note that even though there are some signs saying no overnight parking along the roads, that at many of the picnic spots there are no signs specifically prohibiting overnight parking, although most have signs or pictograms indicating no tent camping, but not all.

By the time we had toured the Old faithful Geyser Basin it was getting on for dinner time and we decided to have dinner in the huge car park, as there were a lot of other campervans still there at 7PM. We suspected that they may intend to park the night, but gradually they all left by dusk about 8.30PM. There is no campground at Old Faithful, to stay overnight "legally" you either you have to drive 17 miles back to Grant Village, or go on 16 miles to Madison. We didn't want to do the latter as there were many scenic features along the road we wanted to see next day, without having to double back.

Boondocking at Old Faithful.

We noted that there were still a lot of vehicles including some campers and busses around the commercial establishments close to Old Faithful. So where do you hide a tree? In a forest! We boondocked in the carpark of the Snow Lodge Restaurant, where there were several other RVs and a lot of cars. We figured that it would be open late, and that no one would bother us at least until closing time which would probably be 11 PM or 12AM, and then it was unlikely, and if they did we could them move back to the main parking area, figuring that if there were any checking by rangers it would be long before midnight. We were undisturbed during the night, and in the morning moved back a few hundred meters to the main car park around 6AM to have breakfast.

Along the road to Madison there are numerous interesting thermal features with large carparks, and two one way loop drives and a dead end side road to Fountain Flat, all potential boondocks, along with picnic areas which loop of the main road offering shelter and seclusion in well treed settings.

From Madison to Norris there are extensive roadworks and the road had obviously been allowed to decay into an appalling state before they started to current works. We were astounded that in America's premier National Park that things would be allowed to deteriorate so badly. It shows how starved for funds the parks must have been, by governments with priorities all wrong. This is not a poor country, but this major park road was in third world condition, there are still some sections dangerously potholed and broken away at the edges, where even basic safety maintenance had been neglected.

We explored the Norris Geyser Basin and returned to the van about 6.30PM and decided to have dinner and wait around the carpark as it was off the main road and a good boondocking spot. The last cars left around 9PM and we decided to stay and spent another undisturbed night boondocking.

Norris, Porcelain Geyser Basin. ©

27/5/2002 Monday, Norris Geyser Basin, Yellowstone NP, WY. After a leisurely start tot the day editing digital photos and Sharon working on her diary, we left about 9.30AM for Canyon Village. The one way road though Virginia Cascades provides some good boondocking spots off the main road, but there are few other points of interest, apart from views back over the mountains to the west, until you come to Canyon Village.

 The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River is the principal attraction and may be viewed from various points shown on the free NP map. This is indeed a spectacular and unique area notable;e for the variety and intensity of colours in the canyon walls, which are still thermally active.

 

Views from Artist's Point. ©

 

 

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River. - Highly commended, a must see on your visit to Yellowstone NP, which is as a whole an item for inclusion on any comprehensive campervan tour of the USA by the international tourist. Just watch out for the potholes!

From Canyon Village to Tower Roosevelt the road is in appalling condition, with numerous large dangerous potholes that have not been filled, and narrow broken edges. It is nothing less than a national disgrace. These are the signs of years of neglect, not even the most basic maintenance such as patching potholes, large enough to cause tire blowouts or suspension damage if hit at speed. It is like a road you would expect to find in a poverty stricken developing country, not in the USA and this being in THE premier National Park it must be a true indicator of the neglect by governments over a long period, an indisputable testimony to inadequate funding of the National Parks. Now you see signs saying "Your fee dollars at work". I suppose this indicates that now the only funding is from "user pays", which effectively means the government funding neglect is still going on. Probably just another example of the divergence of the opinion of "we the people" and the policy of  "the government", the two Americas concept at work again. If only they knew, "there would be a revolution before morning", to quote one of the Founding Fathers, albeit completely out of context.

Beyond Tower Roosevelt we took the road to Mammoth Hot Springs, and the side road to the Petrified Tree. Here we found more than we expected with three bears Yes the original Mamma bear, Poppa Bear, and Baby Bear, and Goldilocks too, well actually no, I'm getting too carried away. In fact a mother Black Bear and her two adolescent and almost independent cubs, one the latter seeming to live around the area most of the time, other visitors reporting seeing him over several days. This is also a good place to boondock at the RV and large vehicle parking area before the end of the road.

 

Black Bear near Petrified Tree, Yellowstone NP. ©. Minolta Dimage-7, 200mm X2 Digital Zoom gives an effective 400mm equivalent focal length. Hand Held.

 

 

28/5/2002 Tuesday, Petrified Tree, Yellowstone NP, WY. Early in the morning the Moose, with antlers just starting to grow, and the small Black Bear are still around just up the road, together with several Homo Tripodici. These specimens of the latter being justified in their rituals, as they are shooting wildlife with long focal length lenses.

Moose at Petrified Tree, Yellowstone NP. ©

 

 

 

Digital Camera Notes.

In fact if I had a tripod with me on this trip I'd use it with the Minolta Dimage 7, as it has an equivalent focal length of 400mm using the 2X digital zoom and the 28-200mm optical zoom lens. Yes, I confess, I'm a closet Homo Tripodicus Erectus!. So it gets a bit hard to hand hold, and the results aren't too bad considering. I am very pleased with the new Dimage 7, excellent camera, but thank goodness I have three sets of rechargeable NiMH batteries, you really need them as it is power hungry.

I also bought a 64Meg Compact Flash card for the camera which still comes with an inadequate 16Meg card. Don't buy anything less as you will find that with a digital camera you take many more shots than with an ordinary camera, particularly when shooting wildlife, to get the best shots. So the number of photos you usually take is not a reliable indicator of the capacity of the film cards you need. With the 64Meg card I can take 24 frames on the highest resolution (2560x1920 pixels) and with the fine JPEG compression setting for best image quality. But even a 64Meg will only record about 4 TIFF images at 2560x1920 pixels. You don't need this amount of detail for web photos, but I will also want to be able to print some 10x8 inch enlargements so I shoot most photos at 2560x1920 which gives an image quality comparable with 35mm film. If you can download onto a laptop readily it is OK, otherwise you will need several 64Meg CF cards, or a larger card.

If you want to shot high resolution high quality images (which is the only reason to buy an expensive camera like the Dimage 7), think of a 64Meg CF card as the equivalent of one roll of 24 exposure film. I paid $44 for the 64Meg CF card (although they asked $69 until I told them I could buy it for $44 at Circuit City), but better deals are available on the Internet , the best I found a few months ago before starting this trip was down to around $30 from http://www.californiacomputer.com You can expect CF cards to keep dropping in price, and capacity to increase. So don't buy more than you need, they will be cheaper, or bigger for the same money, next year.

Apart from the performance of the camera my other reasons for choosing the Minolta Dimage 7 were:-

  • It uses 4 AA size batteries, which means you are not up for expensive and possibly in future hard to get proprietary special batteries. Also any new developments in battery technology are sure to be available in the ubiquitous AA size.
  • Having extra batteries available is cheap. They cost around $2 each for 1600mAH AA batteries from Thomas Distributing. You need spare easily rechargeable batteries, digital cameras are power guzzlers.
  • It uses one of the two industry standard memory cards (Compact Flash) as distinct from a proprietary memory card such as those used in the Sony range of digital cameras. Remember the Betamax VCR, same company, haven't learned a thing! Cost and availability reasons apply to the memory cards too.
  • My advice after doing a lot of research is to look for the same characteristics, non proprietary AA batteries and memory cards in any digital camera you buy, no matter what the price range.

For a very comprehensive technical review of the Minolta Dimage 7 and many other digital cameras go to http://www.imaging-resource.com/DIGCAM01.HTM and for details of the best NiMH batteries and chargers follow the links to Thomas Distributing.

I bought a dozen (three sets) of Powerex NiMH batteries from them, also a Maha MH-C204F fast charger, car cord to run it off 12V in the camper, an Australian plug 240V AC wall wart adapter, and a US 110V adapter, all for $64 including shipping within the US. Very pleased with the performance. The camera comes with four AA NiMH batteries now, as well as the hopelessly inadequate Alkaline batteries, which a drop in leaflet describes as "for demonstration purposes only", which means you'd be lucky if they run the camera for 10 minutes. No wonder customers complained when all it had was alkalines.

Some VERY well known brands of NiMH batteries are regarded very poorly in Internet reviews, as being significantly overrated regarding their mAH capacity, and from my research don't buy any brand other than Maha, Powerex, (from Thomas Distributing) or Kodak, GP, Quest, Nexcell, and Rayovac, and no I haven't missed the well known ones, they have shitty consumer reports. Like a lot of things all you get with some expensive household brands is bullshit, and the opportunity to pay for their advertising budget, to tell you how great their overpriced second rate products are. Which incidentally are about the same price in A$ as they are in US$, dollar parity again, and pricing goods at what the market will bear, nothing to do with what they cost to produce. For indepentent NiMH battery tests go here.

Wildflowers near Petrified Tree, Yellowstone NP. ©

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heading to Mammoth Hot Springs the road is better, but still has occasional large dangerous unfilled potholes.

Elk and Bison as seen frequently along the way. Along the road near Blacktail Ponds we spotted two bull Elk with well developed antlers for this early in the season. All the other Elk we have seen have had no antlers at all, or only starting to grow them for the coming mating season. These two must be really horny guys!

Bull Elk near Blacktail Ponds, Yellowstone NP. ©

Along the road there are several side roads and not far west of the Petrified Tree road there is an unsigned road on the right leading shortly to a major trailhead for back country hiking. There is adequate turning and parking room for you to boondock in an RV.

 

 

Mammoth Hot Springs seems to be but a pale shadow of its former glory. Hills and terraces of calcium carbonate deposits from mineral laden springs are the main feature, but most of the springs have dried up leaving only the dry white mineral deposits. Compared to the other more active thermal regions in Yellowstone we felt Mammoth was not so hot, and not worth going out of your way to see. Although we walked the extensive boardwalks, and there are one or two small pretty hot springs, we took few photos and didn't stay long before heading north on to Montana via the north gate of the NP.

Yellowstone NP - an absolute must see on your camper tour of the USA

Montana. - A sales tax free state.

The small town of Gardiner at the north entrance to Yellowstone NP is a quaint little western town with quite a lot of atmosphere, although typically a bit run down with potholed streets and sleazy looking western bars that reminded us of the cheap tourist bars of Asia in places like Bali's Kuta Beach or Bangkok's notorious Patpong area, although presumably without the cute, and all too friendly, very young and noticeably fully naked dancing girls of the latter. When next in Bangkok check out the girlie bars along Soi Cowboy, off Sukimvit. Sharon and I lived in Bangkok for two years in 1992-1994 working as a Consultant Engineer for a German telecommunications company supervising a 2 million line telephone network construction project. And, no, I never did, but boy, those randy young chicks promote some wild fantasies! Had I been a single man??

Then perhaps I'm wrong about Gardiner, maybe they have naked horny young cow girls? Anyway the bars LOOK like sleazy Bangkok bars, naked dancing girls or not!

There is a good supermarket and fuel is a little cheaper at one of the service stations than in Yellowstone. The Gardiner Chamber of Commerce office on the main street has a wide range of maps and information on Montana and were most helpful.

There are a number of National Forest and other campsites along US89 north towards Livingstone on I90, including a free BLM area beside the Yellowstone River at Carbella. It is not well signed and we missed it at first. The only indication being a misplaced blue and white sign on the RHS reading "Monotone Department of Transportation, Carbella". The sign is in the middle of nowhere and well past the road that actually leads to Carbella which is signed Tom Miner Basin Road and a side road leads off it, not 20 metres from the highway, opposite the electric transformer station which is the only conspicuous landmark. A sign says "Fishing access" and a good metaled road leads about half a mile to the Carbella site on the banks of the river. There are toilets, a good concrete boat launching ramp and sites with picnic tables and fire rings. The river access is somewhat overgrown in most places and the site looks little used, probably because few tourists would find it. In the evening we saw two Beaver swimming in the river, and tracks of Elk along the banks.

29/5/2002 Wednesday, Carbella BLM, Yellowstone River. MT. We decided to have a holiday today and do nothing but catch up on relaxation, clean the van, do the washing, work on this website and Sharon did her scrapbook. Being a tourist is a full time job and every now and then you need a break where you just mooch around, relax and do only what you feel like.

The river is wide and swiftly flowing through a narrow grassy valley, the banks lined with trees and undergrowth. The campsite is well grassed and far more pleasant than many pay camp sites, proving again that you only have to seek and ye shall find when it comes to good boondocking, even in America. We learned of Carbella from a map of public campgrounds in Park County in the free County visitors guide we obtained in Gardiner, so check out the visitor information offices and local chambers of commerce in even the smallest towns, most have some such facility, and their services and publications are FREE.

Carbella BLM free campsite beside Yellowstone River, MT. ©

30/5/2002 Thursday, Carbella BLM, Yellowstone River. MT. Another holiday and I finish resealing the other half of the windscreen, and Sharon does all the housekeeping chores we didn't get around to yesterday. The changeable nature of the weather is unusual to us, sun in the morning and wind and thunderstorms in the middle of the day. We have descended in altitude to around 5000 feet and the nights are now much warmer.

Comments on American Food.

We have eaten out very little on this holiday, partly because it is so convenient to just eat at home, the van is almost as well equipped as an average kitchen at home. Also it is much cheaper to prepare your own meals, and with good planning they don't have to be complicated in order to be interesting, as long as you are a good cook that is. Fast food, "the American staple", we have had only a couple of times and it is really not impressive.

We tried some"Fast Food" Mexican Tortillas, once, (from a well known fast food chain specializing in so called Mexican cuisine) and found them filled with a rather tasteless nondescript mush. So we bought a packet of Tortillas (a sort of thin pancake made from corn meal) and some ingredients from a supermarket with a good range of Mexican fare, and the result was incomparably better than the sloppy tasteless mush served up in the fast food tortilla. Since then we have enjoyed many home made tortillas, and never tried another take away.

We tried a Wendy's hamburger, once, when it was late in the day, but it was nothing special, we aren't tempted to go back again. About the best value is a buffet meal for around $8, but here we have found the quality variable in the several we have tried. Our experience back home in trying new restaurants is that more than 50 percent of the time they prove to be unsatisfactory, either poor value, painfully slow service, or food that is a pale shadow of the original ethnic cuisine. So once you find a few really good places one is put off trying new ones, as more often than not they are a disappointment. Also with the dollar parity concept   (explained previously) applying to restaurants, dining out often in the USA would be quite an expensive proposition.

Supermarkets carry comprehensive ranges of foods, and fresh produce, but you really need to check on additives and ingredients as the excessive use of salt, sugar, preservatives, colourings and mysterious chemicals is even more common here than in Australia.

About the only thing that is really American that we have found we like is Beef Jerky, beef cut into thin strips dried and smoked. It is sold as a snack but generally at very inflated prices of around $4 to $5 for a 4oz pack. Strangely the nicest Beef Jerky we found was 99 cents for a 4oz packet, sold in a "Dollar Store". Great Plains Beef Jerky, but we haven't seen it again. How they justify the price can only be that consumers are silly enough to pay over $1 an once for processed beef. Personally I'm not, except for the one packet we bought in Wal-Mart for $3.99, just to try it.

We found a brand of frozen Pizza that is consistently good, and far better than the crap some takeaway Pizza joints serve up back home in Oz, where you are left wondering if you were supposed to eat the cardboard box and throw away the Pizza, some are that tasteless. Tombstone Pizza is comparatively excellent, and can be had when on special in supermarkets for from $2 to $2.50 for a large one. I have seen them frequently for $4.99 and up to $5.99, so we buy only when they are on special, and put a couple in our quite big freezer.

So although we can get all the things we want to prepare our own food, there is not much in the way of typically American cuisine that we want to eat. Mexican food is common but that ain't American! While there are no doubt good restaurants in the larger towns and cities, at a price that would be prohibitive for all but some special occasion, it is pretty much a culinary wasteland.

If you consider "fast food" to be a viable way to exist you may not agree, but if you are health conscious and attentive to diet like us, the best way is to prepare your own food and dine out very little.

31/5/2002 Friday, Carbella BLM, Yellowstone River, MT After a walk along the river to photograph the small wildflowers, we decided to move on, to make the most of the fine day to enjoy the scenery. Near mile 24 on US89, shortly after it crosses the Yellowstone River, there is an excellent highway rest area with sheltered tables, toilets, trees, lawns and river access, and RV parking. No camping signs, but who camps in an RV, so it would be a good place to park an overnight rest.

There are various points of access into the National Forest and fishing access points to the river. About 10 miles south of Livingstone is a riverside campsite that isn't free but only $5 a night, almost as good as Carbella. Fuel in Livingstone was $1.44, we obtained fresh water at the Cenex service station.

Taking I90 through wooded hilly country to the larger town of Bozeman, we found fuel dearer at $1.50, and headed for the Wal-Mart to boondock overnight. There were 13 RVs in the carpark overnight.

1/6/2002 Saturday, Bozeman MT. The public library in Bozeman has public Internet access and will allow you to connect your computer to a phone line for a local call to America on Line's local access numbers. I was able to update this website, update my virus scanner, and download stock market data for the first time in months. By the time we had a lazy start to the day, went to several supermarkets and the library, the day was almost over so we returned to Wal-Mart for another night. Heavy rain and thunderstorms in the afternoon tested out my windscreen resealing, which seems to be working OK.

2/6/2002 Sunday, Bozeman MT. Rain, rain, rain, all day, and we decide to stay in Bozeman until it abates. Driving around town we note that most unusually ALL the service stations have their fuel at the same price of $1.50. They must have price fixing arrangements in this town, so I wont be buying any fuel here, as it will probably be cheaper elsewhere. If it's not, stiff, but the price fixing bastards can stick their petrol!

3/6/2002 Monday, Bozeman MT. 22 RVs in the Wal-Mart carpark last night, the start of summer and they are all like us, waiting out the rain, which at last seems to have gone away.

On the way out of town we spied a Costco store, one of those establishments where people pay an annual fee to be "executive member" (about $35, I think) allegedly for the privilege of buying goods bulk or "wholesale" at supposedly fantastically low prices. Many grocery lines come in unusually large size containers or bulk multi unit packs. Well we spent some time browsing around, and apart from the odd good special, my conclusion is clearly that many of the lines on offer are more expensive than what you can get, either routinely at Wal-Mart, or by just shopping around a bit. Are the "executive members" a group of village idiots, they pay a fee to go and shop where they will often be paying more than they would routinely pay elsewhere. The illusion that goods are cheap is just that, illusion, because you buy in larger packs you'd expect things to be cheaper, but they often aren't. Same thing goes in the supermarkets here in the USA, often a larger pack is more expensive per unit weight than a smaller one, and most people don't even seem to notice!

Nearby we saw a large Target store and decided to check it out too. Like the Big K-Marts we have seen it appeared to be relatively poorly patronised and again comparing prices to Wal-Mart, on some items I had noted, it it was about 10% to 15% more expensive. The results accord with our observations, customers are voting with their feet, and going to Wal-Mart. Yet they are probably paying some so called "senior executives" millions of dollars a year to run K-Mart and Target, run them into the ground it seems. Are they blind, can't they see what a tourist can see with abundant clarity? Perhaps the executives should resign from the boards of Target and K-Mart and become "executive members" of Costco, then they'd be in the right intellectual company!.

We took I90 west to Three Forks, where we checked out the Missouri River Headwaters State Park, free to Montana Residents, but there's a $4 day use fee for foreigners and a $12 per night camping fee. All you get is a picnic table and a badly designed fire ring. Stuff them I'm not paying to have a picnic in any bastard's park, and the campsites are no better than free BLM sites, so we turned tail and left.

Returning to Three Forks we found the visitor information center, in a quaint old railcar. Lots of commercial information, and helpful staff, but they didn't know anything about free BLM or National Forest campsites. I was educated to the extent that the next town to which we were heading, Helena, is the State Capital of Montana, not Billings as I had erroneously believed. This is good news as it means it may have a Wal-Mart Supercenter, with a supermarket, and there one gets the best value.

Heading north along US287 and on the lookout for good boondocks, I saw as sign indicating "National Forest Access, Crow Creek", along MT285 beyond Radersburg, and followed it on chance, through Radersburg, where the bitumen ends and five or six miles along a corrugated but otherwise good dirt road, until a sign indicated we were entering public,BLM, land and a while later a side track was signed to "Crow Creek Recreation Area. ". This proved to be a delightful BLM so called "primitive" campsite, in American parlance, similar to Carbella. Well formed gravel campsites with picnic tables, fire rings, a modern toilet, and shady trees beside the fast flowing Crow Creek, and it's FREE. Scrooge McDuck (blessed be his exalted name) would have been delighted to reside her for a vacation.

Are you all getting the message, YOU DON'T HAVE TO PAY TO FIND GOOD CAMPSITES, all you have to do is LOOK! Now if a couple of Australians can do it, consistently, (we have only paid for 6 nights camping since March, and it's now June, then native Americans (apart from Indians) can too, and so can any other resourceful foreign tourists.

4/6/2002 Tuesday, Crow Creek, BLM free campsite, MT. The heavy rain of the last few days showed us that there were some small leaks in Bounder around the windows, although the roof, which I had resealed while we were still in Phoenix AZ was fine and didn't leak at all. We decided the only way to do the job properly was to remove all the windows and reseal them with acrylic caulking compound, to replace the old mastic sealant that had partly dried up and hardened. I bought some caulk in Wal-Mart yesterday and today we started early and removed and resealed three of the eight windows before rain showers set in and spoiled the rest of the day for this sort of work. The sealing compound fortunately skinned fairly quickly, and the showers were intermittent so the new seals were not ruined before they could dry enough to be waterproof.

The campsite tables enabled me to reach high enough to remove the windows in Bounder, and served as an excellent work bench. It is not a very difficult job, quicker than I imagined. Hopefully we will get a couple of fine days so I can finish it tomorrow.

5/6/2002 Wednesday, Crow Creek, BLM free campsite, MT. The improved weather enabled us to complete removing all of Bounder's eight windows, scrape out the old sealing compound and replace it with new acrylic latex sealant. Not all of the windows had been leaking, in fact we had only three small leaks, and there is no major damage only a little localized delamination of the internal plywood, which I also repaired with contact adhesive. We wanted to do all the windows so that there is a uniform appearance, and to forestall any more leaks from the old sealing compound drying out.

Crow Creek, BLM free campsite. We used the picnic table as a trestle and work bench. ©

 

 

6/6/2002 Thursday, Crow Creek, BLM free campsite, MT. With all our window resealing complete, washing done and odd jobs up to date, it was time to move on back to the main road and north to Helena the capital of Montana. We found a tourist information office near the airport where the two ladies were most helpful and supplied us with free maps and brochures. Helena is another of the small manageable sized state capital cities that we like to visit, where there are few traffic and parking problems, and not a lot of crime to concern you. On the outskirts we found a Wal-Mart Supercenter and made it home for the night, along with 15 other RVs.

7/6/2002 Friday, Helena, MT. We started the day with a visit to the state capitol building, finding free parking in a street opposite. There are free conducted tours of the recently restored building, which take about 45 minutes, leaving on the hour throughout the day. The building houses many works of art depicting the exploration and settlement of Montana, and is itself a fine example of early 20th century architecture, built between 1902 and 1912.

 

The Capitol Building in Helena MT. ©

 

 

From the nearby Historical Society a "novelty street train" leaves on the hour providing a guided tour of the city for $5.50. We took the tour and found the informative narrative on Helena's history interesting. The "train" visits the historic mansions district where there are many fine examples of late 19th century "Victorian-American" domestic mansion architecture as well as many fine examples of well kept smaller wooden homes of the period.

Across town, on the wrong side of the tracks, it is a different story, with tiny plain featureless houses that look more like garages with widows than houses.

An example of fine houses in the Helena mansion district. ©

 

 

8/6/2002 Saturday, Helena, MT A tour of the cities charity shops looking for bargains for items for Bounder, or clothing for us, occupies the morning. Later we visit the StHelena Cathedral, a fine example of nineteenth century church architecture, financed from the profits of the gold boom of the 1880's, and a rare sight in the architectural wilderness of the American west.

St Helena Cathedral. ©

 

 

9/6/2002 Sunday, Helena, MT Rain, rain go away. At least it has proved that our window resealing job has been effective as there are no leaks in the windows, except for the front windscreen. As it rained heavily soon after we did the windscreen sealing and washed out much of the compound before it could set, we will have to do the windscreen sealing again, when if it ever stops raining.

Now we have problems with Bounder's generator not charging the battery. The thought of having to deal with another bloody incompetent or dishonest mechanic makes me fume.

10/6/2002 Monday, Helena, MT Rain has hardly stopped for three days. One of the windows we resealed is leaking profusely, but it is too wet outside to do anything about it. There may be a small crack in the fiberglass outer skin above the window that is letting in water, as it is pouring down the sides of the van in sheets. Yesterday it was 41°F in mid afternoon, if this is summer I'd hate to be here in the winter. We don't want to travel in this weather because you can't see anything, also the generator needs fixing before we leave Helena. It is making 120VAC power, but won't charge the battery, and won't run if you disconnect the battery from it. Perhaps the rectifiers that supply the filed coil are buggered.

Apart from that when I phoned the travel insurance in Sydney a few days ago all the second lot of papers we had sent them regarding Sharon's medical bill have also failed to arrive three weeks after we posted them at a US post office in Jackson WY. The first lot are also claimed to never have arrived, posted in April. Now they suggest we send them by courier at their expense, direct to the person concerned. Is the mail system hopeless here, or are the two different companies in Sydney to which they were sent totally incompetent, we don't know, but it is becoming a pain in the arse, having to make copies and then hand write more letters and post them, at a total cost of about US$7 each time.

Well there's no Onan dealer in town, and nobody can really fix the generator. I don't trust the bastards, they are all incompetent rip-off merchants and should all be hung drawn and quartered as far as I'm concerned, and they made me that way. Bloody American mechanics, lying cheating incompetent bastards. I'll wait till it stops raining then see if I can work out what the problem is myself. In the mean time we can charge the battery with the main engine alternator.

It bloody rains all day, the end of a three year drought they say, and we have to land in the middle of it when it won't stop raining day or night. By the time we fill with propane and water, dump the sewerage tanks, fill with petrol find the library and check the email and photo copy the bloody medical records for the third time the day is over and it's time to go n home to Wal-Mart. The weather forecast says if may clear up on Wednesday. The Lewis and Clark County Library has free Internet access, but no facility to connect your own computer to a phone line.

11/6/2002 Tuesday, Helena, MT It's not raining for the first time in days. We plan to move on and find a free campsite with a picnic table, that I can use as a trestle and workbench, so I can reseal the windscreen again. This time I'll use "Black Jack" neoprene compound instead of Alex silicone and acrylic latex as it will be instantly waterproof, although much more messy to clean up using turpentine instead of water. It seems that the Alex compound does not set properly under the rubber windscreen seal, and it gets washed out when water enters. Perhaps if it had had some days or a week to dry it may have been OK, but it has been a total failure having been rained on almost as soon as it was installed. Around the other windows the acrylic latex is holding up well considering that it was rained on almost as soon as it was installed too. In this different window application there is some area exposed to the air, unlike under the windscreen rubber, and it quickly forms a protective shin, although it is still soft and liquid underneath. There is some minor sign of leaching out but it has been subject to almost continual heavy rain for days after not having the manufacturers recommenced 24 hours to set before rain.

The rain held off just long enough for me to remove and disassemble the domestic water pump which had been failing to cut off when the tap was turned off. A strip down and clean and a bit of lubrication to the motor bushing and when reassembled it worked perfectly and nothing leaked when I reconnected the plumbing.

The Helena Wal-Mart has had 15 to 20 RVs parked each night, perhaps its just because we are now into summer and there are more on the road, but this is the most we have noted at any of the many Wal-Marts that we have made home for a night or three.

FREE. After posting the third copy of papers to the travel insurance in Sydney, this time by registered mail at a cost of US$11.50, we started out towards Glacier National Park via US12 and MT141 to MT200. There are no substantial towns along this route, and not a lot of scenic interest until highway 200, although there are numerous points of access to the Helena National Forest, most are 10 miles or more off the main road, on dirt roads and so we did not explore any. There are also a number of fishing access points to the rivers and creeks and we decided to explore one such at Monture Creek along MT200 a few miles before the junction with MT83 which heads north to Columbia Falls. A couple of picnic tables are visible from the road and an short dirt road leads down to Monture Creek where there are three more tables and campsites, a loop road around the campsites and a well maintained toilet. We decided to stop here for the night as we can use the table to access the windscreen to reseal it again, when the rain finally stops.

Monture Creek, along MT200. Fishing access boondock. Tables and fire rings. Free campsite. ©

12/6/2002 Wednesday, Monture Creek, MT Not so much rain, but enough to delay work on the windscreen. About 10 White Tail Deer came down to the creek near our campsite while we were having breakfast, but we had just before started the generator to cook toast, so they didn't come too close because of the noise.

My 12V DC-240V AC inverter, which I use to power my portable computer, blew up again this morning while we were charging the car battery. Loud "pop" and smoke and fumes as a component literally exploded inside. Something similar happened to it a couple of weeks ago, but it seemed to survive that incident, but not this one, it's dead. Now I have to run the generator and use the AC mains adapter to power the laptop and recharge its battery. I suppose I'll buy another one, but you can only get 120V inverters here in the USA, that's OK for the Toshiba laptop, as its AC adapter is universal voltage 110 to 250V AC, 50-60Hz so it can be used anywhere in the world, but a 120V inverter won't be any use for anything else back home in Australia. That's why I brought a 240V 150 Watt inverter with me. Hadn't expected the darn thing to explode though, it was brand new just before we left Brisbane. Supercheap Auto can expect a persistent return, even if it is six months by the time I get back. (Note. On my return home I obtained a full refund from Supercheap Auto with no questions or problems. Good company returns policy keeps customers comming back.)

Finally enough dry time to reseal the windscreen with Blackjack neoprene, now hopefully we wont have any more leaks. Messy stuff to use but it seals immediately, important in this wet climate. Also sealed up several of the underfloor storage bins, one had been letting water where it had been pouring down the side of the van during heavy rain.

13/6/2002 Thursday, Monture Creek, MT The generator was again surging, and when all else fails read the manual. Due to maladjusted ignition points it says, so after an adjustment with a few improvisations, a bolt and nut substituting for a large Allan key to turn the crankshaft, and a 0.02 inch feeler gauge acting as a 0.016 inch gauge by tightening the gap a bit on the gauge, it runs smoothly again. Isn't science wonderful!

Monture Creek is a popular local fishing spot and numerous fishermen came to try their luck while we were there, but we say only one fish caught. The rivers and creeks in this part of Montana have numerous points of access for fishing that are clearly signed all along the roads. There are also many signed points of access to the National Forests and other spots to boondock along the roads.

At the junction of MT83 and MT200 there is a new excellent rest area, with a FREE RV dumpsite, (no potable water) toilets, trees and picnic shelter. Although the highway rest stops are not very numerous in Montana, those we have seen are all of superior quality and would be excellent places to boondock.

A chain of picturesque lakes, some with free National Forest campgrounds beside, runs for many miles along the road. Alma Lake has one such area and here we stopped for lunch. The scenery is reminiscent of Europe in parts of Switzerland or Southern Bavaria, huts and log cabins are scattered along the lakeshore, but the area has not been despoiled by over development. Snow capped mountains rise above the monotony of the pine forests.

How dramatically variable this climate is, today at 6.30PM it is 85°F, although the nights are down into the 30's.

We are running the roof top air conditioner in the Kallispell Wal-Mart car park at 7.30PM, first time since we were in southern Arizona.. It doesn't get dark until 9.30PM.

Have we found a good place to eat, Appelby's (a national chain) the menu looks good and the prices reasonable, albeit at dollar parity. We'll let you know the verdict when we get back from dinner. At 6PM the place is crawling with customers and there is a 30 minute wait for tables, maybe it's pay day, maybe it's always like this this. Whatever the cause the locals are lapping it up, so we took the level of patronage to be a good indicator and returned at 8PM after drinks and snacks at home in Wal-Mart's car park.

Fools that we were, I wrote the warning here myself only a few days ago, but didn't heed my own advice. I ordered the Tequila Chicken, an 8oz breast of chicken grilled, with a Mexican tequila based sauce, and served on a bed of tortilla chips with rice it is described as. The chicken breast itself was nice, but the accompaniments were truly from hell. The so called tortilla chips were strips of corn pasta 1/4 inch by 1 inch and artificially coloured RED and BLACK as well as the normal yellow. I had to inquire of the waiter as to what they were, thinking that perhaps the black ones were burnt. He too agreed that he had never seen "tortilla chips" like this until he came to work here. The fried rice was tasteless, despite being discoloured by some sort of brown sauce or "flavoring". Apart from the initial bad impression of the meal, I was left with a raging and unquenchable thirst all night from all the chemicals and preservatives in the food, and an unpleasant taste in the mouth that is still present as I write these notes at 9AM the next morning. Instead of an enjoyable meal I feel as if I have beep poisoned, which is exactly the case because of what all the artificial additives in food here does to you.

I think the average unsophisticated American is so used to eating this sort of mass produced "restaurant junk food" that they no longer either aware of it's deficiencies, nor able to recognize good real food, if it were ever to be served to them. The sort of dishes served in American "chain" restaurants are pseudo fast food, simple fried and grilled dishes, so that they can be quickly produced, by so called chiefs, with little training or culinary ability, a level of professional competence which puts them on a par with the American motor mechanics I have come across.

Notably the only good fast food I have had in America was from a Thai foodstall in a food court in Salt Lake City. Franchised corporate chain store junk food really is the pits!

If you must eat out or buy takeaways, go for the independent small businesses. Numerous Internet reports confirm their culinary superiority over the big name fast food chains.

14/6/2002 Friday, Kallispell, Wal-Mart MT. A late start after recovering from food additive poisoning saw us heading for Columbia Falls along UT2 on the way to Glacier NP. There are several potential roadside boondocking spots along UT2, and National Forest access tracks and fishing access points before Hungry Horse. There just after crossing the Flathead River a track leads to the left off MT2 and back down and along the river. It is very rough at first, and a nearby ranch tries to create the impression that it is all private land, through misleading signs, but there is river access along to the left, although the rough track made it unappealing with our large RV and we didn't explore far.

Beyond the town a road leads off the main road to the right to Hungry Horse Dam, and although it is not marked on many maps it is a good sealed road which goes all along the shore of Hungry Horse Dam for 55 miles, and there are a number of FREE campsites. We followed it across the dam and along for a few miles to one such and found a riverside campsite and launching area at Doris Boat Launch where a number of RVs of various type were camped. There are a number of other campsites further along. The campsite was our first encounter with the mechanised American child, roaring around the campsite on mini motor cycles.

Glacier National Park.

15.6/2002 Saturday, Doris Boat launch, Hungry Horse Dam, MT An early start, away on the road by 6.30AM sees us on the way to Glacier National Park. We stopped for breakfast in a roadside turnout, so that running our generator would not disturb other campers, unlike the inconsiderate locals who talked loudly into the we small hours disturbing our sleep. As if the mechanised American children on mini motorcycles weren't bad enough. I'm nor sure if it wasn't a loud mouthed American madwoman talking to herself around a blazing campfire at 2AM, as I couldn't see anyone else around for her to be conversing with or haranguing.

We have heard a good deal of the ignorant and inconsiderate behavior of some small minority of American peasants at campsites from other reports of similar travelers on the Internet, but as yet have seen little of it. I suppose not all Americans are likable individuals. So far we have not been treated to blown out loudspeakers hanging in shreds, from excessive noise volume, as have some others reporting on the in Internet, but we are waiting with baited breath. I wonder how they will react to Beethoven's 5th at 120 decibels, when I retaliate. Might improve their pedestrian musical taste if nothing else!