LOCATION: Near Lolo Pass, Montana, in far western Montana
WEATHER: Cooler. High in upper 80s. Very cool at night.
Taking advantage of the RV park's strong wifi, we did a lot of computer work in the morning. I was able to find a place to camp over the 4th of July weekend (always challenging), found storage for the Airstream while we are in Thailand, and reserved a Park and Fly motel to park the truck while we are gone. Whew! Glad that is done.
We headed north from the Craters of the Moon area. We are taking a rather circuitous route to Walla Walla, going up the eastern side of Idaho, then back south and west to follow some scenic byways.
Our route today followed the Salmon River. It is actually listed in my book "1000 Places to Go Before You Die". The river was overflowing its banks from the recent snow melt. We followed it for several hours.
We stopped along the riverside for a lunch picnic.
The geography changed into tall pine trees and high mountains. We climbed one summit, through many hairpin turns. Lots of snowy patches. We watched the thermometer in the car plunge from 82 to 62 at the top of the mountain, then back up to the 80s as we descended.
The highway actually takes us out of Idaho into a slice of Montana. After 254 miles for the day, we started looking for a campground. We had passed several nice-looking ones along the river, but that was early afternoon. Now that we are ready to stop, we didn't see any. George spotted a sign for a microbrewery outside of one town and pulled in, at about 4:00. He went in to see if they were open, as there weren't any cars in the good-sized parking lot. He came to the truck telling me we could camp here overnight! The waitress called the owner who gave us permission. Cool!
The brewery is only open from 4:00 - 8:00, and they don't do a lot of business. We went in for beers. They were pretty good. I had an IPA and George had a stout, then a bock.
A guitarist played on the patio (not very well).
Then, things quieted down at 8:00. Everyone left and we had the place to ourselves. Since it is cooler up here in the mountains, we are ok without electricity. We have plenty of water and propane, so are in good shape.
DINNER: Fried rice. This is the 3rd dinner I've made from the $7 rotisserie chicken I bought a few days ago. I also used it for lunch chicken salad sandwiches, and made chicken broth for breakfast grits one day. A good buy!
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