Category Archives: USA

family, friends, history, roadtrip, travel, USA

Family Stories

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Another unseasonably rainy day here in Montana, a good opportunity to do some laundry & get a haircut while the car is being checked out – got to love those Check Engine lights. Apparently a Check “Check Engine Light” Light would have been redundant, as for some reason the engine is misfiring a little. No big deal, at least I hope so, & I suppose if the car had to be in the shop for a day it’s good that it happened here in Billings where we can get chores done.

I was surprised to see a oil refinery in the middle of fields beside I-90 last night, apparently Montana is one of the bigger oil producing states in the country. Also, we saw three big fuselages (I assume of 737s en route to/from Seattle) on railcars last night as we pulled in to town. That’s something I’ve never seen before.

So with the gloomy weather & uncertainty while waiting for the car verdict, I was pleased to see a very sweet post from Megan this morning. She even managed to get a nice picture of Finn & me the morning we left.

I think I’d be hassled if I didn’t also mention the amusing photo of me & her early one morning twenty-five odd years ago. But if you want to see that you’ll have to go to Megan’s page & read the entry – she takes better photos than me & writes a whole lot less wordily.

Update – after occupying ourselves in Billings all day, we got the car back.  It was just a timing issue – so with new plugs & leads the engine is firing as it should.  Also took the opportunity to patch a small hole in the exhaust & replace a CV boot – car is now much quieter.  Nice to get all this out of the way on another very rainy day.  JR’s was a great workshop, a self-proclaimed Subaru guru (that rhymes nicely) & JR did everything possible to get us back on the road that day & gave us tips as to where to stay next along the I-90.

The persistent rain continued as we travelled south-east towards Wyoming.  Pleasingly, the battle site of Little Bighorn (somewhere I never thought I’d ever go) was a short hop from the interstate.  We managed to get there just before the Visitor Center closed & had a look around before braving the wind & rain to look over the area of Custer’s Last Stand.  I think that battle sites are best viewed when the weather is so bleak – it doesn’t come close to the horrors that must have happened there, but it does turn it in to something less than a walk in the park.

I was surprised to learn that the battle was in June 1876, for some reason I expected it to be earlier than that.  The Lakota & Cheyenne managed to comprehensively win this famous battle, but lost the war.  As we continued towards our overnight stop of Sheridan, the miles & miles of beautiful rolling countryside continued – we began to understand why the local tribes fought so hard to keep their nomadic way of life, it really is a spectacular area – even if it was raining a lot.

Already, this short distance in to Wyoming everything is much more western – the main street looks fantastic, we shall have to explore it in the morning before heading to South Dakota.

family, national park, roadtrip, snow, travel, USA

Yellowstone & Inescapable Winter

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Our last two days have been spent in Yellowstone National Park.  The drive up the Yellowstone River valley from the interstate to the park was quite interesting with plenty of snowy mountains to look at on the edge of a wide valley floor with still more irrigation.  As the valley narrowed closer to the park there were some interesting, sheer rock faces.  We got our annual park pass, which is a steal at $80 when one considers how many parks we are going to visit in the next three months.

With the weather forecasters warning of a lot of snow to fall (about a foot), we were pleased with just a little light drizzle in Mammoth Hot Springs (near the northern entrance).  There was a little geothermal activity here, so we pottered around the boardwalks for an hour.  Having spent so much time in Rotorua (NZ), I wasn’t overly impressed by most of it – but there were some pretty cool little features.

At least the slight whiffs of hydrogen sulphide reminded me of home.  This was the best of the area.

After noon we took the drive east towards the northeast entrance, as that was supposed to be the best route to take for spotting wildlife.  Bison (buffalo – same thing, with bison being the more scientific name apparently) were exceedingly easy to find.  With their big shaggy coats & rather small horns, Valerie seems to have decided that they look cuddly.  I’m not so sure about that – they can run pretty fast, jump higher than you’d expect & have been known to gore humans that aggravate them.

Still, we saw a lot of them.  Elk weren’t quite as plentiful, but having lived in Canmore I wasn’t so fussed (same goes for the bighorn sheep).  Best sighting of the afternoon was three wolves around a carcass – we watched for quite some time as two of them fought the other, the howls were impressive & intriguing to hear close up.  After crossing the river, they proceeded to walk along the other side of the road – so we continued to get a good look at them.  We saw a few grizzlies as we got further up the valley.  The first pair we got a good look at from about a hundred metres away as they meandered their way to the valley floor eating as they went.  We never quite made it to the NE gate, because as we climbed it got snowier & snowier & there was less chance of spotting any animals.

We took a different route to the park today, this time driving up the Gallatin River valley to West Yellowstone.  This valley was a lot closer in than yesterday’s, with more traffic coming from somewhere.  It was a beautiful drive, despite (or perhaps, because of) the cloud & drizzle.  Entering the park, we headed straight for Old Faithful.  About halfway there, the rain started to turn to snain (snow-rain) & then it was puking snow on us – big, wet heavy flakes.  This continued as we went in to the comprehensive & grand new Visitor Center & then quickly went back outside to the wet as Old Faithful was due to go off again in ten minutes.  We waited patiently, getting snowed on more & more, & finally the geyser blew.

Perhaps it was the general gloom of the day, but it didn’t seem overly impressive – I’d back Pohutu in Rotorua in a fight.  Still, it was neat to see it & it’s quite incredible that it is such a regular occurrence.  I would have like to stayed up that way a bit longer to wander around some of other activity, but the snow & icy walkways were prohibitive.  We did manage to lunch opposite another small, but still interesting, geyser a little way from the masses.  Dropping altitude, we left the snow behind & went & walked around the Norris Geyser Basin.  Although we had to climb over a lot of snow where the boardwalks were too far from the warm ground, it was nice to stretch the legs.  Some of the pools were brilliant colours & this little detour was well worthwhile.

Heading east & then south we made for Yellowstone Lake.  As we climbed & went through various meadows beside the river, it was astonishing how much snow there still was.  I though it was pretty bad around the Canadian Rockies, but this was something else.  It’ll be well in to the summer before this all melts.   The highlight of this little bit was seeing two otters playing in the river & then in the snow on the bank – they were frolicking around & having a great time.  The lake is much bigger than I expected – one big white blanket.

Returning towards Canyon Village, we snuck a quick look at the Lower Falls – these & the soft looking rock on the side of the canyon (running out of adjectives now – how can I keep this up for three months?) were also impressive (what a cop out).

Some of the canyon wall crumbled while we watched & fell in to the river (which I suppose is better than having your castle walls burning down & falling in to a swamp).

Distance travelled: 1100 km (two days – 419 + 681)
Best road sign (caution):  ROUGH SPOT AHEAD (now road signs give life prophecies?)

roadtrip, travel, USA

Capitol & Missouri headwaters

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With a lazy start to the day sorting out Valerie’s borrowed cell phone at AT&T, we ambled up to Montana’s Capitol building.  There was a reasonably sized crowd outside for a walk/run for MS with a country band making a lot of noise for a Saturday morning.  We eventually found a way in to the Capitol & wandered its empty corridors for a while taking it all in – for such a small (in population) state, Montana’s is pretty neat.

Avoiding the Interstate, we headed south up the Missouri passing a whole lot more irrigated farmland & many horses (Valerie is quite taken with the wide variety of colours of horses here, compared with back home).  It even rained on us a little – I’m still not completely used to water falling out of the sky as a liquid again.  Unable to avoid the Interstate any longer, it wasn’t long before we dived off it to check out Headwaters State Park.  This is where the Jefferson, Madison & Gallatin rivers meet to form the Missouri – the longest river in North America.

As Lewis & Clark camped nearby & one of the aims of their famous journey was to find the source of the Missouri, the park was heavy on Lewis & Clark history.  I didn’t mind this too much as all I previously knew about them was that they went exploring out west & feature heavily in The Farside.  There was also a little interesting history & remaining ruins of two failed towns – Gallatin I & Gallatin II.

Note the unwieldy fence – these are ubiquitous here.

It was a short hop to Bozeman where we have the luxury of staying two nights in a row.  Accommodation was a little hard to come by as was graduation day for Montana State University.  On the plus side, the rather nice Main Street was alive & we enjoyed a great pizza meal in a full & loud restaurant.

Distance traveled: 184 km
Best meal: The Thai pizza, of course.

Canada, history, national park, roadtrip, snow, travel, USA, vehicles

They let us in!

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It didn’t dawn much brighter in Waterton Lakes on Friday, unfortunately.  That place must look stunning in the summer.

Heading out looking for a small hike, we met Dan driving the other way on the Red Rock Parkway.  Valerie was not amused by his warnings to watch for bears – “we’ve got a grizzly in a trap up in the campground, but the campground is closed; watch for others – they’re waking up & they’re hungry”.


In the end, we didn’t get much of a hike in as everything was still covered in snow, & quite deeply too.

Consequently, we started our run to the border.  In the town of Carsford we got distracted by a large carriage museum.  We were told that it’s the second largest collection of carriages in the world – the biggest is in Lisbon.  It sure seemed big – I’ve never seen so many bleeding aerials, I mean carriages; there were all sorts: working wagons, cabooses, sleighs, society, fire engines, dump wagons, chuck wagons, stage coaches, sulkies & more I can’t remember the name of.

The history was fascinating – especially as a lot of it related to the settlement & pioneering of the West.  I resisted the chance for a photo in the carriage Jackie Chan used in Shanghai Noon (it was comparatively boring).  There was a restoration workshop attached & one of the old guys who worked there (reminds me of the Kauri Museum north of Auckland) delighted in showing me how they make those big wagon wheels.

A contrast showing restoration work improvement (of the carriage, I haven’t had any restoration work done).

Lunch done with, it was a short hop to the 49th Parallel & the border crossing.  We did rather a lot better than the couple before who were turned around & with no hassles we filled our forms out & paid our six dollars & we were in Montana.  I had hoped to have a look around Glacier National Park, but it was just more frozen lakes & I’ve been seeing them all winter so we continued south.  The Road to the Sun, when it opens for summer, sounds amazing.  Highway 89 continued south through stunted & sparse forest climbing & winding up & through some of the largest snow banks I’ve seen all winter.  There was a noticeable change in prosperity from Alberta – it seemed that to live in NW Montana you had to have a hodgepodge of trailers littered with at least half a dozen old cars & pickups in various states of disrepair.

Gassed up (somehow managed to have someone else pay for a few gallons) we decided to push on to Helena for the night.  As we left it, we realized we’d been in a reservation & once out of it, the farmland started to look more intensive.  I was surprised to see a lot of irrigators, particularly large centre pivots.  We definitely were in the Big Sky State as we chewed up the miles (yes, I’ve had to start reading the inside dial on the speedometer).

Just before the Interstate (I-15) we went through a neat canyon, with the sun shining on the foreground & an ominous black clouding the horizon it was spectacular.

I think I’m on to my tenth state now & I’m pretty sure Helena is the first state capital I’ve been to.  We haven’t seen much so far except the inside of a motel room & a diner.  Hopefully we can have a little look around this morning before pushing on towards Yellowstone.  The diner last night was very much a Ma & Pa operation – it was packed & the food was simple with large portions.  To borrow a unit from Megan, flaginess was at a very high level – you couldn’t find a square metre of wall without some representation of red, white & blue (& those colours weren’t arranged in the way of the rather boring New Zealand flag).

On a side note, Montana has some great county names:  Fergus, Petroleum, Musselshell, Carbon, Treasure, Lewis & Clark, Rosebud (my ol’ son), Sweet Grass, & Beaverhead are noteworthy.

Distance Traveled: 492 km
Gas Price: 377.9
Best Meal: Finger Steaks (turned out to be wiener schnitzel)