Beating the Heat

August 2, 2007

Great Falls, Montana

Cassidy and Chris are making a fire---it’s the first night we’ve been able to have a fire due to drought and burning restrictions in the West. We are in Great Falls, Montana at yet another KOA and yeeha---it’s S’mores time!!!!! We had a cool night in Billings last night-swimming in the pool, kids riding their bikes around the area. They had 3 (three!) whole food stores and we just had a yummy stir fry for dinner. We got a late start….1pm, and took RTE 3 up from Billings to Great Falls. There are 3 large forest fires West of here and the southern end of Glacier is on fire. It is hazy here with a bright orange sunset from all the smoke. We happened to hit the Montana State Fair and may venture out tomorrow---catch a little horse action. Biked several miles along the old Lewis and Clark Trail today in the heat, visited a great Lewis and Clark Interpretive site and almost lost Teslin to heat stroke. Plan to spend another night before starting the trek through Canada. Days have been consistently in the 90’s throughout the trip with a couple of 100+ so looking forward to cooler days and nights. We noticed it is down to the 40’s in Calgary at night-ahhhhhhhhh! Harry Potter Audiobooks fill our days while traveling- (we’re on Book 4 already), Cassidy has his eyes open for birds, Teslin for advertisements for Waterparks, and mom and dad for exciting stops along the way. More to come!!!

The Ruges