Montana is a long state!  I think we left Missoula at about 9:15 MT this morning, and we didn’t get to the eastern border until 6:00 this evening.  Somewhere in North Dakota, we crossed into the Central time zone to arrive at our hotel around 9:30 CT.  Of course, we made a few stops along the route.

We were able to get breakfast free this morning at our hotel.

We spent most of the day following the Yellowstone River.

Up in the mountains

We saw several ranches en route.

High cliffs

Helena, Mt

I have been wanting to see Helena since I was in junior high.  (I’ve probably seen it on one of our other trips, but I had forgotten until today.)  I had a friend in junior high who came from Helena.  She said that when she was in school in Helena, her teacher would write the day’s assignments on the black board and the students could study at their own pace.  If they finished early for the day, they could do something more fun.  I thought that sounded really nice!

Some fall color

We crossed the Continental Divide shortly before I took this picture of the geology.

Farm country

Big sky country

Dog park at a rest stop

I haven’t mentioned how Tucson has been traveling yet.  On the way to Oregon, Mark let her ride in the cab with him, but there’s no room for her with me in the truck, so she has been riding in the back.

Mark rigged up a cover for her kennel so that if we get rain, she’ll be protected. At night, she sleeps in the cab.

Near Glendive, MT

Glendive has some particularly bad memories for us.  This is where we worked on the sugar beet harvest and nearly got injured by falling sugar beets when the boom above us broke.  This happened in October of 2014. That’s the last time I think we came this way.

In 2014, we stopped to look at this bird sculpture. This time, we’re in a hurry to get home.

We are tired and sore.  I’ve had to take aspirin for pain from sitting today.  I’m looking forward to getting into bed.  Goodnight!