The view from our campsite. We are high up overlooking it all.

Drove by this road sign... didn't turn as it was a dead end. In more ways than one.

It was cold and windy on Saturday so we stayed in and I read Nick Russell's new ebook Big Like Scandal.
Always a great read. Later listened to Cousin Burcie on Siriusxm radio channel 6 for his 4 hour oldies show, live from NYC.
Then since it was cold out we had chicken soup with homemade noodles. Quit time is 10 PM to 7 AM in the campground but with our battery bank providing power we stayed up and watched Tom Cruse in War Of The Worlds. No one would have heard our very quite Honda generator with the wind blowing outside but didn't take the chance since we were caught with it on at 10:20 the other night. Lost track of time. A no no.
It's supposed to be nicer today and Labor Day... About 70° and partly to mostly sunny so we have plans to do ribs on the grill. 
Oh and some good news.... We got our mail forwarding and in it was a letter and check from the IRS. We had done an amended 1040 and they agreed with us and we got an additional $1250 refund. We requested we should not have to pay W-2 Imputed Income for last year. My formar employer had sent us a W-2 for teh amount that they calimed Terry's health Ins was vauled at. The IRS agreed we didn't owe any of that tax. 

Aug 23
Moved on to Helena MT
We found this campground, Silo BLM campground just north of Townsend, MT.  when we did a day trip from Red Mountian campground. It looked like a good spot to head to as all the fishing access sites we found were to small for our rig. But once we came back to camp it was not as nice as we had thought. The grounds were a little run down and the lake edge was green from algae. Since we got here early we didn't even set up, just unhooked the 5er, got in the truck and scouted ahead for something better.  We did find better... so the next  morning we moved on to the below great park we had found on that afternoon day trip scouting ahead after we landed at Silo.

Moved on to just east of Helena MT again on the Missouri. In another BLM campground this time in the highest site in the park with great views. In the quest to find the perfect site we outdid ourselves. May stay right here through Labor Day as might not be able to find a site somewhere else later on closer to Labor Day when the locals swarm to the country for the holiday. 

The view from our site looking west. Helena is behind the hill on the right about 17 miles.

The view from Google Earth of US. We are at the red dot high on a mound where I can see from this 2011 Google Earth shot the camp site #48 didn't even exist at that time. 

BTW the weather has turned cold and nasty. Rained for over 24 hours and now they say snow showers tonight. We are warm and comfy in our 5th wheel trailer just watching the world go by. We did a run into Helena today (Saturday) for gas for the generator and a stop at Sportsmans Wharehouse just to look. Their prices are out of site. Wasn't looking for anything, just getting out of the rain.

A shot of Terry playing with his new laptop. 

The other day his old one just up and died. Wouldn't boot. Power light comes on but nothing happens. So as soon as we got here, off to get a new one. Found a great deal on a Asus at Walmart. The last one they had. SO I spent two days setting it up. The first night I had to make it revert to factory settings as some of the programs I had to reistall, as in download, put malware on the machine. It was easier to start over than to clean out all the junk programs. But now it is set up and working. He lost his documents but when we find the backup portable drive I should be able to restore them. Yep we can't find the backup drive. It has to be here somewhere but in 400 sq feet it's lost.  His email contacts were saaved in the cloud, so not all lost. 
Now let me say this about Windows 8. NO you don't want ot know my thoughts on that. Can't even find "All Programs" on a Win  8 machine. I installed a workaround program that makes it look like a Win 7 interface.  Now we can have the best of both worlds I guess.
Terry dug out the Blue Flame propane heater and it is keeping us warm. We have it plumbed in so we can connect to the propane line under the stove

We really like this unit as it doesn't need power to run and uses very little propane. We put off getting one for years, but so glad we did now. Just crack a window to give it air. We never leave it on when going to bed, of course.

Look at Helena MT high 57. Only northern Alaska is this cold. It was in the mid 40's when we went to town early this afternoon. 

UPDATE Sunday morning Aug 24   The weather forcast calls for it to warm up to the mid 80s and be nice alll week. 

Listening inside the 5er to Cousin Burcie on Siriusxm radio channel 6 for his 4 hour oldies show, live from NYC right now as I type 
No campfire tonight but it will happen soon enough me thinks. This weather has to change for the better at least by the holiday weekend. 
Oh and BTW we have a several bars of Verizon 4G unlimited data service along with our Datastorm satellite internet. 
And I did get my Virizon billing problems all corrected.  Back with unlimited data and 700 min talk with on my smart phone and Terrys dumb phone for $113. 
That is why right now I'm doing an update to my main site for fulltime RVers www.hitchitch.com 
Next week will do another day trip or two to check out the fishing access sites further north.  Remember this pic from my last post. So much to explore as now it seems winter is moving fast here in the northwest. Just kidding... I hope.  I remember last year we got hung up in central Oregon due to weather like we are having right now. We have places to see and rivers to explore yet. 

The numbers are the amount of campsites at eash site.
We want to continue north up the Missouri (see map above) but as Terry said while we were in Helena today.... 
US12  heads out of here toward Missoula only 117 miles away if we want to escape all this. I don't think we are ready to say we need to head out this soon from the northwest. 

Terry has a couple who he met in Quartszite who have become mentors over the years. They live in Missoula and don't travel to Q anymore so when we go through here we like to stay at the Gellystone RV park (a real treat with power, etc) while he spends time with them. If we don't cut short our trip we plan to got up toward Great falls and then down HW200 along the Blackfoot river for more fishing time, which ends us up in Missoula just a little bit later on. When he will still spend time whith them. After that slowly heading to Roslyn, WA to visit our good friend Tad. 
So as you can see right now it is like flip a coin to determine our future travels... but that's just like it should be, Don't Ya think. 
Like our tag line.... The restless urge to see new territory boyond the curve in the road ahead...
 

Aug 16
Another campground... yep on the Madison River
This time we landed at Red Mountain BLM campground again right on the Madison River. At $4 a night w/golden age pass.
To see a map of where we are at via the Datastorm Users Group click on We are here

As in our routine since we are "A big rig looking for a tent experience" we take a day trip to scout ahead to find campgrunds we can fit into and not have to back out of. That's no fun I can assure you.

So up from the south on the map on US 287 to Fairwearther and York's Islands which are MT fishing cacaos sites with camping. But they were way to small and no sum for our solar. To get to Fairweather we had to go up a dead road on the east side of the river. A long way to go to discover the site sucked. Then back track to Three Forks and go back on US 287 Three Forks is where the Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin rivers all converge to form the start of the Missouri. So onward we went north. At Townsend is a BLM site right on the Missouri River. Indian Road CG. Only a few spots and we shall see if it opens up for sites when we come through with the trailer. So far we had been very disappointed. Driving in a downpour we went a little further and found White Earth County campground (center of map below) all right on the lake and over 70 sites all for $5 w/golden age pass.  Look at all the campgrounds surrounding this lake. The Missouri river flows through here to the north and out the dam. 
In the above map we will do another day trip check out the sites in the insert box. The ones with numbers beside them have camping. I have already checked them out on Google Earth so have an idea what they are like. 
 

It's wheat harvest time in Montana. 

It's Saturday and will enjoy sitting by the side of the river with a great campfire listening to Cousin Burcie on Siriusxm radio channel 6 for his 4 hour oldies show, live from NYC. Terry is baking a loaf of bread in his dutch oven. Going to have Corn Beef and Cabbage tonight after Terry gets done fishing. 
This is what we get to see constantly floating down the river. Float tubes must be a huge selling item at the Boseman Walmart.

On Sunday another day trip to south of Boseman to the Hyalite Canyon in Gallatin National Forest and cheek out Langohr Springs Campground and Hood Creek Campground and lots of boondocking sites we have been told to go checkout. So another day trip to unexplored places. What we like to do best. I'll report what we find so stop on back for my updates.
You can read all about these two campsites on www.forestcamping.com

 Update on Terry's mom.
If you remember they found a lump in her lung on a cat scan and did a biopsy and it came back negative. Then a pep scan also undetermined.  Now another biopsy with multiple samples which they put under scan right away and also came up no cancer. So far they don't know what it is but will test the samples and try to determine what is going on. Anyway so far it has all been good news. Another thing is it has not grown any. She may have had this for a long time and just not known about it. The did the orig cat scan looking at her heart.
NOW the new biopsy came back again NO cancer... Whatever is in her lung is abort 31/2 cm and is not growing. The lung Dr. sez to come back in a couple of months. This is very good news. She is mostly over her pneumonia which started all this. So she is feeling good. Dr. sez it might be old scare tissue.
 
 

Aug 12
How can it be the middle of August already.
After West Yellowstone we moved on up to Ennis MT to a  fishing access site right on the Madison River named Valley Garden just a few miles northeast of Ennis. $7 a day for a max of a week with discount for having fishing lic. Went to a Arts Fair in town and did what we do best relax and meet new campers.

It's tough but sombodys got to do it.

One afternoon we headed over to Virginia City about 15 miles west of Ennis, MT. 
SOME FOLKS MADE A FORTUNE HERE.
BUT WHAT THEY LEFT BEHIND WAS PRICELESS.
All of Montana has the deepest pride and affection for Virginia City. No more colorful pioneer mining camp ever existed. Dramatic tales of the early days in this vicinity are legion. Rich placer diggings were discovered in Alder Gulch in the spring of 1863 and the stampede of gold seekers and their parasites was on! Sluices soon lined the gulch and various "cities" blossomed forth as trading and amusement centers for free handed miners. Virginia City, the best known of these and the sole survivor, became the Capitol of the Territory.
The very much alive ghost town, Virginia City, Montana, is frozen in time. It is a remarkably well preserved old west Victorian gold mining town just 90 miles west of Yellowstone National Park. When the gold ran out, there was still enough left so that homes and businesses were occupied, but there was not enough wealth to remodel the buildings. So it froze, and now represents the whole Victorian era. It is the true and original Old West. It is a gem, held within an incredibly rich area of natural beauty, recreation and history.

They have many old buildings you can peek into.

 I got a kick out of this old Rocky Mountain Bell Telephone shack. Not sure if it was real or not. That's Terry in the picture.

A dredge used to dig up and sort rock for gold.

 

Moved down south of Ennis to BLM campground Ruby Creek again on the Madison River at $4 
a night with golden pass.

Yep and got some more firewood. These were left at another site in the last campground. Terry had to use the chain saw to cut them in sections. Notice the load in the truck above ready to be split.

My trusty splitter.

We do let him relax a bit from time to time.

Update on Terrys mom.
If you remember they found a lump in her lung on a cat scan and did a biopsy and it came back negative. Then a pep scan also undetermined.  Now today another biopsy with multiple samples which they put under scan right away and also came up no cancer. Will be sent in for more complete biopsy and will know that result in a couple of days. So far they don't know what it is but will test the samples and try to determine what is going on. Anyway so far it has all been good news. Another thing is it has not grown any. She may have had this for a long time and just not known about it. The did the orig cat scan looking at her heart.
 
 

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