Montana Bound

Left Scottsdale Saturday morning after solving a minor glitch with the rental car.  Initially chose a Nissan Maxima, but the outlet for the GPS didn't work, so we swapped it for a Chrysler 300C.  Wow...what a fabulous highway cruiser, big & comfortable! The interstate speed limit is 80mph in Idaho & Montana. This puppy scoots along nicely with the cruise control set at 83mph.

But I'm getting ahead of the story.

We zipped through Arizona, around Flagstaff then north through Cameron & Page.  Got into Utah, and lost an hour, (they pay us back without interest when we return) through the desert then called it quits for the day in the little burg of Beaver, UT (no jokes, please).

Headed out Sunday morning, driving through and around the Salt Lake City area, the worst part of the trip.  Even on Sunday, it was two hours of congested 5-6 lane freeway, big semis darting in & out, other Interstates joining & leaving.  Aren't they all supposed to be in church???

Finally got into rural northern Utah and on into Idaho.  Stopped in Twin Falls for the night.  Right across from the hotel was a Famous Dave's BBQ.  Had dinner there; very good for a chain...ate at a FD's in Bozeman last year.

Got up Monday morning and zipped through to Butte, easy-peasy.

They call Montana "Big Sky Country"; I've already said that it is.  But this morning, beginning the three hours drive south of the ID/MT state line, it wasn't Big Sky.  That only happens when you're actually in MT.  (A piece of trivia: At this place, the continental divide forms the ID/MT border...that's why it's so irregular.)

"Big Sky" in Montana means the land seems to go on forever.  The mountains are both close and far.  This early in the summer, many of the higher peaks still have snow.  Hard to believe for the AZ desert rats enduring triple digits now.  But to make you feel a bit better, even the San Francisco Peaks had a bit of snow as we scooted past Flagstaff.

We're in Butte til Wednesday morning when we pop over to Missoula (less than two hours drive) & check into the apt. for a week.

I cribbed this shot from the apartment website, a view out our window-to-be from the 7th floor of a 20th century Missoula skyscraper (8 floors total).

For the trivia fans, that's the Clark Fork River, complete with urban rapids.  "Clark" of Lewis & Clark fame.

OK, another cribbed shot, shooting the rapids.  That's our high rise in the background.

More pics later, hopefully mine.