Beginning of our Winter trip to the USA

Wednesday, September 20th

Airdrie, AB

We had the jacks up and the wheels rolling at 8:30 am. Both of us anxious to get on with "the trip". It was a good stop in Airdrie though to get the Satellite TV fixed and meet up with our good friends from years ago, Mike and Lisa Folk plus a little shopping.

It was not as cold a morning as yesterday, it seemed anyways, but the winds were quite strong. We took the 201 bypss route south to miss going through downtown Calgary. It sure worked slick. Fueled up with a little diesel at the Flying J in Nanton on Hwy 2 South to get us into the USA to fill the tank. Diesel was $1.08 per litre. Once back on Hwy 2 South, the winds picked up and we (I mean Ray) navigated about a 30 - 40 km crosswind. The scenery quite boring with acres and acres of mowed fields of hay, all brown in colour and very flat.

We were, however, able to see a little of the rocky mountain foothills hovering below the clouds today. We stopped at a pull over to view the "Old Man River". Here at least there's some green, blue and varied colours.

Continuing down the highway onto Hwy 2 we took the cutoff Hwy 519 over to Hwy 3 and then south on to Hwy 4 as we wanted to go to Milk River to stay the night before crossing.  At the Sweet Grass Border to the USA, the road turns into the I-15. Just north of Lethbridge we came upon this long rail tressel and took a walk with Freya to stretch our legs. Even managed to see a couple of deer. This little protected area is called the Helen Schuler Nature Preserve.

Dogs were only allowed to walk on the paved path.

This guy decided to have a "lay down" and kept watch of us going back and forth.

When we first noticed this very long tressel  I snapped a picture with my phone. Ray saw a parking lot so took the exit to get a closer look. It turned out you could see it better from the highway.

Picture with phone

Ray's picture.

 This massive steel trestle over the Oldman River was designed by the Canadian Pacific Railway's bridge department in Montreal. The field work was directed by CPR's Assistant Chief Engineer John Edward Schwitzer. The steel work was manufactured by the Canadian Bridge Company of Walkerville, Ontario. A 100-man gang worked on the erection of the steel. Although there were some initial problems with settlement, the bridge has proved to be an enduring engineering work and is still in use today.

This bridge is the largest railway structure in Canada and the largest of its type in the world. It was built as part of a major diversion of the Crowsnest Pass route between Lethbridge and Fort Macleod. The Lethbridge Viaduct, commonly known as the High Level Bridge, was constructed between 1907–1909 at Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada at a cost of $1,334,525.The river crossing was previously over a wooden trestle measuring 894 m (2,933 ft) long and 20 m (66 ft) high; an impressive structure in its own right.(Wikipedia)

Milk River, AB

Back on the road for another hour, we pulled into the 8 Flags Campground at Milk River. Not a bad overnight spot for $30 cash, full service. Before we set up, it was 1 pm, so time for lunch first and set up later. There was a little chinese restaurant just up the road the camp host assured us served great food called the Yummy Inn. He did not lie.

The front not much to look at but the food ....

Seafood in a birds nest.

Almond Gai Ding next to the "nest". As you can see Ray's plate is ready for more! minus the baby corn and celery.

We also had 2 egg rolls and cantonese chowmein. All very delicious.

Back to camp with enough leftovers for dinner, Ray took a little walk around and snapped a few pictures. The satellite TV was a no go!!! Well we have lived without considering it for the past 3 weeks and happened to park under a tree. It was really windy so probably could not have watched it anyway. Too tired to move everything for one night so I guess we will listen to each other sing!!! not!!! This campsite is next to a golf course where apparently you can golf for $1/hole.

The grainery close to the campsite.

The Milk River next to the campsite.

Our campsite, big enough for any size rig.

Tomorrow we cross into the USA for 6 months.

Thursday, September 21st

We crossed the border into the USA at the Sweet Grass Crossing about 20 minutes south of Milk River. Pulled right in ... no line-ups at all. After a few questions we were on our way.

Sweet Grass Border

On our way for 6 months.

Destination tonight will be the Walmart at Great Falls, Montana. Tonight has the possiblity of 1 inch of snow through the overnight hours. As we are climbing higher on the next stage of the journey to Lewis and Clark Caverns we may be held up for a day. We shall see.

On the road by 8 am. Made it to Great Falls, MT by 10:30 am. I did a big shop at the Walmart for veggies etc. and Ray unhooked the car and made a run to a liquor store. Lunch was Subway. All done by 12 noon ... with the snow coming tonight of 1-4" over 4000 feet, we decided to continue on to Lewis and Clark Caverns today instead of tomorrow  There are some passes to get there and would be all settled before the one day snow event. The weather is supposed to improve by Saturday and temperature warming up. Ended up with a 300 mile journey that we had not planned on. Oh well better to get going before the snow happens. We were all set up by 3:30 pm ...Ray plans to spend the rest of the day in bed. Most of the drive is very flat and boring so other than sitting back with the cruise control on he was able to drive further than normal but the last 1/3 of the drive, unfortunately was up and down mountains with curves, which requires more effort to drive. But we are here before the predicted snow. We took on some fuel at Great Falls ($2.75/gal) but the pump was so slow Ray gave up after 30 gallons and we carried on. In Helena we filled up at $2.69/gal.

Here are some pics I managed to snap with Ray's camera on the way. First couple are Great Falls to Boulder, Montana. Miles and miles of nothingness. You can see the storm forming that was going to bring snow tonight at higher elevations.

There were lots of fishing access sites along the Missouri River the I-15 follows out of Great Falls. Some of them have camping areas. There must have been fish in the river as I counted at least 20 or so boats on the way down.  Pardon the bugged up windshield in the pics below.

Coming down into Boulder, MT

Residual Snow from a week ago that we also got in Banff

Once in Boulder we headed east  on Hwy 69 towards our destination, the Lewis and Clark Caverns. It was a very twisty, turny road going up and down in the mountains. This is where the snow will definitely fly as there is snow still there from last week.

The 2 lane highway cuts through steep valleys with amazing rock colours.

At the end of Hwy 69 we proceded onto Hwy 2 to the Caverns. This was even more windy.

Mining claim

 And finally the view out our front window of the coach. A long day but so worth it getting here.