Ho, I wen forget to add da snow video from Bozeman!  So try go back hea, scroll down, and watch da snow coming down and listen to da robin singing.

U stay back?  K’den.

I love this scene:  The river, the mountains with snow, the high plateau.  It looks so peaceful. I wondered how much snow they get here.  This is near Exit 195

The pīpī grazed peacefully, oblivious to us zooming by.  I didn’t moo to them as we passed, but I shoulda.  For AFK.  Because I know she woulda!

If we’d had time, we woulda stopped here.  For my brother, Kaniela. He and I love old cars, thanks to our papa-san.

And the mountains. In Montana, always the beautiful mountains.

We had another chance to zip over to Helena, but no could. Drummond.  Remember that place?  It’s where we saw that cattle drive right next to the freeway on our first trip to Montana in 2009.

Here are a couple of videos we took not too far from Drummond and near Garrison Junction, where we could have headed back east to Helena.

I was still entranced by those rain clouds up ahead.

Ready for a break, we stopped at the Gold Creek Rest Stop and saw this sign for the Pintler Scenic Route, Highway 1, south of Drummond.

I’ve decided that what we really need to do is to take two or three weeks and spend the whole time in Montana exploring all these roads and highways that so call to me.  I’ve heard it said that Montana is so big that you can start knitting a sweater at one end and easily finish it while you’re still driving in this amazing state. I believe it.

I mean, really. Try look!

See what I mean?  Endless adventure possibilities!

The rest stop is an oasis of green in the middle of lots and lots of brown hills.

It really is an oasis. And we were happy to stop briefly.

Of course, I just knew that I had to take a photo of this sign for AFK at the rest stop.  I was so excited to find it, knowing that it would absolutely make her day. I was right, yeah?

Wanna know a secret? I moo’d at this cow! (How do you spell “moo’d”, anyway?  Mooed? Oh, I guess that’s it cuz I didn’t get the wavy red line. K’den. I mooed at this cow.

This history stuff fascinates me.  I bet plenny wives were left behind by hopeful gold miners.

The green was so welcome after long stretches of brown. We got out and walked around for a bit.  One of the things that we’ve found out in our travels is that you can meet some really friendly people at these places; people on their own journeys who stop for a bit to stretch their legs.

I figured there were a few ducks around these marshy areas.

♪ Back on the road again…♫

Was this just a dirt road when that barn was built? Did stagecoaches come through this area?  What did it look like when gold was first discovered around here?

There was more rain up ahead again. So far, it hadn’t come anywhere near us. Probably just as well, since our windshield was so full of bugs and would’ve smeared really bad.

Our next goal was Missoula.  We’d make another rest stop before we got there, though.  I know that Montana freeways are nothing like busy city freeways, but still yet…I’m not so sure I would have wanted to live this close to one.  Seeing the sign with “Coeur d’ Alene” on it, reminded me that we really were leaving Montana.  Yeah, we still had several hours to go, even at 75 mph, but we were still leaving.

Don’t get me wrong. I love where we live.  I love the whole Pacific Northwest.  It was still hard to leave Montana.

You know, I’m really enjoying this road trip all over again. I know take ukutrillion photos, yet without them, I wouldn’t be able to do quite so much reliving. Cuz I just can’t remember every single thing about our trip, ya know?