RV2AK Through the Lower 48 (Sunday 5/12 - Tuesday 5/14)

As much as I had wanted to blog every few days while on the road, it simply was not possible.  We had very limited phone capabilities and zero Wi-Fi throughout our trip.  So here I am starting to blog now that I've been home a few days.

Our trip from Milwaukee on Saturday 5/11 was uneventful, allowing us to start bright and early at the Winnebago Fairgrounds in Forest City, IA.  Here we are getting settled into our 2025 Solis campervan.  David was a great help in getting all of our supplies and clothes moved over.  We were ready to hit the road by 9:30am with our first planned campground booked some 700 miles away at Theodore Roosevelt National Park (TRNP) near Medora, ND.  This would end up being our longest single day of travel as it didn't take long for "the game plan" be interrupted by places to explore along the way. Day #2 (Monday 5/13) from TRNP was suppose to have us traveling 785 miles to arrive at Eureka, MT Monday night for an early Tuesday morning crossing into Canada, but that didn't happen.  More on that later!

Once on the road from Iowa, we hustled through Minnesota with a gas and Wal-Mart stop for some last minute provisions.  After that, there wasn't much more to talk about other than the goal of arriving to our campsite at TRNP by nightfall.  Yeah . . . that didn't happen either. LOL

We did enjoy a delicious bowl of chili, which David had premade for our trip.  The early part of this adventure was made more convenient thanks to several prepared & frozen meals David made for us!  As you can see in the photo, it was already close to dark when we stopped at Sweetbriar, ND for supper.  Fortunately, I'm very familiar with the Cottonwood Campground inside TRNP, so we were able to find and settle into our campsite even through it was 11:00pm and totally dark.  Morning came early, after a good night's sleep . . . we were up and on the park road by 6:30am to see what wildlife might be around.

It didn't take long for us to see bison and prairie dogs . . . but I was really hoping we'd see the wild horses this park is known for.  Often they are off far away in the badlands or grazing out on the prairie not accessible unless you are willing to get out and hike a bit.  We had neither the time nor inclination to go for an off-trail hike, so we had our fingers crossed.  Our patience (and wishes) paid off when we got to spend some time with Dolly and her recently born colt Lonestar. We also saw a couple of bachelor stallions who were not part of any band at the time.


After time with this small family, we headed out to the visitor center and Theodore Roosevelt's Maltese Cross Cabin at the park entrance.  It was already noon when we finally got back on the road, heading west for Montana.  It was becoming clear we would be spending a lot more time getting from point A to point B given our interests and taking the time to explore along the way.  Both Pam & I were good with this, knowing that part of the adventure would be the things to see along the way.  I also knew that our routing through Montana was set up to provide opportunities for me to share places I had visited during my summer of living in Yellowstone and enjoying the history Montana provides from a bygone era.

It was nice being able to log some high speed miles through Montana.  With their 80 mph speed limit, I was hoping we'd make up some time.  But it wasn't all that great especially with the high winds and tall profile of the campervan.  Speaking of the height of the camper . . . we quickly learned that short girls have issues when it's time to do routine tasks like cleaning the windshield!  During one gas stop in Montana we met a nice young couple Allison & Eric.  He was tall and lanky, and offered to do our windshield for us.  I couldn't help to sound old when I thanked him with a "bless your heart."  We ran into them later in the day at a rest area overlooking the Yellowstone River just before Billings.  We enjoyed lunch, and even offered them a sandwich but they had already eaten and were continuing on to Bozeman.

As we passed through Billings, I suggested we needed to start thinking about where we'd want to stop for the night as clearly Eureka was not possible.  Making the decision to stop before heading north from I90 would give us more options for places to see along the way before crossing into Canada the next day.  This seemed like a better plan providing plenty of options along the way.

Approaching Bozeman, we decided to find a campground near the highway.  We used TOOTS to find the Missouri Headwaters State Park near Three Forks.  At $24/night for a dry campsite, it was a nice location with some local history in the area as well.  Sunrise provide beautiful colors as rain was in the forecast for most of Montana on Tuesday.

We were up early again, back on the road by 6:30am after a quick walk around the ruins of Gallatin City historic site . . . heading on westward before cutting north at Missoula and through the Flathead National Forest.  While we could have gone a more direct route from North Dakota to the Canadian border, I really wanted to go through the mountains and share the beauty of this region with Pam.  It did not disappoint, even though we encountered a fair amount of clouds and rain throughout the day's journey.

One of the stops we made, even before town was awake was Deer Lodge.  It was a good time for us to get out and stretch our legs and check out the outdoor section of the Powell County Museum.  A collection of restored historical buildings, it was an interesting stop.

At the other end of town is the Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historical Site; a US National Park Service locale that was worth some time as well.  Unfortunately we were too early to take the full tour of the grounds, but we did enjoy the visit.

Once we were back on the road, lunchtime came quickly.  We stopped and heated up the beef tips & gravy David had prepared for us.  We knew that all meat needed to be consumed before crossing the border, so this meal at Swan Lake State Park was the perfect opportunity since we were anticipating a 5:00pm~ish crossing north of Whitefish.

We enjoyed our leisurely drive through the Flathead Region of Montana.  With a final US gas fill-up in Eureka, we were heading into Canada at the Roosville border crossing.  It was an easy trip through with a minimal amount of questions.  And just like that, on Tuesday 5/14 we were in Canada at 4:45pm.

Now to figure out where to camp, as we were a full 8 hours behind schedule . . . and roughly 6.5 hours from Whistlers Campground in Jasper National Park where we had campsite reservations for the night!

TO BE CONTINUED