| The next morning the rain was off and on. One thing I am enjoying about Montana is the phrase, "If you don't like the weather, wait 10 minutes." How true this is! Not like Seattle where if you wake up and its gray and cloudy, it will likely remain so. In between rain squalls and wind, we got the camper ready to travel.
We had no problem getting out of the campground. We crossed the dam and we were so excited to get going, we didn't notice the steep hill before us, nor the mud that creased the driving path. Even putting the truck into 4 wheel drive, it was touchy as the RV slipped into the mud and threatened to go off the road. It felt like driving in deep snow where you are really never in complete control, you are only there to avert disaster. The truck worked really hard and there was one point where we both thought she would stall near the top, even with the gas pushed down, with all the strain, she started to slow. She is such a good truck, between her and Kim, they somehow got us up that hill. You haven't really driven a fifth wheel up a hill until it is muddy and slick. The rest of the road was not so steep but curved at the sides. We could feel the RV slipping into the ditch and Kim would compensate. It was rough going. We were hoping and hoping that we would soon find hard cement road. We could see the mud we were splashing through coming up on the rig. And, we feared we were lost on some back road. We were just about to turn around, when we saw a relatively clean vehicle going about 50 on a road nearby. A PAVED HIGHWAY!! I can't tell you how excited we were. And for the first time, I really looked at all the mud splattered and pasted onto our Fiver. It was caked thick on the sides and looked like if it dried it would be there forever. You'll have to keep reading to see if we ever get it off! ;) We entered the town of Chester and got gas. Kim called her dad and thanked him for talking us into getting a truck with a four wheel drive. It really saved us! We got gas, and found an RV wash. It seems mud is pretty common around here when it rains. One big sign in Chester advertises, "Got Mud?" Well we definitely did. As we pushed the water over the RV, the change was incredible. We never thought we would ever see white again, but eventually it did come off. We drove for quite a ways that evening, traveling in and out of the rain. A rainbow covered the road in a complete arch and with the sun shining behind us, the colors were spectacular and vibrant. You could see every detail of the color changes and just before it a more muted second rainbow arched with perfection. That evening we made it to Fort Peck. I wasn't feeling very well, and at first we couldn't find a level spot, so we settled for an overlook of the lake. The water was beautiful and had small outcroppings of land surrounding the blue water. I fell asleep quickly after we had spaghetti. The next morning, I slept in, and Kim worked on getting some more mud off the camper. We let the dogs run around the outlook and took a walk up to an overlook where Lewis and Clark signs showed us what they had seen during their travels. Once again the weather alternated between rain and sun. |
| to: Ft Peck Dam MT GPS Location N48�09.268' W106�13.695' Elevation 2350 |
| 06/02/05 |
| From: Tiber Dam MT GPS Location N48�19.156' W111�06.408' elevation: 3000 |