Montana

We overnighted in Miles City on Thursday, July 5^th, then headed to Billings on Friday. We met my sister Janet and her wife Nancy at the Billings KOA. This KOA, established in 1962, is the world’s first KOA. We enjoyed 18-holes of miniature golf after dinner.

On Saturday, July 7^th we drove to Great Falls where we spent two nights at the Malmstrom AFB family campground. The host Bill had placed wood barrels around the campground where he had planted vegetables for the campers to enjoy. Our grandson Connor experienced a freshly picked carrot growing in the barrel next to our campsite.

Monday, July 9^th, we headed up the road to see Glacier National Park. We stayed for three nights at the West Glacier KOA. It was our first visit to Glacier. We had tried to visit in 2011 on our way to Alaska but the “Going to the Sun Road” was still closed due to snow. This year, they didn’t get the road plowed open until June 30^th.

Tuesday afternoon all of us rode the free shuttle from the Apgar Visitor’s Center at the west entrance up to the top of Logan Pass. The views were spectacular and we also saw some wild life.

Yesterday, we took an hour-long scenic boat tour on Glacier National Park’s Lake McDonald Wednesday afternoon. The lake water is crystal clear and we had great views of the surrounding mountains.

We’re off to Washington and Oregon to meet up with friends Vince & Lisa and see the Columbia River Gorge.

Steve & Julie Cornelius

North Dakota

We left Sioux Falls last Saturday, June 30^th, and drove to just outside of Fargo, North Dakota. The RV park we stayed at was part of a Days Inn motel with an indoor water park, an Irish Pub, and a Country Kitchen. Paul and Ying took Connor to the water park before dinner.

On Sunday we headed to Bismarck, the capitol of North Dakota. Paul took and passed his second teaching certificate exam on Monday. We celebrated by going to lunch at HuHot, a Mongolian grill where you create your own stir fry. They had never been to HuHot and really enjoyed it.

Monday night, we took Paul, Ying and Connor to their first rodeo in Mandan, ND just across the Missouri River from Bismarck. It was the 139^th annual Mandan Rodeo and was actually very good for a small venue. The saddle bronc riders and bull riders were my favorite.  

We left Bismarck on Tuesday morning and drove to Medora, ND. We stayed at the nearby Buffalo Gap Guest Ranch and RV Park. It was quiet with great views of the surrounding countryside.
  

Tuesday night we went to the Medora Pitchfork Steak Fondue dinner. The steak was very good and cooked to perfection.

After dinner we walked across the parking lot to take in the Medora Musical. Several people we’d met this past year told us we had to go to the musical if we went to Medora. We took their advice and bought tickets a couple of months ago. The Medora Musical is a western-themed musical variety show, performed outdoors. The professional performers are from all over the country and the show was very good.

Yesterday, July 4^th, we visited Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The park’s south entrance is in Medora and we enjoyed the 38-mile loop through the south section of the park. We saw lots of bison and prairie dogs. We also saw wild horses for the first time in the wild. We watched the Medora July 4th parade after visiting the National Park. 

Okay, we can check North Dakota off our bucket list and now only have three more states we haven’t visited (Vermont, Delaware and Rhode Island). We were pleasantly surprised on how beautiful North Dakota was, especially the western part of the state.

We drove to Montana today where we’ll visit Miles City, Billings, Great Falls, and West Glacier to visit Glacier National Park.

Steve & Julie Cornelius

Road Trip – Weeks 1 & 2

Our son Paul, wife Ying, and grandson Connor arrived in Austin from Taipei, Taiwan on Sunday, June 17th. Paul is working on getting a teaching certificate for his position as a science teacher at an international school near Taipei. They are traveling with us for six weeks in our motorhome as Paul takes four exams, one each in Omaha, Bismarck, Portland and Seattle. On Monday we enjoyed lunch at Flores Mexican Restaurant in Lake Travis.

We drove to San Antonio on Tuesday to visit Grammy. She enjoyed meeting her great grandchild. On the way back to Austin, we stopped at one of our favorite Texas stops…Buc-ee’s, which has great gas prices and snacks to go. 

We enjoyed dinner at County Line BBQ. Paul & Ying ordered the beef ribs which are Texas-sized huge.

We met Paul’s cousin Jonathon for dinner on Wednesday at the original Chuy’s Mexican Restaurant, on Barton Springs Road in Austin. It was just as good as the week before when Julie and I stopped there. After dinner we all went to nearby Austin’s best city park, Zilker Park, to let Conner run off some energy.

We left Austin on Thursday and headed north up tornado alley, across Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. We landed safely in Omaha at Offutt AFB Family Campground for a three-night stay. We enjoyed dinner on Sunday at old friends Sal & Terri’s home. We hadn’t seen them in a couple of years so it was fun to catch up.

Paul took and passed his first exam on Monday. We celebrated by enjoying the best cheeseburgers in the Omaha area at Stella’s Bar & Grill, where we had to wait for a table. 

On Tuesday we drove 80-miles to my old hometown of Denison, Iowa for lunch with my step-mother Jan, her granddaughter Mandy and her children. We enjoyed lunch at Pizza Ranch and our visit with everyone.

We spent three-nights in Sioux Falls where Paul got a new driver’s license and we picked up our mail at Dakota Post, our mail forwarding service.   

Steve & Julie Cornelius