Helena, MT

Brrrr,  a very chilly 8C this morning, so we turn on the generator and the furnace gets the full blastl!  Pretty soon it is a more respectable 18C and we venture out of bed, into the shower before heading off into town to meet Meghan at LLC TLC, she has done a great job of looking after us and our kiwi needs!

We stop at Albertsons (the posh bakery/supermarket) to buy them some morning tea (a huge box of fancy iced doughnuts) then we go ‘walkabout’, ie the scenic route - to find our way back to their office again, way over on the other side of town.  Eventually we find a place we can park close by, but still in a very narrow, low tree-lined city street. We have to turn the fridge off ‘cos we are parked on such a lean /  

When we get in to the LLC office we are disappointed to learn that Meghan left just a week ago to pursue her teaching career, so we meet Vicki, who is now (and has been) looking after us, along with Delores (Reception), Lillian, Britt and Simon - pretty much the rest of the team!  One package is still to arrive (it’s the expensive Humminbird) so we have to wait for it and therefore need to fill in three hours or so, as it is now expected on the 3 pm UPS truck.  Half an hour later as we’re just about to leave our park, we phone LLC TLC to check and Delores says the package has just arrived and they have got the other three bits of mail we were looking for as well - excellent!  We really don’t really want to roam these skinny city streets for hours on end...

Picked up the stuff so that’s it, we are out of here!  But first we need to top up the diesel and Safeway has the best price, so there we head.  All good, it was a sharp price, but a bit of jiggery-pokery getting in and out but hey - we saved $0.15c/gallon  : )

That’s totally it now, we are not spending any more time in Helena, so we head south east on HWY 12 and enjoy a change of scenery.  As we move south the landscape changes from tree clad hill country to flat cropland, alfalfa hay and far off hills.

Arid valley land, hills in the distance

Three Forks, on HWY 227 and just off the I 90, is where we decide to camp for the night, at Camp Three Forks, in a lovely, tree clad, sunny site, with power, water, dump, internet etc.  The ppl are very friendly, as is the camp host (Santa) and we learn he is leaving here, after six months, to head back to his home town of St Louis, for his day job - as a Father Christmas!

Here we are just far enough off the I 90 so there’s not much traffic noise.  Hey, there’s a little jet black bunny just across the way - cute!

So cute black bunny!