Day 17 - Home Sweet Home

After checking out of our hotel, we started our day at the Montana Bakery (located next to our hotel). I bought a delicious cinnamon bun with walnuts...yum yum!!! We drove through beautiful Montana and saw lots of deer, antelope and a herd of buffalo. The rivers here are beautiful and lots of trees in western Montana. In Kellogg, Idaho, we stopped to ride the longest Gondola ride in North America. It is 3.1 miles long (one way) and took us about 30 minutes to get to the top of Silver Mountain. The elevation is 5,700 feet. In the summer, they have mountain bike trails to ride on and we got to watch the bicyclists as we rode the gondola up and down the mountain. When we got to the top, we had lunch at the café. They have giant nachos (we got one order of these to go)!! Nana & I got the veggie burgers with the mountain fries and Papa got a Reuben sandwich with mountain fries. Very scrumptious food!! We also got to walk around and check out the different chair lifts. I would love to go skiing here one day. When we got down the mountain, we visited the resort and gift shop. Today we drove through Montana, Idaho, & Eastern Washington and all the way home. We loved our vacation but we are very happy to be home. Home Sweet Home!! God has given us so many things on this trip and we were able to see a lot of wonderful things that He has made. Our country is surely a beautiful place. We are so grateful to have the freedom to explore it.

Day 16 - Missoula, Montana

 

We had a crazy travel day today. There was a rain storm we went through then sunshine and a rainbow. The tires on the Yukon were acting funny and the warning light kept coming on after Papa tried putting more air in the tires. There was some rest area issues that we won`t talk about. We had problems trying to find a hotel to stay at...no vacancy. I fell down and hurt my thumb & knee...while bringing suitcases into the hotel. In the end, we found a nice place to stay and we rented a suite with a jacuzzi tub & full kitchen. We spent the night in Missoula, Montana. 

 

 

Day 15 - Buffalo, Wyoming

Today we visited the South Dakota Visitor Center where we bought cds to listen to in the car that told the history of the state. We also visited another rest area that had information on the Lewis & Clark expedition and was near the Missouri River Reservoir (near one of Lewis & Clark`s camping spots). One interesting tidbit: At this point in Lewis & Clark`s journey, they had been gone for 4 months and had put their tents up over 100 times. We also visited the Chapel in the Woods in Rapid City, South Dakota. The church is beautiful and built exactly like the famous Borgund Stavkirk of Laerdal, Norway. Behind the church is the bell built in a small tower and the prayer path. Nana was able to walk the whole way...Yea!! We also visited their gift shop where Nana tried on a Viking hat. After visiting the church, we made our way to Wyoming. We stopped at their visitor center and took a few pictures. Do you think we went river rafting? Ha Ha tricked you!! We spend the night in Buffalo, Wyoming.