Tuesday, June 11, 2013 (Whitehall, MT)

Today was a long travel day for us. We were going to be traveling around 230 miles to our next destination. We also were going to be going up and over Homestake Pass at an elevation of 6375’. For vehicles over 12,000 lbs., which includes us, the downhill side speed limit was 25 mph. Needless to say, I was a little concerned since the Mountain Pass Directory made it sound very scary and that they have had several fatalities in the past.

We got up early so we could be on the road early. We would much rather get up a little early than arrive at a campground later in the day. We had called ahead to Lewis & Clark Cavern State Park to see about availability and they said to arrive early if we wanted a pull through site with electricity. This is going to be our first time overnighting with the fiver with just electric, we will have to fill with water once we get to the campground and use our water pump.  We used to dry camp all the time in the camper but haven't attempted that yet with the fiver. 

It started out a nice sunny day, but there were thunderstorms forecast for later in the day. We hit a little bit of a shower before we got to Butte, MT but that was it, just enough to spatter the truck and fiver with road grime, oh well I guess that’s part of full timing in a RV. We passed through Butte, we weren’t impressed, we thought Missoula looked much nicer, maybe someday we’ll get back and explore that area a bit more. The big pass was just outside of Butte and we started climbing. We are getting the truck figured out better when we do these big climbs and so it wasn’t too bad. Then we were at the top and sure enough there were signs warning of the 25-mph speed limit. I don’t know what I was expecting, but the fiver and the truck did just fine, Rich is a good driver and kept our speed down and it wasn’t scary at all. That makes me feel much better for other passes that we’ll be traveling over.

It wasn’t long after that we pulled into the Lewis & Clark Cavern State Park. It looks much better than it did on Google Maps, when we checked it out; the pictures must have been in late summer when everything was brown because now it is still green. We found a pull through with electrical site – yahoo. So I stayed in the site to hold it while Rich went and filled up the water tank. We had to spend a bit more time getting our fiver level than we normally do, this site has a bit of a slope to it that wasn’t immediately apparent. But Rich finally got it. So after we got all set up we just sat back and relaxed. Normally we go into the nearest town and do a scouting trip, but after being on the road around 5 hours, we had enough traveling for today.

Later in the afternoon, we did get the forecast thunderstorms, but it wasn’t too bad, the thunder sounded like it stayed in the hills, we just got some rain and wind. We took a walk through the campground later in the evening and spoke with the camp host about the park and the area and their experiences work camping. He mentioned they had a silver yorkie named Lucy, so he went and got her so Gracie and her could meet. Gracie is much more playful with the bigger dogs than she is the little ones, I wonder if it is because when she was little, she was used to our big St. Bernard, Samson. She loved to try and jump up and lick his face. Anyway after they spent some time checking each other out, we headed back to the fiver for a relaxing evening with a movie before heading to bed.