8/14 travel, Bozeman and 8/15 Butte

We decided to leave Old West RV Park a day early so we could leave whenever we wanted and to have two easy days driving.  With the smoke, wind and steep roads we've found that splitting up the drive is something we're going to start doing.  It was so much better and we got to see Butte, MT by doing that!  We checked into the 2 Bar Lazy H RV Park Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning we drove into Butte to have breakfast.  We kept seeing these mining structures all over this really cool town of ALL ancient buildings so we decided to drive around a little. It's 8:30 Sunday morning, we're going down a street and Kenneth starts slowing down.  I ask, "You're not going to stop and talk to that guy, are you?"...which, of course, anyone who knows Kenneth already knows the answer.  This guy who sounded like he was from Boston, said he grew up here and was quite happy to tell us everything about the "cah-pah" that was mined in the city back in the early 1900s and even directed us to the monument the city erected about a mining disaster there.  We both enjoyed our quick stopover and really happy we got to see Butte when it wasn't even supposed to be a stopping point!

Getting on the road to thicker smoke than what we've had.

We have seen a LOT of bee hives up in this area.

I see a LOT of this, too!!  He has driven every mile of this trip...again; not surprising if you know Kenneth...:)

And trains!  It seems like every RV park or stop over we've been to has train tracks right by it.  Funny thing is...they never bother us at all.  We hear them in the camper, but they've never woken us up or been annoying.  They actually sound very cool and appropriate for this setting.

Stopped in Bozeman, MT to get a chip and...

...to have lunch.

Had to wait for a table so I hung out with the bear.

Had a crazy big order of nachos, split a pasta dish and washed it down with a local brew.

Getting smokier, it seemed.

Sunday morning breakfast at Annie's Cafe-nothing fancy, just home cooked food at a local spot.

Street in Butte...every building in downtown seems historic. Really enjoyed driving around this town!

I thought the south had lots of churches - there were two next door to each other and five more I saw on the few streets we drove on.

Historic St. Lawrence Church right by the monument

Granite Mountain Speculator Fire Memorial-we NEVER would have found this if Kenneth hadn't made a new friend!

One of the old buildings on the site

The memorial overlooks this field.

Those are core samples (they are around all the plaques and also make up some of the walls in the memorial) around a transcript of letters found on one of the miners bodies.  They all wrote letters to their loved ones when they realized they weren't going to make it out.  Gave me chills to read them... 

This memorial is very well done and I would recommend visiting it if you're ever in the area.