Discoveries

We are now about a week into our road trip. We have already seen some incredible things and I have made some important discoveries. Since I am sure you are wondering what has been going on with us and I can write about whatever I want, I'm going to start with the discoveries.

The first thing I have discovered has to do with grocery shopping. In our past life of the working type, Brenda did all of the grocery shopping. It didn't start that way but it was quick to become that way because when I went grocery shopping, I got all of the things that were important to my well being...snacks, bacon, steaks, and things that come from a can. Brenda for some reason didn't appreciate the way I shopped or the way I ate so she decided that it was best for the both of us if she did the shopping. That way we had fresh fruits and vegetables, nothing from a can, and no snacks (unless you consider dried fruit and nuts snacks). No more reese's peanut butter cups, no more canned soup, and worst of all...no bacon (it's almost grounds for divorce just on the lack of bacon in our home).

Anyway, back to the discovery. Now that we are spending all of our time together...and I do mean ALL of our time together...24/7...in an itty-bitty space, we do the grocery shopping together. What that means is that when Brenda sends me to grab milk while we are at the grocery store together, I can grab an armful of treats along with the milk and hide them in the cart when she isn't looking...candy and cheez-its and anything else that strikes my fancy...I haven't gotten the courage up for the bacon just yet but it is going to happen...mark my words, bacon will happen. So just yesterday is when this momentous discovery happened. We were passing through Post Falls Idaho when we decided to stop for groceries at a store that I have never been to...Winco foods...aka “treat heaven”.

They had rows and rows of treats in bulk. Brenda sent me for some ridiculous “treat” like dried fruit and what I came back with was 12 bags of real treats in bulk. I couldn't help myself. Giant whoppers, Reese's peanut butter cups, Cheez-its, some delicious cheddar cheese snacks...I couldn't stop. I now have discovered that I have a favorite grocery store when before I hated all grocery stores (for the record, I have not been paid to speak fondly of Winco foods...I don't work for them...I don't know anyone that works for them...I don't own stock in the company...I just love them and their massive array of treats). So that's the first discovery.

We have also discovered the beauty of traveling by RV. I now call our camper a bathroom on wheels. Brenda has to pee about every five minutes so on our past road trips, we would have to find a spot with a “clean” restroom for her tinkling needs...it couldn't be a gas station because apparently they are disgusting (after working in construction for years, a gas station bathroom seems like a luxury to me). Now I can pull over anywhere and she can hop in the camper and use our clean bathroom. It's great.

We can also stop for the night just about anywhere. If we are trying to cover some miles, we don't need to stop at a hotel or a real campground when we get tired...we can pull over at a rest stop or a Walmart to grab some z's and be on our way in the morning(we haven't tried either of these yet but I am told by other RV-er's that they are a great place to stop for the night). A lot of small towns welcome RV's with open arms and provide places for you to stay for the night in hopes that you will spend some dollars in their town (we have stayed in Drummond, Montana at just such a place). There is also Bureau of Land Management land (BLM) all over the place that our tax dollars pay for and you can camp on most of it for up to two weeks at a time. It's pretty great and it's free. Of course there are the state parks, national parks, and RV parks that seem to be everywhere as well, and they all have some amenity that begs us to stop by. It's almost like traveling on the boat in the fact that we can stay just about anywhere and we can do it for free or for a few bucks depending on what we are looking for.

One of the strangest things that we have seen so far was a used cow lot in Drummond. Not a used car lot...a used cow lot. Being city folk, we were in such shock that we didn't think to take a picture of the place until we were miles down the road. We almost turned around to get the evidence on film but decided against it since it was pretty obvious that we were not from around these parts and we didn't want us city folk to offend the cow folk with us gawking at the used cow lot. Pretty interesting place.

One of the coolest places I have ever been is now at the Lewis and Clark Caverns in Whitehall, Montana. This is Montana's first and oldest state park and has quite an interesting history to it. They have a great tour that you can take that will take you down about a mile into the cave system. Since Brenda is really afraid of confined spaces (she gets the cold sweats just thinking about being in a cave), this was a tough place for her. She really wanted to see the caves and the rock formations in the caves but was terrified of going in. Since I really wanted to see this place, I was going in with or without her. To build up the courage to not be left behind, a couple of beers had to be consumed and she mumbled to herself over and over “I am a strong woman...I love adventures...I want to do this”. It worked and she was glad she made it out alive with only a mild case of PTSD. Really an incredible place and we were both thrilled to see it (we were however a little freaked out because of the bats that were swarming us in one section of the cave...actually it was freaky and really cool at the same time).

There are tons of old ghost towns in Montana which date back to the gold rush and mining days of the mid 1800's. We have stopped into some of them and they are really amazing. Virginia City was a bustling city of about 30,000 people in the boom years of the gold rush. When the gold dried up, the people left as quickly as they came. They left so fast that most of the buildings and stores are still stocked with whatever was on the shelf when the proprietors shut the doors and split town. The shoe store still has over 200 pairs of shoes in their original boxes still sitting on the shelves from the mid 1800's. Amazing. It was fun to see the old buildings and to see how they were constructed. We also discovered how small people used to be. Doorways are shorter, beds are tiny, seats that were made for 2 people would only fit one of our modern day butts. Pretty interesting places to spend a few hours.

So far its been a pretty great week. Tomorrow we will be heading into Yellowstone which is a place that is on both of our bucket lists. We are both excited!