Greetings from Helena, Montana

I has been a week since I have written in my blog.  It has been an incredible week filled with many exciting moments but no internet or cell service most of the time.  I have missed writing and have missed the contact from friends through email or FB replies.  However did we survive with the internet?

We left Mt. Rushmore headed to Yellowstone with a stop over at Buffalo, Wyoming.  Stayed in a lovely campground that had an ice cream social every evening.  We met a very nice couple and shared stories.  They gave us lots of advice.  We were debating the route to Yellowstone.  There were two options.  The first was to travel the interstate and come in from the north.  The second was to take the scenic route through the mountains and a 10,000 ft pass.  The couple had just come from the scenic route and the man loved it while the woman said she would not do it again.  The scenic route is full of switchbacks and steep inclines and down grades.  Some people lose their breaks before it is over.  Which way do you think we went?

We had a beautiful drive through the mountains and I loved every minute of it.  Chris has become a very good driver and I did not have to tell him to slow down.  He took his time and we enjoyed the journey.  We pulled into our reserved campsite in Yellowstone very late and went right to bed.

The campground was supposed to have Sunday  services but they were cancelled because it was the end of the season---poor excuse.  Chris and I planned our Sunday worship together.  He chose that we would do morning prayer and I choose to do lectio divina from my recorded readings.  We had a great worship time sharing our time together.

Later in the morning we realized that we had no cell service or internet and the nearest hotspot was at a lodge that was supposed to be 2 miles away.  It had been raining, a slow drizzle, all morning so we decided to take a chance with the weather and walk to the lodge, hoping to have lunch before returning.  The trip about killed us.  I kept saying that this was the longest 2 miles I had ever walked.  To make it worse, the rain never stopped,  just got worse.  We did arrive, had a great lunch, and FB all our friends so they would not worry.  Then it stopped raining and we headed back--exhausted.  The next day we clocked it in our RV.  It was not 2 miles but was really 3.5 miles or 7 miles round trip.  No wonder we could not get back up after we sat down for dinner.  We now keep the Aleve in the silverware drawer because we need it so frequently.

Yellowstone was great with Old Faithful, plenty of geysers, and even a bison only 40 feet from our path.  We hiked everyday and really  enjoyed it.  Chris finally saw a herd (15) of bison and a bull elk.
Mr. ADHA got tired of Yellowstone...saw it all...so we checked out 3 days early and headed to the Tetons on Wednesday morning.  It was only 90  miles away.

The drive through the Tetons was magnificent.  We turned on our praise music by Lynn DeShazo as we experienced the beauty of God's work through our eyes and through our ears.  Lynn sings the psalms and praises God for all He has made.  It was like being on a retreat.  The mountains open up to this river/lake area and it is breathtaking.  I never expected to see a marina with at least 50 boats on morings.  What a great day.  We both felt so fortunate to have such an experience.

Now we are in Helena, Montana.  There is a Mexican restaurant on every  corner and Casinos on the  other corners.  We took a boat ride called Gates of the Wilderness.  Pretty awesome!  We had dinner with friends we met through Ci and Ashby when they were in Gulf Shores.  It was fun and lots of laughs since they all RV and had stories to tell. 

Tomorrow we head to Glacier National Park.   We should be there two nights.  We hope to travel the road to the sun of the weather holds out for us. 

Peace to all my friends,  Barbara