Today our primary mission was to stock the trailer with food that will last a couple of weeks. We are going into some remote sections of Montana for the next fortnight and shopping outlets in Montana are scarce.
We piled into Charlotte and took off for Bozeman, 25 miles west and home to one of Montana’s Costcos. We found the store and wandered in to engage in some unfettered shopping. $350 later, we checked out but not before stopping at the Costco’s snack bar where they sell good polish dogs, chicken bakes and, most importantly, Caesar salads which are tip-top. Another $15 bit the dust here and then we departed.
Unfortunately, Costcos in Montana do not sell liquor like other states so we had to go to a liquor store in Bozeman before we left town because there doesn’t seem to be any liquor sales in Livingston. We found one of the three liquor stores in Bozeman. It was located in a gas station, which is a bit strange. On one side of the station, they sell only booze and wine. On the other side of the wall they sell gas, snacks and beer. You will be required to go into both outlets should you be interested in getting a bottle of whiskey and a six pack. Liquor laws seem weird in Montana.
We hauled our loot back to our spot in Osen’s RV Park in Livingston and actually found adequate places to store the pyramid-sized pile of groceries we had. We sat down for a bit afterwards but soon became restless and decided to take a spin up the Yellowstone River which runs alongside US-89, the road right next to our RV park.
US-89 south of Livingston is a good road and the scenery alongside is gorgeous. The road runs up the center of the river valley with mountains on both west and east horizons. The valley floor is dotted with ranches that are spread out such that even the most reclusive types can be satisfied. We traveled south on 89 for about 30 miles until we turned off slightly to the east on MT-540 and returned to Livingston on a skinny road that took us up the east side of the Yellowstone River Valley, passing through some tiny towns with names like Pray and Pine Creek. Not only was the terrain beautiful, we spotted some colorful birds, several deer and one animal that we could not identify. It must have either been a manbearpig or a muskbrahmacow.
We emerged from this bucolic beauty almost back in Livingston so we fueled up Charlotte and headed home to loaf. We leave here tomorrow and head over close to Helena, the state capitol.
We took some pictures today, including one of the muskbrahmacow, which you can see if you click here