Wednesday, August 24: Traveling in Montana

The drive to the Billings, Montana Wal-Mart was uneventful. As we drove further southeast, we could look back and see the tall mountains of Glacier fading in the distance. In front of us were the high plains of Big Sky Country Montana. The first big city we drove through was Great Falls. Sorry, we didn’t see any falls. We got into Billings a couple of hours before sunset, and found our way through town to the Wal-Mart. We had called ahead to Wal-Mart to make sure it was O.K. to spend the night, so we won’t be stuck. We saw another trailer unhitched and one with the slides out, so we thought it would be O.K. to let out our slides. We decided to park on the one side of the parking lot towards the back and try to attract as little attention as possible. We went into Wal-Mart to buy a few things. Inside was a McDonalds (not my favorite), so we decided to get a quick meal. I have never seen any restaurant with that many flies! They were everywhere, landing on both us and our food. Back in the parking lot, I wanted to turn on our air conditioner, so that meant running the generator, but with the other noises in the parking lot, one could hardly hear it. The parking lot was well lighted and there was a private security car, so we felt safe. We were awakened in the night by the sound of the street sweeper going up & down the parking lot. When he came by our trailer, what a roar! Well, what do you want for free camping, but did sweeper night have to be the on the very night we were staying?