Hey everyone!

So our first day of travel is over, and we didn’t get quite as far as we would have liked…  We were aiming for Idaho Falls, Idaho, but ended up in Helena, MT.  A late start, coupled with a shorter day of driving brought us up a little short.  But that’s ok, we’ll make it up on Sunday!

The first day was mostly uneventful…  My test of Tom Tom guidance software running on the Palm was mediocre at best… The Palm would frequently run out of memory and randomly crash, and when it did so, it seemed to corrupt the map data for whatever area you were in…  When this happened, every time you would load Tom Tom while you were still in that area, the map would just crash…  Tom Tom will no longer navigate Medicine Hat, AB, Taber AB, or Helena, MT… it just crashes if I try!

We had no trouble getting across the border, aside from some remarks of how we were traveling to the city of Lost Wages…  The inspector did ask why we were travelling with invalid passports, to which we replied “Huh?!”  He then showed us the passports, with our unsigned signature lines plainly visible, and jokingly said “You’re government puts a signature line there for a reason!”  Oops.

We found the trip through Montana to be quite scenic, especially after passing Great Falls and moving on to Helena.  The twisting roads through the mountains were an entertaining ride, and had Chantale freaking out (I do NOT drive too fast, really).  We snapped lots of pictures from the car, and stopped at a scenic area to grab some more…  The picture above was taken just after Great Falls at a scenic point.

We finally ended up in Helena, MT, one of the most confusing cities I’ve ever driven around…  Just trying to find a hotel was a nightmare…  The Quality Inn and Super 8 would not honour their coupons from the book, stating that the rooms at those rates were all gone.  Extremely annoying, especially considering their parking lots were almost empty.  What, do they have three rooms at that rate?  The Motel 6 right across the street though was happy to see us, and gave us a room for their advertised price, which ended up being less than the other two hotels!  And I must say I’m quite impressed with the room… small, but clean, and very quiet here!  I recommend Motel 6 in Helena if you’re passing through… Only about $60 per night after tax!

Anyways, time for another day of driving…  Will check in tonight!

Categories: Vacation
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