Week 4 continued..... 
After five very busy days in Bigfork we packed up and headed south towards Great Falls Montana (point "I" on the tour map) The countryside has become rather arid and barren. Much of this area is Indian Territory and most of the towns look both poor and untidy. There are lots of run down trailer homes sitting in waist high yellow grass.  Most residences are surrounded by four to six old derelict vehicles as well as discarded household appliances and children's toys. It's quite depressing but let's face it..... a similar sad picture of indigenous communities is mirrored in the home countries of most readers of this newsletter.

Great Falls MT was only a one night stand in a B&B in order to avoid a much longer journey to Livingston MT where we stayed for 4 nights. Great Falls will probably be only remembered as the place where we had the worst Chinese meal of our lives served by a rude woman at least as bad as the food.

Talking of rudeness, I have long held that if you stay out of very big cities then America must be about the most friendly and polite nation on earth. Of course rural folks are pretty nice in every country we've ever visited but I think Americans might take the cake. And they are, without a single doubt, the most polite, patient and considerate drivers to be found anywhere on earth. 

In due course we reached Livingston MT (point "J" on the route map) where our rented cottage turned out to be the comfortable but unpretentious old house we had imagined. Livingston seemed a pretty ok kind of western US town and it is only a short easy drive from there to the northern edge of Yellowstone National Park.

Following a washing, ironing and rest day (I know that's rather hard to reconcile), we packed a picnic lunch and set off for a big day in Yellowstone followed by a long looping return journey back to our home base along the famous "Beartooth All American Road". It's a quite famous scenic byway and we've really been looking forward to this part of our adventure.

The town of Gardiner Montana adjoins the northern end of the park but we saw a number of elk and pronghorn antelope just walking around town. I guess the park boundary has little relevance to a hungry animal and the nice green lawns are probably much tastier than the sunburnt grasses throughout much of the Park itself during this incredibly hot summer.

Although we saw a quite large amount of Yellowstone last year, on that occasion it was the southern section. This time we are touring around the northern end of the park but sadly we've picked a bad year. Apparently there was a very small snow fall last winter and that means less water in rivers and lakes throughout the Park. In addition to that, this Summer has been a scorcher so the grasses are not so green and there are fewer wildflowers. The really hot weather also causes the wildlife to lay low for a larger portion of the day. All and all, it's a bit disappointing compared to last year's visit.

In the afternoon we left Yellowstone via the eastern exit near Cook City. We then drove along the Beartooth All American Road which rises to a pass at 11,000 feet before crossing into Wyoming and descending into a valley on the other side. The scenery was fantastic and for almost an hour hour we felt we were literally on the top of the world. This included a period when I explored an unauthorised road which took us up to an incredible view overlooking dozens of mountain peaks below. When I say "unauthorised" I am not talking about officialdom. I'm referring to Lynn who is quite anxious when it comes to dirt roads on the edges of mountains.

Because this road is quite challenging requiring maximum concentration in parts and because there are few places to pull over, we couldn't take many photos. However a group of four shots appears below.

We took a few other excursions out into the countryside from Livingston MT but there's a limit to what I can include in this website. No doubt some of these other adventures will come up in conversation during face to face conversations further down the track.

 Halfway Review 
Although this online website newsletter is only at the halfway mark, our "real time" situation is that we have almost completed six weeks of our tour as at 13th July when this page was published. Unfortunately it's hard to progress the website as fast as our tour schedule. Anyhow, here's a quick and sketchy review of facts and our impressions written from the perspective of now having six weeks under our belts.

Jeep Cherokee
I'm happy enough with our choice and I've adapted to its little idiosyncrasies, especially the highly direct steering which doesn't allow me to take my eyes from the road for more than a few seconds.

Western Roads
Even though we've avoided major highways 95% of the time, the almost deserted country roads are fabulous with few bends and a very good surface most of the time. Australia.... eat your heart out.

Mileage
So far we have travelled 4,100 miles since taking delivery of our rental vehicle. Our basic contract included only 4,000 miles and all extra miles after that cost us 25 cents per mile. It's obvious that I'll have to hand over extra money at the end of the trip but I am still confident that I'll be better off than If I had selected an unlimited mileage contract via Hertz, Avis or similar large rental companies. I'll let you know how things panned out in due course.

The Weather
It's been really very hot since we arrived in the US at the beginning of June. Temperatures have been pretty much between 29 and 37 degrees Celsius virtually every day. As for rain there have been a couple of episodes lasting 15 - 30 minutes or less, Virtually none in other words.

The People
Universally friendly, kind, helpful and generous to a fault. No surprise to us and one of the many reasons we've visited the US so many times in the past.

The Food
Huge servings, good quality ingredients, fast service, low prices, very predictable, too many flavours loaded in together, not enough menu variety in this part of the country.

Accommodation
Always very spacious, usually good quality beds, free wifi internet access in rooms is almost universal, Better value for money than any other country we've ever visited.

Scenery
Absolutely wonderful and plenty of diversity. It would take more than a lifetime to see it all. Nevertheless, over the years we're seen the highlights in about 30 of the most scenic States. We feel very privileged..

Altitude
We've been above 4,000 feet for 100% of the last six weeks. Most of our days have been spent above 5,000 feet and we've been well above that elevation on dozens of occasions. So far the highest we've been is 11,000 feet. We've managed most of this pretty well but neither of us can handle sleeping much above 6,000 feet. I become extremely breathless and really gasp, even when I try to sleep in a propped up position. Part of this is the result of a lifetime at sea level and partly it's age, However, I can't ignore the fact that I am quite overweight and also take certain medications which are designed to play around with my heart rate and blood pressure. Anyhow, today is both Friday 13th and the day we drive down into Colorado where the mountains are really high. We had figured on being pretty acclimatised by now but it hasn't worked out that way. Still we won't be sleeping really high so I'm fairly optimistic.

Driving
I've always been impressed by how law abiding, courteous, considerate and downright civilized 99.9% of drivers are here in the US. Better and safer than anywhere else I've ever been. If you've previously been afraid to drive in the US, you shouldn't be. However if you wish to play it super safe you should avoid interstate highways where there are heaps of semi's and cars either two, three or four abreast doing 120 kph (number of lanes varies depending on traffic density).