There is a lot of road construction in Montana, and the country is rugged with long distances between cities and even between houses.

 Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls, Montana, hosts the 341st Missile Wing of the Air Force Global Strike Command, responsible for maintaining Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missiles. Most military bases have temporary lodging intended to provide housing for personnel waiting for housing assignments on base or for those attending classes or training. If rooms are available, military personnel and retirees on vacation may use these spaces. Because of John's rank, we are often able to stay in Distinguished Visitor's Quarters, among them this "Rodeo" suite:

 Someone had a lot of fun decorating

 Free laundry was available, so the general wandered down to the laundry room to catch us up for the next leg of our journey.

When the Lewis and Clark expedition reached Great Falls, Montana, they had been warned that there was a large waterfall.  They had to portage around not only this one "great" fall, but around 4 others. What they thought would take 1 day took 18. John gets a feel for the strength necessary to move a canoe around the rapids:

At the Giant Springs, now in a state park, 156 million gallons of water bubble up every 24 hours.

   The "great falls" is still impressive, even with the dam.

    We walked across this bridge to view the falls.

   The Blackfeet Tribe was celebrating North American Indian Days when we arrived at the Holiday Inn Express in Browning, Montana. A rodeo was going on right outside our window,

    including the start of a race!

 
We drove into Glacier National Park on Saturday, July 9th. Share the road!

    Glacier's famous 100 year old red tour buses:

    John talked to one of the drivers who told him that everything is original from the frame up and     everything else has been rebuilt.

    Cannot imagine building the Going to the Sun Highway today, much less during the 1920's.

   We saw these mountain goats near Logan Pass, the highest point on the highway.

   Scientists predict that all of the glaciers in Glacier National Park will have melted by 2030.

    We crossed the Canadian border and passed many canola fields.

    In 1993, Mary and her Mom and Dad took Matthew and Benjamin to Alaska.  John was jealous        when they saw this Lancaster Bomber at the Bomber Command Museum of Canada in Nanton,    Alberta, even though we brought him a shirt. He finally got to see it for himself.

There is a lot of road construction in Montana, and the country is rugged with long distances between cities and even between houses.

 Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls, Montana, hosts the 341st Missile Wing of the Air Force Global Strike Command, responsible for maintaining Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missiles. Most military bases have temporary lodging intended to provide housing for personnel waiting for housing assignments on base or for those attending classes or training. If rooms are available, military personnel and retirees on vacation may use these spaces. Because of John's rank, we are often able to stay in Distinguished Visitor's Quarters, among them this "Rodeo" suite:

 Someone had a lot of fun decorating

 Free laundry was available, so the general wandered down to the laundry room to catch us up for the next leg of our journey.

When the Lewis and Clark expedition reached Great Falls, Montana, they had been warned that there was a large waterfall.  They had to portage around not only this one "great" fall, but around 4 others. What they thought would take 1 day took 18. John gets a feel for the strength necessary to move a canoe around the rapids:

At the Giant Springs, now in a state park, 156 million gallons of water bubble up every 24 hours.

   The "great falls" is still impressive, even with the dam.

    We walked across this bridge to view the falls.

   The Blackfeet Tribe was celebrating North American Indian Days when we arrived at the Holiday Inn Express in Browning, Montana. A rodeo was going on right outside our window,

    including the start of a race!

 
We drove into Glacier National Park on Saturday, July 9th. Share the road!

    Glacier's famous 100 year old red tour buses:

    John talked to one of the drivers who told him that everything is original from the frame up and           everything else has been rebuilt.

    Cannot imagine building the Going to the Sun Highway today, much less during the 1920's.

   We saw these mountain goats near Logan Pass, the highest point on the highway.

   Scientists predict that all of the glaciers in Glacier National Park will have melted by 2030.

    We crossed the Canadian border and passed many canola fields.

    In 1993, Mary and her Mom and Dad took Matthew and Benjamin to Alaska.  John was jealous        when they saw this Lancaster Bomber at the Bomber Command Museum of Canada in Nanton,    Alberta, even though we brought him a shirt. He finally got to see it for himself.

We left for Alaska on July 3, 2016. Our first stop was Houghton Lake and Ken and Sandi's annual 4th of July party:

We drove as far as Gaylord to spend the night, since it was a holiday weekend many hotels further 

north were full. Monday morning we crossed the Mackinaw Bridge and drove to Munising.  We walked to Munising Falls and reminisced about the days before so much worry about liability when you used to be able to walk behind the falls.

 On to Marquette, where we saw this ship loading at the ore dock and walked out on the breakwater.  We wanted to visit some memorabilia and sites related to the movie Anatomy of a Murder (if you haven't seen it, we recommend it!), but the museum was closed for the 4th and we had to get going quickly to avoid being caught in the parade.

 It's a beautiful time of year to travel across the north country:

We spent Monday night in Duluth, Minnesota, and, in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, we stopped to see the house Judy Garland lived in until she was 4 and the museum that had a pair of ruby slippers from the movie stolen in 2005.  They have not been recovered.

 We spent Tuesday night in Bismarck, North Dakota, at a Holiday Inn Express that had only been open for 2 weeks. Our stay was free using reward points from the IHG (parent company of Holiday Inn) Rewards Club. Fort Abraham Lincoln, near Bismarck was home to George Custer before he rode out to the Little Big Horn.  The house in the right foreground is where he and Libby lived.  The other buildings are stables, granaries, barracks, etc. rebuilt to appear as they did in the 1870's.

 There is a replica Mandan Indian village on the site of Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park:

 Much of the site was developed and improved by the Civilian Conservation Corps, part of Franklin Roosevelt's plan to help the US out of the Great Depression. This statue is a tribute to the CCC and the work they did here:

 Again, the wildflowers are beautiful:

 New Salem, North Dakota claims they have the largest cow in the world:

  John took care of a concern he had about driving the Alcan-he was afraid he'd get a stone thrown that would chip the windshield. We not only caught a stone today, but the chip is running across the windshield.

 The landscape grows more rugged

  as we approach

 Theodore Roosevelt visited North Dakota in 1883 to escape his grief at the deaths of his wife and mother. He so loved the area that he returned the next year and bought a ranch.This was his ranch house:

 We saw prairie dogs:

  A herd of buffalo:

  Amazing scenery:

  This lone bull who had no interest in us:

  And feral horses:

We saw pronghorn antelope and mule deer along the road before we crossed into Montana, big sky country:

 and enjoyed another free night at a Holiday Inn Express in Glendive, MT.