Right now we are sitting in a campground in Great Falls, Montana. But let me start from the beginning.

When we left Edmonton, it was a sunny but very windy day. It was great to finally see the sun after all that rain. We worked our way toward the border over good roads. The mountains were in our rear view mirror as we drove through farmland covered with beautiful canola flowers. Everywhere we looked the bright yellow flowers coated the landscape. Apparently Canada produces 17% of the world’s canola. Most is used for oil but some is now produced for biofuels. Cattle and horse farms spread over the vast plains.

Canola Fields

We decided to stop at a small town called Nanton (population 2,124) because they had a Bomber Command Museum Of Canada. The centerpiece of this museum that housed WWII aircraft and artifacts was the 1945 Lancaster Bomber, one of the few in the world that is still in existence. We walked through the 26,000 foot museum amazed at the planes and vehicles that were used by both the Canadians and the American flyers. It was quite an experience.

Lancaster Bomber

After lunching at a small park in Nanton, AB we continued south through Calgary picking up the Rockies to the west of us. For the night, we camped at one of the nicest places yet—in Ft. Macloed, Alberta. The large spaces were bordered by the plains, the Rockies and the foothills. The wind blew continuously keeping the mosquitoes at bay and cooling the intense sun. Windmills skirted the landscape taking full advantage of the strong breezes.

Farmhouse across from our campground

Windmills with the Rockys in the background

This morning we crossed into Montana happy to, at last, be back in the states. We picked a narrow 2 lane road that would take us to Glacier National Park. We knew that we could only travel 13.5 miles into the Going to the Sun Road because of excessive snow on the roads but we decided to go anyway. We saw uprooted trees strewn about by recent avalanches and snow on the ground.  We saw snow capped mountains and glaciers. And St. Mary’s Lake. We only wish we could have traveled further into the park.

Statue at the US border

View at Glacier National Park

St. Mary's Lake at Glacier

On our way to Great Falls I saw the most incredible color formation in the sky. It had the colors of the rainbow but didn’t “bow”.  I’ve never seen anything like it before but it was beautiful.

Rainbow Sky in Montana

After another 150 miles we loaded up with groceries at the Wal Mart in Great Falls, MT and now sit relaxed after a dinner of steak, mushrooms, salad and wine. Life is definitely good!