Logging Road MILES!

June 24, 2015   Logging MILES!

I opened my eyes and saw the gorgeous bright orange sunlight breaking into the window of the XB II and jumped up outta bed. Still sick as a dog, I forced some coffee into my system and started on the DayQuil medicine. By lunchtime I was forced to stop for some cough drops but not after Diezel and I found a river to swim in near North Logan, Utah. Diezel loves to swim and our rule is to find him some swim spots twice a day.

I stopped at Rock Slide Engineering in Logan, Utah to pick up an aluminum shelf I bought for the XB II Camper and the boys their showed off some impressive components they had developed. One in particular was a Step Slider system that doubles as a step, as well as a rock slider. It is an amazing component but it also has a steep price tag of $2000 for a set for the truck! That’s a lot of diesel fuel for the truck!

We cruised up through Highway 91 north towards Pocatello, Idaho following the backcountry on the border of Utah and Idaho. It’s a fantastic side route with plenty of places to fish and camp on both sides of the valley.

With miles to make we pounded northeast towards Butte, Montana along the Montana landscape. Montana is just beautiful and while I’ve been through Montana many times, it just keeps getting better. The time was 4:30 pm, which is quite early for road tripping, but it was a long haul today and with not feeling totally up to par I felt it was time to find a place for the night. I spyed a river and followed it a ways and found a little campground with a few people camped. Diezel swam while I met the neighbors and swapped Army stories. Actually met a fellow who was assigned to the same Ski Patrol unit I was but after I had already discharged from the US Army.

One of the most majestic drives in Montana has to be between Butte and Great Falls. The Missouri river valley is stunning….I don’t want to ruin it for anyone, so I will only say if you haven’t done it you should and you should plan a couple days.

Diesel fuel is so cheap outside the US of California. Recently the price of diesel fuel at home has been dropping but not like the rest of the country. Cheapest I found was $2.52 cents a gallon. As a matter of fact, today I filled up in some random town so I could let the dog out and run around and I topped off at less than $75 dollars. Amazing!

Laughter and stories continued until Diezel was exhausted from swimming and he needed some dinner before I crawled into my comfy bed in the XB II.   Still sick and not feeling up to par I hammered some Nyquil and I was out!