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It is +17 C with a high forecast of +36 C.
See current forecast here. See current news here.This page last updated on: Sunday, July 6, 2008 3:32 PM
Today will be a big day. One way or the other we will decide whether or not to purchase a truck pop-up camper.
The hotel provides a free breakfast (we even get to indicate what we want from a menu).
Then we will drive over to the RV dealer just after they open at 9 am. Depending on how long this takes we will then either visit a few shops and attractions in Helena or drive over to Missoula where there are a couple of highly rated bird-watching areas.
Basically a good day. We had a good breakfast at the Days Inn and then headed over to the RV dealer to have a look at the truck campers. It was an instructive and valuable hour, the end result being a clear decision to not buy one. There was much more involved in getting the truck ready (e.g. the base for the 5th wheel hitch had to be removed and a set of "air bags" installed that would allow one to ensure that the weight was properly distributed over the two axles). It would take at least a week before they would be able to have everything ordered and installed. I was not that impressed with the quality of workmanship on the unit and I was surprised at the width (about 6" over on each side). The weight of the unit was near the upper limit for our model of truck. All told we now will have more money to spend on something else.
With that decision behind us, we went downtown and walked through the pedestrian walk way and saw a truly beautiful carousel, with hand-carved and hand-painted Montana indiginous animals. I will add a few photos when I get back to Lethbridge.
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We then drove south about 30 miles to Tizer Botanic Gardens where we saw a couple of Western Tanagers (a new lifer for us) as well as a couple of Yellow Warblers.
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We returned to Helena and tried again (we had tried earlier this morning and no one was there) to see about obtaining some birding information from the local Audubon society. This time we were successful. We then went to a local Brew Pub (The Brewhouse Pub & Grill) and had a large hamburger and a fine local brew. After that we drove west to visit another birding area but this turned out to be a total bust. The area was a popular swimming hole, full of people.
We then went to a highly recommended restaurant where we entered the world of black comedy. I ordered a veal parmesan but what arrived was a veal marsala with a portobella mushroom sauce which I didn't like. I asked the waitress to replace my meal while Phyllis ate hers. While I was waiting for my meal I watched the head maitre'd spill a full glass of ice water over a man at the table beside us. A few minutes later he arrived at our table to tell me that he would be bringing my meal in a minute or two. I said that after I watched him at the other table I wasn't sure that was a good idea. The meal finally arrived and was delicious. The waitress indicated that the restaurant was not going to charge for my dinner as I gave the waitress my charge card. But when she returned with the statement the one slip had Phyllis's meal on it and the other slip had a final amount that was about 3 times that and which bore no relationship to anything we had eaten. I showed this to the waitress and she went back to figure out what had happened. She returned and apologized - the amount was for the table beside us. What more can one say?
Then when we returned to the motel the entire road in front of the motel was being ripped up for repaving. We watched (and listened) to the sound of heavy equipment and vehicles.
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The good news is that we had a bottle of Australian red to savour while contemplating what we would do tomorrow.
Here is a list of the books we bought today:
The first two books were bought at a climbing shop while checking to see if they sold GPS receivers. The third book was bought at a local bookstore while looking for the Audubon book. The fourth book is the Audubon book. The final two books (for today) were bought at Costco.