Over Some Rivers, Through Montana, to Grandmother's House We Go

On the next leg of our trip we drove through Montana. We made just a few stops and stayed the night in Bozeman, which seems like a really cool town. I can see why my sister didn't want to move away from it. Along our route we were in search of a location for our future retirement cabin.

I think this little Valley would be quite nice. Don't you agree?

What's that? Oh, you don't think snow is fun for "SPRING" break? Neither do I, but snow we found. And it was cold and blindingly bright. This is the Big Hole National Battle Field. It was really interesting and of course Trum earned another junior ranger's badge. If you enlarge the photo you can see that he is wearing them all at once. This site is just ever so slightly out of the way, so I don't think they get too many kids visiting. When Trum got his badge they loaded him down with lots of other free stuff. He loved it!

We left Montana and headed into the home state of Idaho!!! We stopped at my sister Jodi's house for a short visit and then we went on to Grandma & Grandpa Rowe's house. Where we proceeded to treat Trum to all the good time Idaho fun he could handle.

#1 Hot Tubing in some super cold Idaho mountain air.

#2 Shooting guns. Of course.

Jack gives instruction.

A manly procession to check the results.

Trum, it turns out, is a good shot. He hit the can with the rifle and then later with the pistol. He also hit another target later, but this story is already getting to be redneckish and if I tell that story it will just head right over the edge.

 That's right, I shot the gun as well.

Jack getting crazy with the pistol. Do you think his work should know about this?

#3 Horsey rides.

Started off being led.

 Then riding with Dad.

Then all on his own. He was feeling pretty good about himself.
Yee Haw!

Rowe Spring Break 2012 (i.e. the annual trek across many US states)

Well, as is becoming our tradition, when spring break rolls around we get itchy feet and just feel a need to wander. This year our wanderlust lead us through Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota again and then back to Wisconsin. Most would say we are crazy, we just say we are adventurous.

So our first stop was the great state of North Dakota. We had never been there and it isn't really a place we envisioned ourselves having a reason to visit at any point in the future, so we figured we had better include it in our road trip. Now we can include it on our list of US states we have visited.
I have to say we quite enjoyed ourselves in Northern Dakota. We visited some great historical sites and national parks. Plus Jack counted, like, 50 pheasants in one day while driving and thinks he should go back and try to shoot 1 or 2.

Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center & Fort Mandan

 (Near Bismark,ND)

Haven't you always longed to visit the place where Lewis & Clark met the Mandan people and to a replica of their fort and to learn about the way of life of the Mandan people and to debate the correct pronunciation of Sacajawea's name? Well we did and so we just took ourselves to a place where all of that could happen!

 Who doesn't love playing dress up? Not Jack, that's for sure.

Interactive displays??? Count me in!!

 Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site

First Junior Ranger Badge of the trip!

Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Jack has been reading about Teddy quite a bit lately, so of course we had to stop at his national park. It is where Teddy ranched and hunted and is a northern section of the Badlands.

Jack looking tough? thoughtful? in Teddy's actual cabin.

Quiz for the day: What are these types of rock formations called?

Wildlife of the park.

 I should have taken a picture of the ticks we had on us after our hike. They were certainly a part of the wildlife we experienced.

Trum gets his second Junior Ranger Badge.

See! North Dakota is cool and we just didn't know it!