Montana's on Fire!

We were a little sad to leave our camping spot at Liberty Lake, Washington. But they were already completely booked on the weekend when we called for reservations over a month ago. So we loaded up on Saturday morning to hit the road towards the east along I-90. Just a few miles later, we crossed the Idaho border.

We visited the Idaho panhandle when we went to Coeur d'Alene a few days ago, but this is a new state for the motor home. As we drove by today, we could once again see the beautiful blue water of Lake Coeur d'Alene. Driving beside it for many miles, we got a better feel for just how big this lake is.

From our earlier bike ride along the lake, we had taken pictures of the tall Veteran's Memorial Bridge. Now we were crossing that bridge, looking down on the road and the bike path along the lake. We can see that path in the right hand side of the picture below.

The panhandle of Idaho is around 80 miles wide at this point, and we wanted to drive further than that. So we zipped across the state without a stop. We did note the beautiful green hills full of healthy pine trees. We'll be back for a longer stay another time.

We crossed the second state border sign in a single day. Welcome to Montana! There was also a sign along the highway reminding us to move our clocks forward an hour since we just moved into the Mountain Time Zone. After almost five months in Pacific Time, it was nice to move an hour up.

Our drive today was lovely, but we put our diesel motor to work. We first climbed the Fourth of July Pass, which took us straight up and then straight back down the pass. We also enjoy the work that the diesel engine brake does in bringing us back down a steep pass.

The next pass was more gradual, but higher in elevation. The mountains look bigger, but these passes are only four to five thousand feet. By early afternoon we got to our destination for a one-night stay. We had read about the Lincoln Silver Dollar Bar and Casino with its free RV park. We are used to staying in casino parking lots with no hook-ups, but these people even provide free electricity. We arrived on a very warm Saturday afternoon to find that this secret was out, and the place was packed!

We couldn't even read the "Park Free" signs for all the RVs clustered around the poles with the electrical outlets. This electrical pole was strangely vacant, but then we heard tales of breakers blowing and electrical plugs melting here. The summer heat was over-taxing that free electricity.

We took a walk into the store at the 50,000 Silver Dollar Casino that we had seen advertised on all the billboards along the interstate. Two bus-loads of Asian tourists had just been deposited here, and the parking lot was full of cars looking for the only bathroom stop along this stretch of the road.

Its claim to fame is the large collection of silver dollars that were started in 1951. When the Lincolns moved here, they realized that people needed an attraction to get them to stop off the interstate. At that time, the local loggers and miners were paid in silver dollars. So they started cutting round holes in the bar and hammering silver dollars into it. By 1953, they had over 2,000 coins as people inscribed their names beneath their donated coin. So they changed the name to "Lincoln's 2,000 Silver Dollar Bar."

The name has changed to reflect the growing collection of coins. They stopped with name changes at 50,000, but the latest count is actually 71,047. There are dollars lining the tables and walls, and embedded in boards hanging from the ceiling. There are 10,623 REAL silver dollars. The rest are Eisenhower dollars that represent donors from all 50 states and 43 foreign countries.

This place is in a pretty remote location. With no phone signal, we decided it wouldn't be a fun afternoon in the heat with no electricity. So we decided to head on down the road to our next destination. We were about an hour across the border when we saw our first curious-looking cloud. But we know that clouds are supposed to be suspended in the air, and this one was coming from the ground. That can't be good.

The cloud got bigger as we drove down I-90, and the mountain views got hazier. This was obviously not a cumulus cloud, this was a cloud of smoke.

There was a flashing sign beside the the interstate with messages of "fire danger ahead" and "don't stop in the smoke." Eventually we were totally engulfed in smoke, and the mountains in front of us were barely visible in the haze.

When we got straight across from the most intense smoke, we could actually see the source of fire, with blue skies in front of it, and dark smoke pouring out from the top of the mountain.

A close-up shows the actual fire coming from the mountain tops just south of the interstate. This new fire seems to be getting dangerously close to the interstate.

We are still 60 miles from our destination of Missoula, Montana. So we figured that we would be far enough from this blaze that the air would be clear by the time we got there. What we didn't understand was the number of fires in this area. We're sure this is a beautiful drive on a blue-sky day. But it was depressingly sad today with all the smoke hanging in the air. We got glimpses of its splendor through the haze, with the Clark Ford River running beside the interstate.

We found that the lovely city of Missoula is in a valley, ringed by grand mountains on all sides. But those mountains form a bowl that actually holds the smoke in. The encircling mountains are but a shadow in the haze as we drove into town.

We talked to several locals, who explained that this situation is common here. The winds bring the smoke into this valley, where it settles. It can get much worse than this, but it does seem to be happening earlier than usual this year. One local explained the haze by simply saying, "All of Montana's on fire." The only good thing we can find to this situation is the brilliantly glowing sunsets here. The smoke in the air turns the sun to a fluorescent-coral-ball that is beautiful to behold.

We are in Missoula for an appointment we've had for some time. So we'll sit a couple days in smoky Missoula, hoping for the best. But the hot, dry weather isn't our friend, as we decided to boondock here. It seems like that didn't go so well a week ago, and Denisa insisted we wouldn't do that again until the weather cooled?!? To complicate the matter, we can't get breezes through the motor home by opening windows because of the smoke. It's was a hot night in Missoula while Montana's on fire!