We took advantage of our first morning back in the Homeland to stop at Safeway and restock our larder. Afterwards, we drove by the capital building and would have taken a picture or two but couldn't find a place to park. On the narrow streets, we were lucky to find a place to turn the RV around.
We gassed up on the way out of town and it was mid-afternoon before we needed to fill up again. By then we had reached Billings, Montana's largest city. There was a gas station near the exit, but I missed the turn to get to it and continued on into the city. Finding another station, however, took awhile, and by the time we did, we were totally lost, though it took another 5 minutes or so driving around to realize it. We finally found a Lutheran church with an empty parking lot and pull in. The road atlas insert for Billings was the size of a post-it note and had proven useless and Google Maps seemed like our last option, if we could get an internet connection, which was no sure thing. The search for gas has once again sent our stress levels soaring.
Suddenly, Nancy saw someone come out of the church and bolted from the RV. She caught him just as he was getting in his pickup and asked for directions. When he found out where we were headed, he told her to just follow him. At the first intersection, he apparently forgot he was leading us and turned the corner on a yellow light. The cross traffic started to move, but there was no way I was going to lose him, so I gunned the RV and ran the light. I didn't have the luxury of a wide slow turn and the right rear wheels jumped the curb, opening cupboards and dumping a Costco size container of biscotti on Nicole's head.
He took us right through downtown Billings during the evening rush hour, but in about 15 minutes he had us back on the Interstate and on our way.
Grateful but drained, we were glad our destination for tonight was just 40 miles further down the road.
Day 11
Helena, Montana to Hardin, Montana
Daily Mileage: 299.1
Total Mileage: 2,896.9
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