Day 8..

Weather still just blue sky.. headed down (Eastish) on12 beside the Clearwater river.. apparently it is the route that Lewis and Clark used as they crossed the continent.. took them something over three years to complete the return.. seems pretty quick when you look at the distance. Anyway. nice drive, although as we have found here.. everything is BIG. even the roadworks.. and they extended for something over 10 miles, and included a number of stops, where you have to wait for the pilot vehicle to arrive to drive in front!!

Speed limit on the road was 50 0r 55, so as we round a corner at about 65 we get a nice friendly "slow down " wave from the law.. !!! even flashed his lights at us once we'd passed and he could see the brake lights on!! :) yippeee for Montana, as that was only a few miles further and the limit is 70mph.. much more like it.

Just before crossing the state line, climbing a long mountain pass through a cypress forest, we round a corner and heres mrs Bamby and two little bambies!!! how cute! and this is like 11 in the morning.. too slow with the camera, but just a little further on and another one (mule deer I think) stands and looks at me while I get a photo or 3.. probably thinking "bloody tourist". Nice to see. Had to wonder if the last one was going to end up in someones freezer shortly, as just prior to seeing it, a couple of guys in the ubiquitous pickup went past opposite direction going very slow.. reckon they were considering going back to "harvest" (we call it shooting) that one!!!

After the very slow trip along 12, it was great to make a few miles, sometimes having the traffic moving along at 80+mph.. chews up the distance nicely.

Now we are at another KOA just north of Yellowstone, and plan to get some supplies and maybe spend a day or three there and even get down in to Grand Teton. Have to make sure we don't have fruit and nice smelly stuff that can attract bears..!! don't fancy being woken up with a grizly trying to get into out little plastic fridge. Must include the "bear spray" in the shopping.

Had tiny little bats flying around last night.. Initially thought they were large moths.. and woke up early this morning to the sound of a couple of owls chatting to eachother quite close to our van.. nice spot. Oh.. and just had a deer trot past about 30 metres away with a border collie giving chase.. the deer didn't look at all worried!

Not much on the road kill list.. only one deer and a couple of coyotes.. in the park here, there is a tiny little mouse thing (flat version) that has nice colouring, probably a lot better prior to meeting mr firestone!