Days 11-14: Glimpse of the Road: Bozeman, MT/Missoula, MT

June 23-24
After hiking and exploring the last of Yellowstone on Monday, we headed to Bozeman, MT.

Poor kid! She keeps biting/sucking on her bottom lip, so the skin right above her chin is a bit chapped. But nothing a little coconut oil can't fix…

("Just put some Windex on it!" Anyone? Anyone? Yes, coconut oil has become our Windex…It's good for just about everything.)

On the way, we stopped at a local drive-up diner to get some [very unhealthy] food for the road because we were exhausted and didn't want to make anything. 

My lovely husband, posing on the hood of Harvey.

We arrived in Bozeman in the evening, and Brannon offered to watch Ember for an hour while I had some alone time at a local coffee shop to catch up on a few things. Bozeman was a neat mountain town with a university, so it was a bit easier to find a cool local coffee shop with good WiFi (we settled on Cold Smoke Coffeehouse).

The three of us took an evening walk and the Bozeman sunset was beautiful as it lit up the mountains across from it.

We slept in a Walmart parking lot that night, and went to the same coffee shop the next morning so Brannon could work. 

After work was finished, we went to Bozeman's cute downtown area to walk around a bit and get a vibe of the town. 

Shortly thereafter, we checked in at Sunrise Campground. We were so tired and worn out from our Yellowstone/Teton excursions that we decided to lay low and get some laundry and camper cleaning done. Sunrise was a simple campground, but it had all the basic amenities that we cared about like full hook-up, electricity, water, and on-site laundry. I barely finished mopping the camper floor when the rain rolled in and we had a nice summer thunderstorm. So I folded the clothes inside on the bed while Ember played next to me, Brannon helped me by washing some dishes, and we put a little bit of Office on in the background (fully appreciating the fact that we had fully charged electronics and internet - a rare thing on this trip).

Folding laundry, playing, and listening to some sweet rainy summertime tunes.

There is nothing sexier than a man doing dishes. ;)

June 25-26
The next morning, I got up and enjoyed a nice read, some good coffee and some great music while Brannon and Ember had daddy/daughter time inside the camper. 

Then we drove to Missoula, MT - a bit closer to Columbia Falls, MT, our next destination where our friends Mandy and Lyam live with their two kiddos Lolah and Xander. Brannon had to work a bit, and our electronics were once again not charged from dry camping the night before. So we followed Google Maps' directions to a local ice cream shop (sounded good on a warm day) while I made us some deli sandwiches in the back (love having a house on wheels). The ice cream shop ended up being outside, which was no help with our dire need for outlets. So we just parked for a bit while we ate our bagel sandwiches and fed Ember some baby food puree for the first time. The carrot/broccoli concoction was all over her - definitely called for a bath afterwards. 

(We're mainly doing "baby led weaning", but decided to try to mix some purees in as well to see what she would think. She was curious, but overall not a fan.) 

After our failed attempt for free outlets failed, we drove to our faithful Starbucks and split a nice Vanilla Rooibos tea while we worked for a bit. 

We dry camped at the Missoula Walmart, and the next morning, found another local coffee shop, Black Coffee Roasting Company, to work. It's really a crapshoot when you try random coffee shops in different cities - sometimes, you get real baristas that are using quality beans and ingredients, and hand you a superb drink that tastes a little bit like heaven. And other times, their "local" brew tastes a lot like they scooped it from a stale Folgers can. But this, this coffee shop knew what they were doing. I had high hopes when I read that they were also a roasting company, and their brew didn't disappoint. SO yummy, and a good kickstart to the day. The place also had a neat vibe - we probably stood out like a sore thumb as it was a small place crawling with regulars, but they welcomed us all the same. It was the day that the US soccer team played in the World Cup against Germany, so they hooked up their big iMac on one of the bars and a small group gathered to watch. 

After we worked, drank, chilled, and watched for awhile, we got back on the road to head to Columbia Falls, MT...

This marks two weeks of living on the road, when before this, we hadn't been out longer than two days. It was a big mystery really - there's only so much research that can be done for not only a trip, but a different way of living. You all of the sudden have a whole different set of things to think about and plan for, a whole new list of challenges to conquer. Fulltiming it in a 21-foot RV that is 30 years old across the Western United States. We're making memories and hopefully writing a better story for our lives...

“And once you live a good story, you get a taste for a kind of meaning in life, and you can't go back to being normal; you can't go back to meaningless scenes stitched together by the forgettable thread of wasted time.”  - Donald Miller, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years