Great Falls

Tonight we are in Great Falls, Montana. We have been here many times and it's always good to get back. This is Lewis and Clark country. Many of the places were named by Lewis, during that historic expedition over 200 years ago. Hence we passed the Madison River, Jefferson Island and Jefferson City, the Gallatin River (he was Secretary of the Treasury at the time), and more along the way today. The drive was quite scenic and the fabled "Big Sky" country, that makes Montana famous, was glorious.

Several years ago we decided to see the "Great Falls" for which this city was named. We drove along the Missouri River for a few miles and we could not see any falls. We finally went to the Lewis and Clark Interpretative Center and asked, "Where are the falls?" We were told they were dammed in 1898 but they had a picture of them. Indeed they were great falls...five cascades of water that could be heard for miles. It took the Lewis and Clark Expedition 31 days to portage around the falls as they were so big. Nowadays, there are 5 hydroelectic dams and the bedrock that indicates where the cascades were.

This summer we are playing with a new toy. It's a Garmin Nuvi GPS, which I named "Gypsy." Gypsy started the day by giving us a novel set of directions to Great Falls from West Yellowstone. We looked at a map and concluded to give "her" directions a try. The first turn took us on a narrow 2 lane road without shoulders. We looked on the map and it did look like a viable option, so we continued. About 3 miles later, the narrow road devolved into a narrow gravel road. We are driving a 53 foot truck and trailer which are not suited for gravel roads. Our new problem now was to find a place to turn our vehicle around, which we did a mile or so later. We drove back to the main highway and got the maps out, re-navigated our course, and changed Gypsy's name to "Stupid." Contrary to what Garmin says about throwing away your maps and using a GPS, don't throw your maps away. On the other hand, "Stupid" did find places for fuel and food. We learned you have to give the right directions to a GPS in order to navigate well with one. My friend Phyllis has a Magellan GPS unit which she calls Maggy on good days and Naggy on bad days. I now know why!