Helena, MT
Tuesday, September 10
We woke up in an alpaca field! There’s something you can’t say everyday.
Tuesday morning, we all got up around 6:30am. Tory and Aden bee-lined it outside to greet the alpacas milling about in the field near our RV while Andi and I took turns showering and getting ready for the day in the RV. The kids were pretty unsure about sleeping with the alpacas when we first arrived at Sentinal Ranch, but I was fairly sure we’d have to pry them away from this place. What a unique experience!
Andi called the kids back to the RV when breakfast was ready. He made them pancakes, and then we packed up and headed North toward Helena, Montana about 90 minutes away.
The drive to Helena, Montana’s capitol city, was an uneventful one. When we arrived, Andi found a parking spot downtown and took Aden to grab some lunch to-go for all of us while Tory and I stayed back in the RV to do school.
The boys grabbed lunch to-go from Nosh Cafe and also grabbed something to eat for dinner as we’d likely be rolling into our campground tonight at dinnertime. We weren’t sure where we planning to stay yet, but Andi figured we wouldn’t be in the mood for cooking after driving most of the day.
After lunch, I worked on letters and numbers with Aden while Tory journaled in her school notebook. She wasn’t very thrilled about her task of write four sentences about our travels so far, and drug her feet big-time getting started. Later, I noticed she wrote on one page, “I do not want to write in this notebook.” Once she got started writing though, we couldn’t get her to stop! Isn’t that always the way with kids?
Tory asked to borrow my phone and researched and wrote about alpacas. She basically copied Wikipedia, but that’s OK — the point of me asking her to write in her journal was for her to practice writing, and she did just that. Plus, extra bonus points for researching an expository topic? Hopefully she learned a thing or two.
After school, we went geocaching in downtown Helena. The town of Helena has a long history of treasure hunting. Back in 1864, four miners down on their luck gave it “one last chance” and struck gold in this area. The town celebrates its claim to fame calling Main Street “Last Chance Gulch.” There are tons of modern day treasure hunts — geocaches — hidden around town, so we set out to find a few of them.
The first geocache we searched for took us to a sketchy part of downtown Helena. After reading the comments other geo hunters left, Andi said he thought we should move onto another location.
“I don’t think the geocache is at this location anymore, kids. The comments say there might be a homeless person living in its spot instead,” Andi said.
“There’s a homeless person living in the geocache!, Tory exclaimed. “It must be a pretty big container if a person can fit into it.”
We continued searching for geocaches in downtown Helena. It took us a few minutes to find the next one hidden between a retaining wall and a bush. Aden discovered it first, and was so proud of his searching skills. Inside the cache, the kids added their names to the log book and swapped plastic trinkets with those inside the cache. I think the little toys inside is their favorite part.
We found a couple more geocaches, and also browsed a few downtown stores as well. One of them was a coffee shop / mercantile that sold all kinds of toys, soaps and gifts. Andi told the kids they could each pick out a treat and Aden opted for a potato gun instead of candy. He was so excited.
Helena is a sleepy small town with only 32,000 people. Downtown on a Tuesday afternoon was quiet. We had a fun afternoon scootering around the sidewalks geocaching though. It was a perfect “city” activity to do.
Around 5:00pm, we said good-bye to Helena and drove 40 minutes north to Holter Lake Recreation Area. I can imagine this place gets very busy during the summer months because it’s absolutely beautiful. And, being only 40 minutes from Helena and Great Falls, it would be an easy weekend trip “to the lake” if you lived in town. Holter Lake is the first time we’ve seen a taste of “cabin country” in Montana. There were all kinds of recreational activities to do here — fishing, boating, swimming and hiking.
Unfortunately, it was too cold for us to do any of those things. We claimed a campsite and settled in for the evening. The kids ran outside to play. Aden scootered around the paved roads of the nearly-empty campground while Tory made paper airplanes.
When it started to rain again, we retreated back to the RV. Andi and I ate leftover Indian food for dinner and the kids had burritos and hot dogs. Then we fired up Little House on the Prairie on DVD and settled in for a movie night. Great ending to a low-key day.
Tomorrow — Glacier National Park!
