Day 35 & 36-July 3 & 4

After spending almost 2 weeks roughing it we decided it was time to stop where we could have all the amenities of home, including Wi-Fi so that I could catch up the blog.  We stopped for the night in Virginia City, MT. It is an interesting small town that has maintained many of the original buildings from the late 1800's when the town was booming while there was placer mining in the area.  There was only one slight problem.  The Wi-Fi signal was too weak to pick-up.  Better luck next time.
On the road again with no specific destination in mind.   We are expected in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho on the 9th for a short visit with my brother, George, until then we are just rambling and seeing the sights.   A call to our daughter Clare to wish her a happy birthday, then it is off to find where we will view this year's fireworks display. According to our map there is a cut-off road that would take us from Alder over to Dillon.  Sounded good to us since we do like to take the road less traveled. We certainly did this time.  It was 33 miles of dirt road and our max speed was about 12 miles an hour.   The road followed a nice little mountain stream as it wove its way up and over the mountains.  At about mile 26 we came upon a large scale mining operation that we later learned was a talc mine.  It was unbelievable to see how much earth was being moved just to get some baby powder.  Mid-afternoon found us in Dillon, Montana.  We decided to enjoy the luxury of full hook-up and Wi-Fi again so we joined fellow travelers at the Countryside RV Park. After getting set-up and fixing a light supper we went into town to see the fireworks display.  You have to be tough to watch fireworks this far north.  The official start of the cities display wasn't until 10:30.  We followed the crowd down to the softball field and pulled-up for a front row seat.  Luckily it seems that the residence of Dillon don't hesitate to purchase plenty of fireworks to help with the Independence Day celebration.  We were kept well entertained for the hour or so we waited for the show to begin.  It was a beautiful night and the fireworks display was well worth the wait.

One of the many beautifully restored homes in Virginia City.

Nevada City, a mile down the road, has many buildings built in the late 1800's.

Many of the old buildings in Virginia City are stocked as they would have been 100 years ago.



Out in the middle of nowhere, again!



The scenery ranged from sagebrush to mountain top views.

The talc mine.

Pretty sunset before the fireworks.

Happy 4th!