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Russell Country Travel BlogDriving With Dixie - The Postlude
Dixie says goodbye to our blog and shares a few more thoughts with us. As we reflect on the last 6 days, we'd first like to say "We made it all the way through the Montana Dinosaur Trail in just six days! It is do-able and fun". Our mileage was close to 1,500 miles across some amazingly varied terrain.I wish everyone could enjoy the state of Montana. It is beautiful. On our last day we drove from Glacier to Yellowstone and that alone was a treat. Our budget for gas and motel came to about $800 and then our rented van will be about $500. It would have cost less If we had a large enough vehicle or a camper and wouldn't have needed to rent a van.
Here are a few more we'd like to share.
The first one is at the new Wildlife Museum in Chinook.
As we have followed along on Driving With Dixie, its easy to realize that this trip could have been titled Traveling With a Couple of Movin' Grandmas. Or Groovin' Grannies, or...well, you can come up with your own title for these special ladies! Thanks for the memories Dixie.
Read/Post Comments Driving With Dixie - Final Day
Hi everyone. We made it! We have completed the Montana Dinosaur Trail! It was great.
We traveled from southeast Montana to northeast Montana, then followed US Hwy 2 from Glasgow, almost to the junction of US Hwy 2 and US Hwy 89. We worked our way south along the Rocky Mountain Front, then traveled to Harlowton, near the center of the state. Our last trek was to Bozeman. At the beginning of our trip we purchased Montana Dinosaur Trail passports (available at any of our dino facilities) and at each location we visited we had an official "passport stamp". Each museum has their own unique stamp so,what a collection we have. The weather was perfect! The motels had our rooms ready, gas prices were moderate, the pools were welcoming and the dinosaurs were awesome in each facility. Debbie and I have blogged each day. Sending photos has been a little challenging but we've managed to have quite a few posted. Creating memories, well, those are permanently posted in young and old alike. Priceless. Wishing you great times along the Montana Dinosaur Trail...Dixie, Debbie and grandsons
Read/Post Comments Day Four - Driving With Dixie
Anolther lovely day on the Montana Dinosaur Trail with my sister and the three handsome grandsons! We left Shelby this morning and made it all the way to Bozeman with several adventures and awesome decisions to make in all the gift shops...what choices! The drive to Bynum started with not one cloud in the sky and the spectacular Bob Marshall Wilderness across our windshield. There were green fields and oil wells alongside cattle and horses and once in a while a grazing flock of sheep...and to think this all used to be an ocean, a tropical forest teeming with diverse plants and animals.
By the way, it hasn't really seemed all that far. The stories behind the discoveries of all the dinosaurs we have seen have been up front and personal each day in each museum we have visited! The boys also enjoyed the Rock Shop next to Two Medicine Dinosaur Museum in Bynum.
When we went into the museum they welcomed us with cookies, the mayor was there, and Dana, a museum board member greeted us and showed us the informative displays. "My,what big feet you have" is one comment I heard, as there are magnificent foot prints of different dinos there. There is a great replica of an embedded maiasaur with his head turned out looking at us when we stood there. That was intimidating! His eye seemed to just keep looking at us...oh, on to lunch! Leaving Choteau, we headed to Great Falls, then to the Upper Musselshell Museum in Harlowton. We saw the Missouri River in Great Falls, the surreal wind farm outside of Judith Gap and then it was on to our second to the last museum to get our Dino Trail passports signed.
They have an antique coke machine (big hit with the boys) and, when you visit, be sure to go up to the second floor. You will be amazed to find the biggest collection of Milwaukee model trains in North America! It isn't completely set up but we got a sneak peak. The man started collecting when he was about six years old when he received a train as a gift from his grandparents. The collection is a tribute to them and an honor for the museum to have to share with the public. Each car of the train is numbered and labeled with its name, the date it was in use, and what it was used for. We were fascinated by those that had electricity connections.
Here's a nice photo of our shoppers at the Upper Musselshell gift shop in Harlowton. We are going to the Museum of the Rockies tomorrow. I am excited to show the boys the hall of horns since I haven't seen it yet myself. Dixie, Debbie and the grandsons Read/Post Comments Driving With Dixie - Candid Comments
We've been posting most of Dixie's comments but every now and then one doesn't make it. Her last email had some light hearted humor, just enough to let us know that things really are going well on this multi-generational vacation that has a lot of windshield time. Here's Dixie's closing thoughts at the end of yesterday's email sent from Shelby, MT. Here are some photos. We are TIRED, happy, clean and shiny. And, ready for the final leg of our adventure. It feels so good when the wireless works at the same time the camera works, and the van works, and guess what...the curling iron works also! All is right with the world. Dixie Instead of dubbing this trip Driving With Dixie maybe we should have called it On The Road With a Tech-Savvy Grandma! You go girl!
Read/Post Comments Driving With Dixie - Day Three
From Fort Peck to Malta is a drive of only 1 1/2 hours. At the Great Plains Dinosaur Musem in Malta, Brentton and Jake thought that the Leonardo replica was very authentic looking. THey have seen the actual fossil of Leo many times and were impressed with the way it was being painted.
At the Phillips County Museum (next door to the Great Plains) in Malta, the T-rex was compared with the Albertosaurus in size. The newly updated displays were fresh and lovely. I particularly liked the way the displays were color coordinated. And, the other treat for all of us was that we got to see great grandma and our other sister Dee, her daughter Jessie, and her year-old grand baby! Elvis, the brachyolophosaurus, was in the usual pristine condition too. The kids were awed by the meteors since one of them had written a report on them during school. We stopped at the newspaper office in Malta and gave an interview for the Phillips County News.
Of course, the whole town is getting ready for a high school reunion so new displays were being installed for that. They have a nice book store in the gift shop. Lots of books on history, natural science and dinosaurs!
Then, an extra adventure was in store for us with a trip up the street to the Blaine County Wildlife Museum.
We also were able to talk to a reporter from the Blaine County Journal newspaper about our dinosaur trip.
Our next stop was the Clack Museum in Havre. They were having a contest to name the new baby dinosaur and we voted on the name we thought was best.
In Rudyard, Lila Redding gave a tour of the Rudyard Depot Museum Dinosaur Hall with the Pteranodons and the Maiasaura nest. All of the different types of fossils from the same ranch and others in that area are phenomenal. For me, one unique area of the Depot Museum Dinosaur Hall was the collection of unusual rocks and little teeth, small bones and claws. That's it for now...Dixie Read/Post Comments Day Two - Driving With Dixie
Hello, we are in Malta, MT now, 730 miles into our trip! We had a great day yesterday even though we were very frustrated with our technology stuff.
They are noticing that displays are made differently in different museums. Jake enjoyed the forest habitat and the t-rex fighting off the stegosaurus.
In Garfield County the stygie skull was awesome. The dinosaur displays were more rustic, fitting in well with the early homestead displays that they had.
On the drive to Fort Peck the land formations changed again. The grass was not the same color as near Glendive but still lush! The layers of sediment were very apparent in the badlands. The Fort Peck Interpretive Center was very inviting! We watched a movie about, what else...DINOSAURS! Ayden loved the ocean display and Jake's favorite part was the huge aquarium. The Peck's Rex was in high form and a favorite with the group also. We had a special tour of Ft Peck Paleontology field station after hours.Melody gave us a very upclose personal informative talk about molding and casting with all the hard work that preceeds it and that follows it. Brentton was really taken with the Cave Bear. It was wonderful! The boys and I went to the play Wizard of Oz at the Fort Peck Theater. It was awesome! I know I am using a lot of exclamation points but I am telling it like it is! Signing off for now...Dixie and crew.
Read/Post Comments Driving With Dixie - First Day
Here's our first on-the-road blog from Dixie!
We started out from Billings about 8am and the five of us drove to Ekalaka arriving around 12:30pm. The Carter County Museum was CLOSED. Boy, did my heart go down to my belly. But, as we inspected further, it would reopen at 1pm and what a lovely surprise - the restaurant where we stopped for lunch was awesome!
We spent about 1 1/2 hours touring the museum. It was very interesting. The hadrosaur Anatotitian was displayed in all his glory! It is unusual to have the actual fossil posed. The boys liked the turtle, the triceratops partial skeleton and the two headed calf! They spent a lot of time examining the guns and ammunition and the Indian artifacts. The gift shop also caught their attention. The Medicine Rocks are spectacular. We enjoyed looking at the special formations as we drove by. In Glendive it was raining so our drive through the park was short. The Makoshika State Park Visitor Center was great; so modernally displayed and so much information in a small area, yet enough space to hold many visitors. The boys liked the Mosasaur but I really got a feeling for the size of the triceratops skull! It was huge! Looking forward to tomorrow with the Dinosasur Museum in Glendive and then Jordan! We had an interview with Cindy from the Glendive Ranger newspaper during dinner. As we checked in to the hotel I realized that the boys had limited hotel experience...almost none. So this is really an experience for them as well as Debbie and me. On the trail, Dixie Read/Post Comments Driving With Dixie - The Prelude
In just a couple of days, two grandmas from northeastern Montana will take three grandkids on a tour of the Montana Dinosaur Trail. There are 15 attractions on the trail and we anticipate they will cover about 925 miles from Ekalaka to Bozeman. This doesn't count getting the group to Ekalaka or getting back to northeastern Montana from Bozeman.
It will be somewhat like a reality show of this family group as they see if they can survive this many miles in Dixie's rented van. Here's her first posting, full of excitement and anticipation. Hello everyone, I am a grandma who is driving the Montana Dinosaur Trail with my grandsons and sister and her grandson. This is the first time I will have been with the kids for an extended length of time without my husband or their parents along. The idea was from my sister Debbie since her grandson Ayden is six and very in to dinosaurs. She thought that my older grandsons would be interested also and what a great way to do some bonding before they get into high school. My grandsons are Brentton, 13 and Jacob 12. Brent will be in junior high this fall so we felt that the time was right! The boys are excited about spending time with grandma. (I just made that up.) At first we thought about RVing but after looking in to renting one we decided that we just couldn't justify the expense. It would have been fun though. We opted to rent a 7 passenger van and get motel rooms along the way. I sent out letters to each child reminding them about what they needed to pack. I have scrapbooks and journals all ready, along with a GPS and cameras. We will be starting out on June 26th traveling to Ekalaka, MT to see their museum and then to Glendive, MT for the evening. Stay tuned for more on Driving With Dixie on the Montana Dinosaur Trail...Dixie
Read/Post Comments Touring the Highwood Mountains
A few days ago I went with a group to do birdwatching in the Highwood Mountains. Our primary goal was to follow a bluebird trail and the gorgeous scenery was just icing on the cake!
One box needed to be replaced, probably due to a cow or other animal bumping in to it. The box was estimated at 12 -15 years old and had actually held up well. We replaced the bluebird box, a pretty easy task if you happen to be with our bluebird expert. He had a bluebird spare box and the necessary tools in his car.
Not only did we see bluebirds, we saw a plethora of other birds. We had rain the week before and that brought out the green in the grass to the point where you almost couldn't believe it! Wildflowers, mountain vistas, and oh yeah, birds...we were in heaven.
Maybe it's time for you to gather some friends and go exploring!
Read/Post Comments A Decision Made Correctly
Over 200 years ago the Lewis & Clark Expedition traveled up the mighty Missouri River. When they approached the confluence of the Marias and Missouri Rivers, directions weren't so clear. Some members of the expedition felt the Marias was the right river to take, others said the Missouri was the main river. A wrong decision would delay the group and use critical time.
Today it's easy to view Decision Point from an overlook with walking trails and interpretive signage. Besides being a great scenic view, it's an important location in United States history. To get to the overlook from Great Falls take US Hwy 87 northeast. About 55 miles from Great Falls is the small town of Loma. Turn right just before you cross the river (there is a BLM marker) and go about 1 mile on a gravel road.
You'll see the sign for the overlook as you crest the hill. Interpretive panels in the parking area give some of us a brush-up history lesson. A short walk takes you to the overlook. I was glad I had my camera to capture some of the scenic vistas. The day was calm, clear and sunny. I believe I've said this before but, I doesn't get much better than this.
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We took a lot of photos, too many for our blog some days but we wanted to capture the special memories!
This photo is at the Rudyard Depot Museum in Rudyard. 
The Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman was our last stop on the Montana Dinosaur Trail. As you can see, the grandsons will be doing marketing for many of the dino trail museums every morning when they put a tee shirt or baseball cap on. 
A quick glance back at our trip - two grandmas (young grandmas!) and three grandsons, one van and a lot of miles. 
The museum in Bynum was truly AWEsome, with the biggest dinosaur represented at 23 feel tall at the hip! Oh my gosh, the kids were stunned, and I was spellbound by the magnitude of the work done to create this display. Well worth our miles on the road. 
Then, we were off to Choteau where we saw the maiasaura right outside the Old Trail Museum. 
At the Upper Mussellshell Museum we were introduced to Ava, the little dinosasur in their museum. They have a cool little sand dig for the boys to look for some dinosaurs with little paint brushes. The boys had a really good time as the director showed them around. 
So, Ava the dinosaur shares her special place of honor on the dinosaur trail with an equally splendid display of trains! 
Ayden loved the dig pit and the gift shop. He actually compared it to Toys R Us! The new ocean display with the inverts and fish was Debbie's special interest.
In Chinook at the Blaine County Museum, curator Jude Sheppard gave us an enlightening tour. The Touch Room was definitely one of the highlights for the boys! 
The displays are so life-like along with the murals of the different habitats! Thanks to Jude. 
Cheryl Gilbert was a gracious host answering questions about the dinosaurs and history of the area. The wooden water pipe was quite a special artifact of Havre's early days. The baby Maiasaura bones and the nest embryo bones were amazing!
We saw Makoshika Dinosaur Museum in Glendive. The boys liked the way the displays were set up. 
The ankylosaur type dinosaur was the only replica on display in the world! Worth the trip, Debbie said!
Wow! What a trip! 
Here's Grandma Dixie and she has agreed to post daily blogs, also some photos of the group as they do this dinosaur marathon. 
We did bring a bluebird expert along so he assisted in checking some of the existing bluebird boxes. OK, he did more than assist! 
To get to the Highwood Mountain bluebird trail,we drove east from Great Falls to the turnoff for Belt, drove down the hill, then through Belt. All of a sudden the terrain began to change and we entered the Highwood Mountains. 