Back Roads and Small Places

We are camped at Great Falls, Montana, for two nights.

Although it’s rather pretty here along the Sun River near its confluence with the Missouri, it seems really big and bustling to us. I realized that the last time we were near a city of any size is when we left Bernalillo, on the northwest side of Albuquerque, on May first.

More typically we have been staying in small towns like our last stop at Reed Point.

Not much happening there…

and it looks like not much has happened for decades.

But that suits us just fine.

Even more striking is the route we’ve taken. Since we started on this life last December we have towed on an interstate highway only six times, usually for an exit or two where the only alternative is either a gravel road or a long detour through mountains. Our total interstate mileage is around 150 miles. We will usually take the back road, like this alternative to I-90. We lost less than 10 minutes on this route and passed about 5 cars. A great trade-off to us.