[day 185 ... july 4]

Happily, Dad and Marian easily caught up with us this morning - hooray! Not so happily, we didn't make nearly as much progress yesterday as hoped. But we made up for it today by splitting up the young squabblers (a great suggestion by Grandpa Stan). Cory and I joined Marian in the motorhome for most of the day, and Niall read and watched movies in the back of the van while Grandpa Stan drove and Tynor co-piloted. It was really nice to have a breather, I have to say. It's hard to be driving, planning food and stops, and dealing with bickering, yelling kids too (shall we say?).

Here Niall and Cory are burning off some steam at a rest stop in Bozeman where we stopped for a break and then ate a late lunch at McD's (yes, again) before heading on down the road.

Cory was so tickled to be riding way up high in the motorhome. I sat up front for a good part of the time, and then joined him when he got tired of drawing pictures and looking out the window. We read a few books and chatted and he did great for the long haul of driving we got in today. Made it all the way to our planned third-day RV park in Hardin, MT!

We arrived in time to set up and have a quick hotdogs dinner, then drove over to the local fairgrounds where we got to see a gorgeous fireworks display. It was really something. It was Cory's first fireworks show and it was up close and LOUD. But we covered his ears and he did fine. The rest of us really enjoyed it. We did notice something interesting and sad: the white folks were all up in the stands and many joined in a country dance afterwards, while the local Native Americans were all lined up in the cars outside on the grounds, watching from there. A long, long tradition, I expect, but so striking to see how divided the groups were.