Our day commenced with clear blue skies, although a rather chilly 2 C, from atop our 5,100 ft perch overlooking the small town of Sundance WY. On departure, it was a short distance downhill to top off with diesel and within minutes we were heading West and homeward bound on I-90. Yet another 400+ mile day of motorway driving. I must admit after 7 full days of driving, this is becoming a tad tiresome.

Tuesday 14th October 2014

Mountain View RV Park & Campground, Sundance, WY to Sunrise Campground, Bozeman, MT

Temps – 2 to 26C

Weather – Fine & clear, then high overcast

Wind – Initially light airs then very strong cross wind climbing mountain up to Bozeman

Cloxs – No change (Z-6)

Distance today – 446 miles

Total Distance – 8,858 miles

Navigation

Yet again a rather easy day for the navigator, with the biggest challenge being fuel stops and a liquor store to purchase our duty free for crossing the border. Wyoming has no liquor taxes.

Departure Mountain View RV Park

A review in RV Park Reviews made a comment about a difficult departure, well couldn’t be further from the truth. One of the easiest campgrounds for navigating around and departing.

Detailed Voyage to Sunrise Campground, MT

This would be a long day with no clox, so bright eyed and bushy tailed, about 0730, we were ready to commence today’s sojourn. We meandered down through the campground then down to the small town of Sundance, where we filled up with diesel just before entering the I-90 Westbound. We made excellent time for the first hour, stopping at the first town of Gillette, as we required to Diesel Exhaust Fluid at the Flying J, and also pick up our duty free purchases for our impending border transit.

After a short break we were back on the road and enjoying the varied Wyoming scenery, a very pleasant change from the miles and miles of flat corn fields we had seen the previous few days. The altitude was also constantly changing, as at one point we dropped to almost 3,000 feet, but then started climbing again.

On arrival Montana the scenery changed again from the rough landscape of Wyoming to more ranch lands, including some flat river valleys. With the additional stops for DEF and duty free we were running a little later than usual, with our ETA being 1730 to 1800. Shortly after 1600 we noticed a sign for a KOA about 10 miles ahead, which was about 50 miles less than out intended overnight stop. We were running a bit late, so decided to check out the KOA, unfortunately it was closed for the season. Would have been nice if they put a closed sign on their boards at the motorway exit.

So we decided to soldier on to our original destination, and wow what a drive for the final hour. After passing through Livingston, we started climbing, reaching an altitude of 5,500 feet, but while ascending the mountain we had severe crosswinds of at least 30 knots for about 20 miles. Fortunately our coach is heavy at 16,000 lbs and didn’t get blown around too much, although I did dump some air out of the bags to lower the nose a couple of inches.

The campground again backs onto I-90, but has a great owner and lots of shade trees. Great stop for the evening.