On the road through Montana, cowboy country; cattle ranches, small domesticated bison herds, lots of horses, some sheep herds (obviously for their wool not meat as we've still not seen any lamb for sale) farmers working the fields, wheat farms with big silos and hay paddocks being cropped. Mountains, hills, big clear blue skies and wide open plains; towns with names like Butte, Three Forks & names stolen from famous cities like Belgrade, Amsterdam & Manhatten. Billboards for gentle men's clubs, adult stores, dubious sounding businesses like "Adam & Eves Truck Park" and casinos.

We followed the railway line for much of the time, early on we saw a coal train, not that heavily loaded but clearly set to go up some mountains with 4 locos pulling and another 3 pushing it along. Another very long one was hauling oil. Along the way at some railway stations there were large pretty unsightly grain loading facilities.

Most small towns we passed through had the general store, hunting & fishing supply stores and a taxidermist.

45 minutes south of Browning a few oil derricks began popping up, all beavering away.

At St Mary Lake we went into Glacier National Park. It's a huge lake with gorgeous mountain backdrops. There are now only 25 glaciers, down from 150 in 1850. Scientists predict with global warming they could all be gone by 2030.

The only accommodation in St Mary was fully booked out so we decided to drive on. This is the first night we've decided to drive and see where we end up. After St Mary there was quite a lot of nothing, the only "towns" were nothing much so we kept on going.

Next thing we knew we were going through immigration and into Alberta Canada. The immigration officer asked the usual q's and then asked, any gun or other weapons? Pete and I, as one went: We're Australian! We don't have guns! All three of us then laughed and agreed it sounded rehearsed but it was totally spontaneous. The officer then said, well I dunno you might have a gun fetish or something! It was a very painless and funny process not at all like getting back into the US last year. We are hoping for less of an interrogation this time when we return there.
After the checkpoint there was a long straight rural road, lots of cattle and the nearest town according to signs was 20plus miles away. On we went :-)

The nearest town was Cardston, not much of a town but the wee motel we've checked into has all we need, comfy bed, clean bathroom, microwave, fridge and coffee maker for breakfast. The family restaurant down the road had good food, happily settling in for the night.