Travel to Lewistown, MT

Another nice day today, warm and sunny, we have not heard back from the message left last night regarding our planned stop tonight. After completing our usual morning routine and still no word from the campground, I decide to check out other campgrounds in Lewistown, MT. The WiFi is not working, so waited a bit and tried again, nope no luck. Woody decided to have a shower using the campground showers while I kept trying the WiFi, he returned shortly to check the access code, he could not open the showers, he was using the correct access code, so seems the showers are locked. The owner has left for church, we still have not had any answer from the campground in Lewistown, I tried again and got the answering machine and we cannot access the WiFi, so now what to do. We do not want to stay another night here; the weather is good for travel so we decide to look for a motel via Microsoft Streets and Tips. I call a few numbers keep getting the same message that the phone has been disconnected, something is not right; I could see a couple of motels closing down but not several of them. Luckily Streets and Tips also has grocery stores and gas stations listed so I call the IGA in Lewistown, MT, they answer, I tell them I am trying to find a hotel/motel and keep getting a disconnect message, they are very helpful and pleasant explaining the area code has been changed and give me the new area code, I thank them very much and hang up. I call a motel again and get a reservation for the night, and start preparing to leave. We are just about ready to pull out when the campground owner comes over and wants to know if we are having trouble or are planning to stay another night. Woody tells him we are leaving the trouble he had with the showers and the WiFi, well he turns the WiFi off when he leaves and locks the showers and restrooms! His reasoning is someone might use the showers/restrooms or WiFi and damage them while he is not there. Well guess we will not stay here again, and will make an appropriate review on the Campground review site as well. I checked the reviews on the Campground Review website before I chose this campground and there was no mention of this issue so maybe no one stayed there on Sunday or had not tried the showers/restroom/WiFi on Sunday morning. The owner is a little quirky this is another new experience!
We head out a little later than we wanted to due to the snag but only travelling 3 1/1 hours today so not a big deal and now that we are staying in a Motel, no set up time. The travel was great, at Great Falls we left I15 and head down 87 towards Lewistown, the drive is relaxing, the scenery pretty, the road is a good 2 lane highway with extra passing lanes on hills, the grades are reasonable no long steep grades we make good time.
We chose this route because it is more a more direct route to Colorado and to avoid driving through Butte, then navigating the Homestake and Bozeman passes, we drove them once and do not care to repeat the experience, especially the Homestake pass it has steep grades that go for miles, it gets a little scary when pulling the fifth, difficult to control the speed on long steep downhill grades with that monster behind you pushing. Steep grades are not bad if they are only a short distance but 13 miles is too long. This pass has huge warning signs at the top and a place to stop, we were reading the large sign when a trucker wandered over and told us to be very cautious, go as slow as we need to, put on our flashers like the trucks do and pay strict attention to the speed signs. He said you can go down this pass many times too slow but only once too fast and we listened to him, we started out below the posted speed limit, by the time we hit the bottom we were happy and relieved. This was during our first long trip with our fifth in 2006 we always drive carefully, knowing that we cannot stop quickly, change lanes quickly, we allow lots of space before pulling back into the driving lane when passing and watch all drivers around us. Going up long steep grades is not an issue; the Dodge pulls the fifth with no problems.
Okay I regress, back to our trip to Lewistown, we arrived at the motel to find that we could not park in the big rig spot due to a trailer being there already, luckily we were given permission to park at the front of the parking lot taking up many spaces but is sure was convenient for us. The motel was quite nice, very friendly staff, good size room (important when you have 2 dogs) with a table, two chairs, desk, and fridge close to restaurants, we are happy. We brought in Oreo’s bed, Cookie’s kennel plus food and dishes, plus our paraphernalia. Woody went out to fuel up the truck and get us some dinner, while I fed the dogs, gave them some time to settle down in this new environment, organized our “stuff” and set up our laptops. Upon Woody’s return, we settled down eating while watching TV. There were many workers booked staying at this motel and the fellow next to us had a small barbeque set up on the tailgate of his truck cooking up a storm, it smelled so good! Woody chatted with him during the course of the evening and their crew are working all over the states for two years setting up wireless communications. The other neat thing was we saw whitetail deer across the road grazing in an open area. The young fellow said the deer graze there all the time and had even seen bear in that area while there, this motel is in the middle of town, but the animals seem to know they will not be bothered. Lewistown population is around 6100, so not huge, but a pretty little town. We spent the rest of the evening in our usual routine of walking dogs, chatting online and relaxing.