Day 78: Missoula to Bozeman, MT

It was again in the 40’s when we woke up in Missoula at the KOA.  There was no reason to rush in the morning as we had a fairly short drive ahead, so we had breakfast, showered, did some grocery shopping, and filled both diesel and propane before heading east on I-90 at around noon.

Two hundred miles and four hours later, we pulled into the driveway of Charless and Marjorie Fowlkes in Bozeman.  This was something Kelly arranged; we had never met them.  They are the parents of a good friend of Michael and Kelly, and the two of them had stayed at Fowlkes’ when they drove east from San Diego last year.  Kelly felt sure that we would enjoy each other’s company, so she emailed them and they encouraged us to stop in.

We started with a brief tour of their unique house, which they designed and built themselves (literally).  It is heated by solar energy, with huge windows on one side within which are a series of large white tubes that are filled with water.  The sun heats the water which warms the house. There are heavy curtains that automatically roll down to cover the windows when a thermostat indicates that more heat is being lost than gained through the windows.   Since it does get very cold in the winter in Bozeman, they have a wood stove as back-up for those days when it is cloudy and/or below zero.  In addition, the house is designed with small gathering areas on each of three floors and with several decks that looked out on the woods behind and the beautiful garden on the side.  It is “upside-down” in the sense that the bedrooms are the bottom, then various other rooms on the second floor, and kitchen and dining at the top where it is sunny and (in the summer) warm.

We relaxed on a shady deck and had cold drinks. (It was in the upper 70’s after that cold start to the day.)  Charless and Dan talked boats… and more boats…and more boats.  We heard about their adventures traveling all over the world and camping/boating all over the US; they have been retired since 1999.  Then we had a delicious dinner and more conversation, and Marjorie and I walked Ranger on the paths of a nearby park.  Then it was time to plug in the RV and go to bed.

Ranger took to them immediately and seemed to enjoy having a whole house to walk around in after all these weeks in the little RV.  He also enjoyed stretching out on the deck and surveying the neighborhood from his sunny perch.  All in all, he behaved himself admirably!