historic Montana

So we have finally crossed the border and are now in the US of A… we are camping near a very nice classic small American town called Eureka.  We didn’t do much other then find a campsite (again very lucky last pitch available- everywhere is so busy) on the lake down the road.  I had a swim in the lake and it was positively bath tub like, cleaner then my most recent bath tub experience and very pleasant indeed.  We cleaned out the car and sorted through everything and just chilled out.  

Dr Freds knee is slowly improving He can now walked with a stick and my arm!!! The swelling is reduced and we hope that a few more rest days will resolve it to a reasonable point.  The next day was a very lazy day, very pleasant, got up late and went down to Eureka. 

We found the internet café where we had a coffee and did some email checking, looked at Yellowstone camping, we are now getting worried everywhere is so busy… there a complete other tale about camping in Casper for the eclipse which I’m not going to regale but suffice to say we got camping by the skin of our teeth….   We called in at the supermarket and it’s a great relief to see how much cheaper the USA is compared to Canada – we bought a few supplies and then pans and a tablecloth from the thrift store.  Our camp is getting quite homely now with pans and table cloths.  

We went to the historic museum village which was a collection of old building rebuilt on the site to give an impression of what might have been a basic village in the 1920s it was well done with one large wooden house housing a large collection of various s artefacts from spinning wheels to mining equipment with dolls, ice skates and all sort of everyday items in between.  

The centre piece of the room was a beautiful wood burning stove.  In fact the whole ‘village’ contained some really interesting stoves. 

It wasn’t very big but that meant we didn’t get museum leg and so we decided it was time to hit the pie shop. 

Renee the woman who owns the shop was happy to chat with us.  I told her I had wanted to try Huckleberry pie as I had no idea what a huckleberry was and she very kindly let me taste some frozen ones.  They are very like Bilberries but much sweeter, apparently they cannot be cultivated, they only grow wild, and this part of the country is the best place to find them.  They are very expensive because they are fiddly and time consuming to pick.   Any way no pie but we did have a Huckleberry milkshake and it was divine, just the thing for a hot afternoon.  Dr Fred had a slice of cherry pie as well so he was truly stuffed.