Location: Missoula KOA – Missoula, Montana

Today’s trip was one of the longer ones. It was also potentially the most expensive. After a stop for fuel in Deer Lodge, Montana, Malcolm noticed that a lug nut cover had fallen off the driver side front wheel. Later in the afternoon, we took a flying rock to the windshield and gained a nice spider crack just below the driver’s field of view.

We stopped in Three Forks, Montana at the Wheat Montana store where we always find some nice, fresh bread. Malcolm also typically finds some huckleberry syrup here, as well, but they didn’t have much selection.

We made it to Missoula about 4:00 and got set up. We also shopped the camp store while there and picked up several items, including lots of huckleberry goodies, for 40% off (near the end of the season). Malcolm also got a bowl of huckleberry ice cream at the ice cream stand there at the KOA.

Our site was nice. It had a covered picnic table with a light and electric outlet. The site also had water and 20/30 amp power. The gravel drive was perfect to back in and set up the truck tent. Temperatures were in the low 80’s and fairly pleasant.

Malcolm had an extended conference call for work, so we sat under the screen room (bees) while he listened in on his call. Once it was over, we packed up what we could and headed to bed. The overnight temperature got down just below 50 degrees, so it was a chilly wake-up in the morning.

Location: Buffalo KOA – Buffalo, Wyoming

We had a windy drive west on I-90 through South Dakota on into Wyoming today. This is the first of three of our longest travel days of almost 500 miles each day.

We weren’t sure if any of the tent sites at the Buffalo KOA were set up for a truck tent instead of a ground tent so we reserved an economy RV site. It worked out really well. The staff liked our truck tent setup, too.

This was also the first stop of the trip where it wasn’t in the 90s. The mid-80s were much more comfortable to relax in under our pop up screen room. It got down into the 60s overnight, making it perfect sleeping weather.

Location: Mitchell KOA – Mitchell, South Dakota

Malcolm had checked the weather forecast for Mitchell, SD the night before and they were calling for a high temperature of 98 degrees. Since we had enough of the hot weather the past few nights, we made the executive decision to rent an air conditioned camping cabin for this stop.

The cabin was a great idea and very comfortable. We had to pull our bedding (not the mattress) out of the truck and put it on the bed in the cabin. Malcolm was able to get some work done and we slept really well.

Location: Kansas City East/Oak Grove KOA – Oak Grove, Missouri

We had a quiet day of driving up through Illinois, around St. Louis and on to today’s stop about 20 miles east of Kansas City, Missouri.

When Malcolm reserved the tent site online, it appeared that the tent sites with electric had shade while the sites without electric appeared to be out in the open. We reserved an electric site.

When we got to the site, there were no trees at all but the non-electric sites had plenty of shade. Malcolm walked up to the office to switch sites which worked out well. The picture above looks like there isn’t any shade, but it was creeping in after the picture.

Like all the previous stops, it was in the 90s when we arrived. It did cool down fairly well by evening and was fairly comfortable overnight.

Location: Kentucky Lake/I-24/Paducah KOA

We left Alabama about 7:30 this morning and had a pretty easy 389 miles trip to the western tip of Kentucky. Nashville traffic was a bit congested in spots, but nothing terrible.

We made a reservation here at the KOA while stopped for lunch at a Love’s Truck Stop south of Nashville.

I-24 in Kentucky was down to two lanes (one each way) for several miles as they were rebuilding the roadway on the other side. Very bumpy, deteriorating concrete through the area.

We got here around 3:15 PM after stopping for fuel on the way into town. We got checked in and taken back to our beautiful, fairly level shaded site overlooking the pond. We have 20 amp electric and water available.

Tomorrow we’ll be heading through (around) St. Louis and west on I-70 towards Kansas City.