We are in Butte, Montana for our last stop before getting to Glacier National Park. Bruce and I both think we have been here before because we remember a statue in the mountains. We will have to check through our pictures of previous trips when we get home. There is a giant statue of the Virgin Mary built atop the Continental Divide in the Rockies overlooking Butte. It is called Our Lady of the Rockies and is supposed to be the 4th largest statue in the US. We can see it from the RV park and both of us remember having seen it before. We had no plans for this stop it was just a place to kill a few days before our reservations start at Glacier.
Butte is a very historical place with lots of old mansions and is know for its mining history. There actually is a giant open pit copper mine at the edge of town that is a tourist attraction. It is filled to a depth of about 900 feet with water that is heavily acidic. The water filled the pit after it was shut down and the water pumps in the near by mines were turned off. The water is contaminated with dangerous chemicals and heavy metals. The pit is also considered one of the largest superfund sites that the EPA is trying to have cleaned up. Not sure I would want to live that close to the pit. We have visited an open pit mine once before but we think it was in another state.
Mostly relaxing, little shopping and general cleaning and maintenance (change windshield wiper on RV). Bruce helped someone parked next to us on some issues. It was his first time to set up a used trailer he had just purchased and he was having a few issues. The person on the other side of him helped him get the legs down and get it stable. He then came over here to get help with water set up and just talk with an experienced person on what he needs to get and how to handle issues.
We think there was another new RV owner out in front of us, he spent a good hour trying to hook up his sewer hose. He had help from the guy in the RV next to him but they were both struggling trying to get an end on a new sewer hose. It is always fun to see the new owners out figuring out how to get things working. They give you a walk through when you buy it but there is always some little something you have forgotten.
Bruce did have a chance to talk with another of our neighbors about some screens that go on the outside of the windshield to block the sun. You put them on after you are set up and it is supposed to help block the sun and keep part of the heat out of the RV. The windshield on our RV is huge so lots of area for the sun to come in when you are facing right into it while parked. We have two layers of shades on the inside of the windshield, one you can bring down part way when you are driving and the other is a night time shade to block seeing in the RV but when it is down you cannot see out the windshield. When we are parked we can put both all the way down and it helps with the heat but doesn’t block all the way around the edges where the outside shades would block around all the edges. He has been thinking about ordering the screens but we had never actually seen someone with them on their RV and really wandered how hard they were to put on the windshield and how much you could see out the windshield after they were in place. Our neighbors have the same brand of RV so they have a similar huge windshield and they highly recommended the shades. You still get some light in the RV and can see out but it significantly blocks the heat from the sun. I suspect Bruce will be ordering our shades before we are on our next road trip.