through to the other side. Without maps and marked trails, what would you use as a landmark to tell someone where to find the easiest route through the mountains. One mountain stood our that would make an easy landmark to describe. From a distance I thought it was Devil's Tower, but it wasn't even close to being in the right place. I asked the border crossing guard, and he said it was called Chief MT. As
we wound up into the mountains, we found This little cafe: Two Sisters near Babb Montana. They have a branch in Missoula as well. When we neared the top of the pass we noticed dead burned trees on both sides of the road. 
What spectacular views. Seeing all that free firewood, my little Yankee sould couldn't resist picking up a few sticks in case we wanted a campfire somewhere down the road.
We've been lugging a package of hot dogs in the cooler all the way from Homer. In the Yukon, the fire danger was too high. In BC, none of the campgrounds we stopped at had any wood available. I'm not going all the way from Alaska to New Mexico without impaling a tube steak on a stick and smelling like smoke for the next 24 hours. It might be the easy way, but it wouldn't be the cowboy way. We'll be near the Radon Mines in Butte, MT tomorrow. We might spend a couple of days there. I'll let Annie explain. Then on to Yellowstone, Pinedale and then New Mexico. Red Sox are up 6-5. I've got to get back to the game.Great day today. The Two Sisters cafe we stopped at would fit right in with Homer--Peace Flags flying inside and the Rainbow Coalition flag flying outside. Mexican painted wooden fish hanging from the rafters and a wall of license plates from every state in the union on the back wall. We're in the heart of Blackfoot country and tomorrow David and I will spend some time (here in Browning) at the Plains Indian Museum before we leave. Dave Matthews helped us down the road today, along with a little BB King and the Drifters. Biggest Road Music surprise?? Hootie and the Blowfish. Who'd-a thunk it? Really set up a great drive through some terrific scenery a couple days ago. About the side-trip to Boulder: As most of you know, this wonderful trip is the positive flip side of my really sucky battle with rheumatoid arthritis. I was diagnosed several years ago and have tried a number of treatment modalities, none of which worked, resulting in my pretty much total incapacitation last fall. After a very long winter during which I was completely bed/chairbound, we knew that we'd have to make some kind of move to a spot that might be more conducive to my recovery--thus the trip to New Mexico. David has taken early retirement to care for me, since I still need 24 hour care, and I'm hoping that my appeal to Social Security to reconsider their denial of my disability petition will finally go through. We're living on a shoestring, but really, it's just like old times for us--we know how to elevate being broke to an artform!!! Anyway, there is some evidence, both anecdotal and research-based, that short-term low doses of radon positively effect the body in much the same ways that tumor-modifying drugs do in relation to RA. So we're going to spend a couple days and a few treatments to see how I feel. It certainly can't hurt me any more than the prednisone I'm taking right now. Prednisone has made it possible for me to move around a little, ride in the car, and use a walker a little bit--it's made it possible for me to make this trip. However, it's a terrible drug and has horrendous long-term consequences: cataracts, osteoporosis, puffing and swelling--well, you get the picture. It seems there's very little in the way of RA therapies that don't have you looking for a new liver in five years, so David and I are always considering the options out there. Well, the beer is gone, the Red Sox beat the Yankees 6-5 and I'm going to have to fight David for the remote. More tomorrow...
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