~Sunday, September 6, 2020~
Day 84
11:30 came up fast this morning, as we had to be off the property by then to allow more visitors in. Breaking down didn’t take long, as we didn’t have everything set up for our short stay here. We had about a 30 minute drive to Bozeman and because we couldn’t check in to our next stay until around 3:00, we wanted to find something to do that wasn’t too difficult to access while still towing a trailer. A dog park stop. Perfect. And Bozeman has a lot of them. Stopped at a pond called Bozeman Pond Park where Sadie swam to her heart’s content, then right next door to the Lewis and Bark Dog Park for a lot of running. We had asked another dog owner there if she knew of any parks close to downtown where we would have enough room to park our trailer/truck while we checked out Main St. Well, unfortunately, the park she suggested wasn’t even close to working out. We basically got stuck in a narrow driveway in the park and had to finagle a way to turn around. By the time we got through that, it was time to head to our place for the next 4 days in Gallatin Gateway. From where we were coming, it was still a 30 minute drive.
The drive to Gallatin was beautiful where most of what we saw was hay fields under big open Montana sky, sprinkled with a few large ranches and homes along the way. You could tell on a clear winter or summer day without the smoke haze, the views of the mountains all around would be stunning. Hopefully the snow we’re supposed to get will put out these fires and clear the air.
When we finally arrived at the Inn on the Gallatin, it didn’t take long to tell this is a special place.
This is definitely one of our favorite stays. It’s right on the Gallatin River, in such a beautiful setting-serene, lots of trees, and mountains all around. You can tell the owners, Steve and Deanne are very particular and have high standards for their place. Steve was nice enough to help us back into our cozy snug spot. Our site #7, with a “welcome Inger and Jeff” chalkboard sign, appears to be the best spot on the river (all of the RV parking is on the river, with small quaint cabins on the opposite side, closer to the highway). Deanne also baked fresh homemade cookies for us, specially delivered by Steve. The setup is truly awesome. Behind our picnic table covered by beautiful shaded trees, is a path down to the river and from there a very quaint gathering spot for guests with a firepit, more tables, hammock and lounge chairs. Steve and Deanne bought the place about 8 years ago, where the previous owner fell ill and couldn’t keep up with the place, and had to sell. At the time, another potential buyer was interested in wanting to tear down everything and build a home there. Luckily Steve and Deanne won that game, to keep the legacy going. They’re both from Southern California, retired from his car dealership businesses and her design business. Their cafe, open only to guests at the moment, also keeps them very busy. And apparently there is a “colonel” on the premises who has been coming here for 30 years, who makes sure that everyone minds their p’s and q’s.
Since we have full hookups, it’s time to set up the outside fun lights, and run that microwave again. Yeah! When we’re “dry camping” or “boondocking”, which we’ve done a lot lately, we can’t run “plug-in” items without the generator. So that’s where having the inverter comes in. The inverter will allow us to have our DC power converted over to AC power (things like blow dryers, microwaves, the fireplace-basically things that are plugged in). Whenever we have the full hookups, things take longer to set up, but it’s a nice trade off. It’s been great mixing things up with RV parks, State parks, national forests, wineries, farms, etc. We’ve actually spent more time “dry camping” these first 3 months than we thought we would, and it’s nice to see that it’s completely fine not having to rely on a place all the time for water and electricity.
We had a nice walk around the property and stopped to talk to the owner Steve for a bit. He was telling us he just completed a renovation on a retro trailer on the property that he is going to move into a special spot on the property for guests to stay in. It looks like he did a fantastic job. We made a yummy dinner which we ate outside listening to the owls and the river. We’ll see if tomorrow turns out to be a snow day after all.