Extrait de [ http://westernUSATrip.abondon.com jour 11]

Day 11 : 10/01/01 

So today was just one of those days!

First I though my sleeping bag could handle cold temperatures ... well even with my usual sleeping outlet plus another pyjamas, I just froze to death all night!!! Then in the morning, as it was freezing even more, I liked the little facial wash with cold water and the tent removal by at least 3 celcius degrees! Then the sun showed up and it was getting better.

Then we went for a little 9 miles round trip hike to Piegan pass. It was realy windy at the top. At the begining of the trail there was a big sign that said some other trail had been close because of bear attacks, and on the way up we also met a park ranger on patrol to see if she could reopen the trail. She was just taking her shotgun because it's protocol and eventualy in case she would be attacked ... But for us it should be ok, but we should still be carefull as there are a lot of black bears on this trail too (she said)....

Well because of that Mr David decided that he was scared of the bears and would jump everytime he would hear a butterfly touching a flower! He didn't even allow me to take a 5mns nap after the 1mn lunch at the top in case the bear would want our lunch! Well well as far as the lunch was concerned, we really shouldn't have eaten those dried apricot from Safeway ... Now we're both sick (me the worse I guess) and the only dream I had going down the 4.5 miles trail was to get down and find some restrooms ... I'll spare you the details.

Did I tell you that I though speed limits were very high in his state. 75 miles on highways (but not that many of them) and 70mph on regular roads. Well according to the curbs and the visibility at night, I hardly was even able to reach this speed limit, especialy when we were going uphill, our poor little rental car would hardly make it to 50! So I wasn't even speeding tonight until we arrived in Choteau, in Teton county Montana. There of course, the speed limit was 25. How should I know??? Well of course it's written at all entrance of all town in Montana but that was the first one we went through in 300 miles!! So as we were looking for direction on the map and wondering which road to take, I had the great pleasure of seeing a car facing my way turning his multicolor nice little roof lights, make a U-Turn and then come just right there behing me ... Hum I guess I just got pulled over by the cops...

How are you doing Sir, bla bla bla, driving 35mph... very bad .... speed limit is 25mph ... bla bla bla. Well after 15mns I got ... a warning!!! He he he not even a ticket. Never mind. Too bad for all those who wished I would have one before going back home (I won't give names , but the journey is still long).

So tonigh we're sleeping in Helena, figured out the clock here has one our difference, so it's 2AM when I'm writing those lines (we have to be 250 miles from here tomorrow for lunch .. do the maths), we couldn't find our way back from the grocery store to the Hotel cause all those stupid roads are one way streets and finaly we couldn't eat anything cause EVEN Mc Donald's are closed after some hour earlier than the one we showed up I guess. (Helena seems to be the capital of Montana by the way).