Day 62 and 63 – Banff, AB to Great Falls, Montana – 411 miles

Monday and Tuesday - August 30^th and 31^st

Goodbye Banff!

Mt. Rundle in the background.

______________________

Hello Great Falls!

We made a 1-day stop in Great Falls, MT, so I could spend the day with Helen Stoltz Costello, my “2^nd cousin – once removed”!
(For you genealogy folks, her father and my grandmother were first-cousins.)

We had a great visit looking at old photos, re-hashing old family stories and trying to re-figure how to name our “cousin-relationship.”

Helen’s father and an uncle left North Dakota around 1920 and went “west” looking for work. Her grandfather and the rest of the family followed later.

We made a stop at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center.

Remember the “Corps of Discovery”?

President Thomas Jefferson sent the Lewis and Clark Expedition up the Missouri River to search for a Northwest Passage to the Pacific Ocean.

A History Lesson from the Montana Historical Society:

“Wherever you are in Montana, you stand in the pathway of Lewis and Clark. Their 1804-1806 Expedition was a grand adventure to investigate the people and resources of the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase and to seek a navigable passage across the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific. Like the French and Spanish who made similar voyages across North America, the Corps of Discovery brought back information that would change life in this land forever.”

A 3-M experience:
The Montanans (left) meet the Minnesotans (right) at the Macaroni Grill!
_________________

Wildflower

A type of Goldenrod - I think!
Taken by Kluane Lake in the Youkon