May 5, Livingston, MT. We decided to leave on Saturday evening, May 1, as we had completed (we thought) loading the camper and truck. Departed Tri-Cities @ 4:50pm. As we approached Ritzville Ev asked about her box of travel books. Neither of us remembered loading them. I volunteered to unhook the camper and go back and get them as she had worked so hard on them for 6 months. She opted to travel on. We drove to the 50,000 dollar bar in Haugen, MT, arriving there about 11pm MT time. Spent the night in the parking lot, had breakfast and headed for Missoula. We "side-tripped" at a small town on the way to stop in an old book store and look at a quilting retreat hotel for Brenda, Ev's sister. Arrived in Missoula and shopped around a bit before heading south to Florence, MT to spend the night with our friends Rick and Leslie Bachman. We had a great visit with them. We headed out for Helena, MT around 9am, driving there on US 12 over McDonald Pass instead of taking the interstate. It was a very scenic drive. We stopped just over McDonald Pass and made lunch. After driving through Helena we headed out of town to find the campsite. It was 20 miles from Helena back on a lake formed by a dam on the Missouri River. It isn't someplace I'd go out of my way to stay at again.

Ev complained a little about her foot while we were walking around Helena in the afternoon looking at the state capital, beautiful old homes, and a Gothic-style cathedral. By Monday evening her 3rd toe on the right foot looked pretty bad. (That's the middle toe no matter which end you start counting from) Tuesday morning it was causing her a lot of pain. We left the campsite and drove to Bozeman - about a 2-hour drive - and checked into the emergency room there. They started her on IV antibiotics and wanted to have her come back there every 8 hours for more. We got them to pass that mission onto the ER at Livingston Memorial. Finally got her out of the hospital in Bozemen and arrived in Livingston at my mom's house around 3pm.

It was a real joy (right!) backing the camper into mom's driveway but finally got it in there. Got Ev to the ER at 7pm for check-in. They finally got the IV started around 8:30. The best of luck is that the doctor who was on-duty is a friend of ours from mom's church there so I trust what he's doing. He actually pricked the swelling on the toe and took fluid and tissue samples. Results won't be back until Thursday. Had her back for another dose this morning at 6am. It's 11:20am now and they're going to keep her overnight this time (at least) because her blood pressure is so low. My sister Kathy is arriving on Saturday for a visit over Mother's Day. We weren't going to be here for that but looks like we will be now. At least its on this end of the trip when our schedule is loose and we're not in the middle of North Dakota.

It was only 35 degrees this morning, maybe 45 now with 1 - 2 inches of snow expected this afternoon. Probably a good thing we'll be here awhile.

Tom