Day 1: Pullman, WA to Missoula, MT (247.6 miles)
After an emotional goodbye to our home of 10 years we made a short drive to Missoula Montana. The drive was pretty smooth except for a blizzard we encountered on Lookout Pass. Good thing we ended up renting a Dodge Nitro (crammed full of our luggage, but at least nothing had to go on the roof), the SUV has proved to be very useful (even if the passenger door does not quite work). After tangoing with several large big rigs in the mountains we stayed in Missoula and had a nice visit with Chaise and Megan. Jax had fun playing with Gunner (Megan's dog) and won over the heart of the women running the front desk at the Day's Inn.
Tired dog in Missoula. I like how every hotel has the same pattern on the comforters. Hotel Comforter Warehouse. "Where we got all the comforters for all your hotelier needs."Day 2: Missoula, MT to Bozeman, MT (203.3 miles)
After a good night's rest in Missoula we awoke completely exhausted from our moving experience. Rather that push too hard, we decided to stay with Aunt Karen in Bozeman Montana. A short but beautiful drive lead us to a quaint farmhouse in Bozeman (the Lazy K Ranch) run by Aunt Karen's neighbors Leo and Donna Keller. The Keller's were kind enough to allow us to stay in their beautifully resorted farm house for the night. We had a chance to relax and recoup from the moving of boxes and visit with Aunt Karen and Cousin Jacks. We played Wii bowling and learned how competitive Aunt Karen can be :-) We also finally had a chance to meet Jack's boyfriend Andy and his brother and roommate who flew in from Pennsylvania. Jax had fun playing with his doggie cousins Maybell and Sniffy... and of course running around in the snow. Nice day, but really windy. At the farm house, Jax met his first sheep... he was pretty curious until it "baaaaa'd" at him... which made him run away.
The Little Yellow Farmhouse in Bozeman. Very nice.
Day 3: Bozeman, MT to Rapid City, SD (515.4 miles)
In looking at the weather patterns we decided to go ahead and take I-90 across Montana, through Wyoming and into South Dakota. We set off early in the morning for Rapid City South Dakota. The high winds the night before left many cars and trucks overturned on the freeway. We passed by one large semi overturned into a ditch just outside of Livingston Montana. When we left Bozeman snow was falling, but by the time we reached South Dakota the weather had cleared up. Jax was very tired after playing with all of his dog friends in Montana and slept all day in the car and then all night in the hotel room. We had a nice view of Devil's Tower as we passed through Wyoming. Rapid City was uneventful, but a lot bigger than we expected. Note to travelers: Safeway in Rapid City did not allow us to use the $1.40/gallon discount that we accumulated in Pullman... these must be regional. We have also discovered that all of the Chevron and Texaco stations across the Northern US have vanished... this makes it extremely difficult to use gas gift cards :-(
Day 4: Rapid City, SD to Missouri Valley, IA (502.7 miles)
Driving through South Dakota proved to be as entertaining as usual... we read 100's of billboards as we approached Wall Drug and then passed by the movie set for Dances with Wolves and the home of Laura Ingles Wilder. Note to travelers: every other town in South Dakota claims to be the home of Senator John Thune... he must have lived all over the state! Boy are we glad that our rental car has Sirius satellite radio... the comedy channels helped us pass the time and we listened to the Seahawks beat the Redskins the day before. There are a lot of unique artists in South Dakota... we passed by several roadside displays including a metal sculpture of a giant dinosaur skeleton being lead around on a leash by the human skeleton... and an art yard with a giant bull head, hammer and other art pieces... the key word here is GIANT... these sculptures are enormous, blending into the vast landscape.
A giant steer in the home of the Corn Palace.
Ahh the Corn Palace. If you ever drive through South Dakota you'll see signs for it, about as soon as you leave Wall. So you would think that it would be right off of the freeway given all the publicity, but no. It was a good 15 minutes from the freeway, in the middle of town. I guess because admission is free they have to get you to spend money some other way. Sneaky sneaky chamber of commerce.
We didn't get a picture of it because I could not pull the camera out in time, but the police cars in the town that is the home of the Corn Palace that I cannot remember of the name of, have numbers on the back like in NASCAR. Crazy.
It's good to know that the fireman are ready should the Corn Palace catch fire.
Sun sets over South Dakota.
We decided to make a big push today and traveled through Iowa, across Illinois and Indiana and into Ohio. This leaves us with a straight shot to Syracuse tomorrow (one more day's drive). It was raining and very foggy in Iowa (which Adam slept through), but we did pass through Colfax and Moscow which reminded us of the Palouse :-( We are staying in a "funky" Ramada straight from the 80's... we were curious to find that the hotel has no windows which open to the outside of the building (only to the interior corridors)... but after being here a few hours the news alerted us to a tornado watch in the area. That's right... a tornado in January... who knew? Oh yeah... it was in the mid 60's today in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio... we have hit a tropical heat wave! Jax very much longs for the return of the snow.
You can barely make this out but here is the sign for Colfax, Iowa.
Our navigator. This is us leaving Ohio.
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