Yesterday morning we packed our suitcases to get ready to leave and enjoyed a lovely breakfast in our lodge dining room where we'd had dinner the night before. They are short-staffed this summer (like pretty much everywhere) but were working their tails off. No problem - we weren't in a huge hurry!
French toast with huckleberry compote
We stopped at a Sinclair gas station in middle-of-nowhere Montana. My grandpa (Dad's dad) worked there his whole career, so I told Mom we should support them at least once. :)
Apparently every Sinclair gas station has a green brontosaurus?
It was a LONG day of driving. Perhaps because we were sad to be leaving Glacier, perhaps because it was mostly two-lane roads, and perhaps because it was boring with nothing super exciting to look at, but we finally made it to Billings, MT, where we'd be staying the night.
About ten minutes before this, I said to Mom, "I have no idea how a city will suddenly
appear out of all this nothingness!"
We saw part of the campus of Montana State University at Billings
Painted on one of the overpasses in Billings - 99 degrees when we arrived at our hotel!
An aisle at Target in Billings!
After we arrived at our hotel and after I'd run some errands in Billings, I wasn't feeling well, so we both crashed early. I'm feeling fine today, so I'm chalking that one up to exhaustion and post-national-park letdown!
We left our hotel this morning and first drove to Miles City where we got some lunch.
We stopped at a rest area just before Miles City, and I noticed that the toilet paper holder had a padlock on it. I giggled to myself and snapped a picture. I asked Mom about it later and said that not only was it locked up, but I thought that was the thinnest, cheapest toilet paper one could find! She agreed. Wonder if it's always been this way (looks like it's been there a while!) or if it was added during Covid when TP was so hard to find? Kind of funny to think about...
For what it's worth, at that same rest area, the temperature showed something in the 90s, and yet I wasn't sweating even a little. The beauty of low humidity!
On the way from the exit from the highway to our lunch stop in Miles City (less than a mile), we counted NINE casinos!
Statue on a roundabout in Miles City, MT
Beautiful views along the road today...
Although I got stuck behind this van for far longer than I would have liked!
Caught this temperature at one point today...
Got state #40!
More beautiful views. Hard to take pictures from the car - and the pics just don't do it justice!
And then state #41!
As we got further along in South Dakota, skies got pretty dark...
But still gorgeous!
And so green.
We stopped briefly in Sturgis (well, drove through) so I could see where the annual Sturgis motorcycle rally is held. I have no idea how that small town holds so many people!
Sturgis Motorcycle Museum & Hall of Fame
View from our hotel in Rapid City
My assessment so far of North Dakota and South Dakota is that North Dakota is just as barren as I expected (although to be fair, we didn't see much of it), and South Dakota is more beautiful than I predicted! I still very much appreciate where I live... I like civilization and not having to drive crazy far distances between towns.
It was another banner day, in its own kind of way. Thanks for following along on the journey. Tomorrow is going to be full. Mount Rushmore, Wall Drug, Badlands... looking forward to more than just driving! :)
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