I gotta say [mouse talking]

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… Sorry it’s been awhile before I’ve posted anything. I’ve been writing stuff, but every time we get to a hotspot Kyli bogarts the computer. …


So, Kyli and I are attempting to drive to the east coast and back in 3 weeks.

I gotta say, I've gotten more skeptical each day. However today seems a little different… the good part (and I'm choosing to see it this way) is that almost the whole rest of the way is flat. I think it's taken us 5 days to get to here (here being Rapid City SD, which is not even half way) because it's all been mountains (Beautiful and amazing mountains, but very bumpy and time consuming nonetheless). So in theory, the flat parts shouldn't take as long to cross. 😊

I’ll start at the beginning and you’ll see just how much we did do these last few days.

P.S. I’m sure you’ll be able to overlook the fact that our camera is having some major issues and does NOT want to focus when it just plain doesn’t want to. So we’ve put the photos up anyway so you can get an idea of what we’re talking about, but keep in mind that if you zoom in, it may not be so perty. 😊

Day 1 - Aug 10th
10 hours : 650 miles
Seattle, Washington - Idaho - Butte, Montana
Crossed the Cascades & the Rockies

Unfortunately it took us awhile to head out so it was after noon before we got past the east side (didn’t help that I needed to stop at the bank and they took forever). Once we got to heading east on I-90 everything looked great. Sunny and a comfortable temp. But the clouds (and the rain) quickly rolled in as we made our way out of dodge (An omen, me hopes not). Luckily the rain and clouds were left behind as we crossed over Snoqualmie Pass.

We made a stop at the Thorp Fruit and Antique stand/shop (it’s darned near impossible to go by that place and not stop). Made a quick stop in Spokane for a milkshake and a bite, then left Washington not so longingly behind.

Once we got into Idaho the rain picked up again. Not much else to say about Idaho.

Montana was a different story (as in, there IS a story - and oh, what a beautiful state). It was raining pretty hard as we crossed the border and a lighting storm was crackling about the mountain tops for miles (and I must say, it’s amazing how the tumble weeds can still find their way across the road, even in torrential downpours and lightning storms). We also had the random hail the size of golf balls coming down on us.

Shortly after coming into Montana we came across what seemed to be a single car accident. They were in the midst of cleaning up the wreckage, which was a car of some sort that was entirely smashed on all sides from flipping across the highway. Pretty gnarly. But it looked like the driver was ok (amazingly) and was standing next to the highway patrol (most likely swearing that he’ll never speed around corners on newly wet pavement ever again).

Not long after that, we followed a semi around a bend and low and behold, there’s a tree across our entire side of the highway (an apparent victim of a lighting strike). And not your average little by-the-highway-side tree, this was a ginormous-lays-across-3-lanes tree! It was amazing. A DOT worker showed up with a chainsaw and with the help of the trucker in front of us we were only there for about 20 minutes. I’m betting the people behind us had it worse as the traffic stacked up.

After this we drove on ever so careful and Kyli sees the sign for Helena MT. She’s all worked up about it because apparently her great grandparents on her dad’s side got married there … and (not that this has any bearing at all) one of her favorite bands has a song named Helena. So we take the exit and go a few miles until we see a sign that reads “Helena 44 miles”. We look at each other and realize that means another 88 miles to get back to the freeway. Regrettably and with sad eyes Kyli admits that it’s a long trek to take at 11pm. I’m guessing not much will be seen when we get there (around midnight). So we turned around and hopped back onto the freeway, trekked an hour or so more and stayed at a little KOA in Butte. It seemed ok as we drove in (we were just so darned happy to get off the road) but it turned out we were next to a swamp and the freeway. And with Sturgis a mere 600 miles away it was nearly nonstop motorcycle traffic (which I probably wouldn’t have minded so much if I had one too).

Day 2 - Aug 11th
Butte Montana - Yellowstone Wyoming
More Rockies
I got up pretty early and sat around the campsite for a little bit. Made coffee on the good ol’ Coleman stove (even bad coffee tastes good when you’re camping - in fact, everything seems to taste better when you’re camping). I talked to a few bikers in the neighboring sites. Some are on their way to Sturgis and some on their way home. (Some were also mighty cute.) One biker gave me his #, but he wasn’t one of the handsome ones. Just a weird (lonely) guy - in a nice harmless kinda way. We packed up around 10am and headed South towards Yellowstone.

We came across Lewis and Clark Caverns so we decided to stop. It was really cool. My favorite was the Budda Stalagmite. (Kyli took a pic)

Went through a tiny charming town called Ennis (in MT). We marked it as a place to come back to.

I may be totally alone in this, but for some reason it felt really cool to cross the Continental Divide. Maybe it was the Belushi movie that did it, I’m not sure, but it just seemed cool (Kyli didn’t seem to care either way tho). We wound up crossing over it 5 or 6 times so the novelty did wear off for me. I didn’t realize how winding it is.

We got in to Yellowstone around 6pm. Got a fairly nice camp site. Nothing fancy. Just a spot with a fire pit, picnic table and some dirt areas to put tents. What more do ya need?

After setting up camp, we headed back to West Yellowstone (on the Montana side) and hit the Internet café. It was alright except that it cost .20/min. Which can easily add up (Kyli). The barista was really sweet though and only charged us for a half hour. It was a nice break for us after being in the car for so many hours. (little did I know the driving days I had ahead of me)

Day 3 - Aug 12th
Yellowstone Wyoming - Sheridan Wyoming (big state)
Rockies
Let me start by saying that Wyoming is HUGE! Maybe it’s the mountains that make it seem that way, but it took us all day today only to wind up ¾ of the way across.

We started by driving around Yellowstone park. It was pretty cool. We saw some amazing geysers and pools. One pool was boiling hot and was on the side of a freezing river. Old Faithful turned out to be pretty cool. The whole park was well worth the trek, for sure.

About ½ way around the park, my check engine light came on. It kinda freaked me out a little bit. I stopped and checked everything. All looked well. I grabbed the phone, but of course there wasn’t any reception (we’re in the middle of a ginormous nat’l park for crissakes). I had my car checked out mere days before we left so it was quite a surprise. I decided the only thing I could do is keep driving until a.) I have cell reception or b.) I find a mechanic. Turned out they both showed up at the same time. The mechanic I found in Cody (the rodeo capital of the world, btw) turned out to be pretty cool. He said it was probably the O2 sensor since I’d spent so many miles in the higher altitudes. He said he could charge me $100 to hook it up to the computer, or I could just drive it and see if it resolves itself. Since $100 is over 2 days of our budget, I decided to drive it off. I also called my mechanic and left a message (not realizing it was Saturday and he’s only in the office M-F... oh well).

We were pretty tired by the time we hooked back up with I-90 so we stopped and camped at a KOA in Sheridan, Wyoming. The pool was amazing after a long hot day on the road, but the campsite itself kinda sucked. The tent area is right along side the dumping site for the Motorhomes. Real nice when the wind is blowing right at ya.

Apparently Seattle missed us, because we had a huge storm come through. Seemed to be the first rain they’ve had in months (maybe we brought it from Montana - shrug).

Day 4 - Aug 13th
Sheridan Wyoming - Rapid City South Dakota
Black Hills
Great day today. We accomplished a lot! Originally we talked about sticking around for another day to rest, but we were all too glad to get out of that campground. The smell was pretty strong in the morning with no wind to break it down, or turn it away. We packed up without making coffee or breakfast. Figured we’d grab something on the way.

Our first stop was Devil’s Tower. I remember the first time I saw a picture of it when I was kid and thinking that it had to be man made. I just couldn’t figure out how nature could’ve made it look that way (or why). Truly an amazing site.

The next stop was Sturgis. I figure we can’t drive by and not check it out. Now I can say I’ve been there, even though it turned out to be the last day of the rally so there’s wasn’t a lot going on. Just a bunch of stragglers and a lot of booths. The most exciting part was when I got out of the car and tripped over the storm drain (my sandal got stuck) and then when I tried to compensate I hit the gravel on the other side of it and fell on my arse. Kyli was just sorry she didn’t have the video camera turned on and tried to talk me into doing a reenactment. Not gonna happen. 😉 Oh, I also got to model some chaps for a young man that was looking for a gift to take home to his girlfriend. Wearing them made me want a bike even more.

Once we came into South dakota we went straight to Mt. Rushmore. We figured we'd get that detail out of the way then settle down at another campsite for the night. We saw a bunch of goats (with a baby) grazing on the side of the road on our way up to the mountain so Kyli got video of that. Once we came around the bend at the base of the mt. both of our reactions were the same - it's much smaller than I thought it would be. I'll admit it's still pretty majestic, it's just not exactly what I was expecting. All the pictures of it I've seen are deceptive. They've zoomed in on it and make it seem that the entire mountain is carved with their heads. It's not. But yes, now I can say I've seen that too.

We backtracked a little bit to a camp site we saw on our way up in Rapid City. The Lazy J’s RV and campground overlooks the town and the vast stretch that is SD. It's a nice spot. They put us right next to the showers and sinks and we've got a great view over the valley. Ahhh. We're thinking about hanging here an extra day to recoup. It's the nicest spot we've found yet. Great people. Lots of retirees that spend all of their time on the road. Once couple right next to us spends 4 months in this park every year! Amazing.

Day 5 - Aug 14th
Still in Rapid Falls South Dakota
We decided on staying another night at Lazy J’s. We really like it.
We spent the day today hanging out and relaxing. We drove downtown to Java Junkie so I could get my fix of real caffeine and Kyli could get hers from the Internet.

That night a storm warning came through on the radio. Again, first major storm they've had in months (what is it with us?). We battened down the hatches and moved the car to try to alleviate the wind on the tents. A sweet guy camping in an RV brought his beast of truck over to park at an angle to ours which made a big difference. We got comfy and rode it out in Kyli’s tent watching DVD’s (my favorite cartoon Home Movies) then came out after the worst of it to watch it as it crossed the plains. It was awesome. The lighting was amazing from our vantage point. I shot a bunch of video so I hope it comes out. My stuff was pretty wet this morning, but it dried in the hot sun pretty quick. 😊

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On our way out of SD today. Don't know when I'll get back online, but I'll post more days when I can.
Miss you Seattle!

Carpe Diem.

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Photos

Helena
The road to Helena

Tree down
Tree in the road (thank the lightning kids)

Montana
Beautiful

Comments

[Keef]

East Coast and Back?
East Coast, then back, in three weeks... it can be done... (hope the weather gets better for you). If you go the Philadephia, catch a baseball game, Moyer got traded to them. Be good, if it is possible... but at least be better than those chasing you Keef