Day 9 Montana highway driving turns out to be rather boring

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Distance driven today: 269 miles / 433 km

Cumulative distance driven: 2,871 miles / 4,620 km

Today’s trip: Helena, Montana, USA to Idaho Falls, Idaho, USA

US state border crossings: 1

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Today’s ride was the most uneventful and boring so far L Turns out that, the most practical way to drive between Helena, the capital of Montana, and Idaho Falls, was through interstate highway 15 southbound. Now, don’t get me wrong here. After having driven 2,500 miles (4,000km) on small, regional and rural roads, since I left Fairbanks in Alaska over a week ago, getting a few hours of driving time on the highway was a welcome change. The road got flatter, straighter, and very comfortable to drive on. Having said that, the highway also become very boring. Indeed, after a few hours of riding on I15, I found myself multiple times mentally drifting away into various topics, such as work, family, several philosophical subjects etc.

Whenever that happens, you know that driving has become so predictable and unchallenging, that your brain turns on the autopilot, and it lets your consciousness go somewhere else. Ever wonder by the way, when you catch yourself having been absent minded while driving, and you can’t even tell for how long you weren’t consciously paying attention, who was actually doing the driving? Turns out that, cognitive psychologists can actually explain (kinda) what’s going on in your brain, but that is a much longer topic, better suited for other types of blogs!

That kind of mindless driving may be enjoyable for some, but when you are out to experience the world’s longest motorable road on the planet, you don’t want to have too many days like today. Having said that, I did enjoy the fact that the ride was really easy, albeit pretty boring. I also know that, there will be many days later on, during the PanAmerican highway, where I will try to recall what such an easy-to-drive, flat, straight, and perhaps most important of all, void-of-any-potholes US highway felt like. And that attempt to recollect today’s highway riding, will happen when we reach Bolivia and central Patagonia; both places which are known for their rather bad and tough road conditions.



Tomorrow, I will be visiting the American Heritage charter K-10 school here in Idaho Falls, to follow-up on the Kindle e-readers we donated to them. Even though it is Sunday tomorrow, and the school year formally ended yesterday, principal Tiffnee Hurst, has been gracious enough to agree to meet anyway.

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