The drive out from Pat's perspective

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July 1

This trip started off like most others...we took off later than we’d hope. This time it was because I didn’t get out of work at noon, but 45 minutes later. Then at home it was a mad rush to get packed up, but we finally got going at 3:30pm, but had to stop at Target to get Katie’s glasses fixed. 4pm we finally started our trip.

Unfortunately, this meant we hit rush hour on the way up I-94. I forgot just how much traffic there would be on a holiday weekend. We went 30 miles in one hour, with stop & go traffic leaving town. We got the laptop set up to watch movies and the kids were happy. We had hoped to stop at a couple rest stops in Minnesota where some geocaches were placed but the state is in budget dispute and non-essential services were suspended. This included rest stops. Evidently they don’t realize how essential a rest stop is when you have kids that have to go potty, but gas stations did the trick.

We arrived in Fargo around 8:30pm I think. First we did a quick driving tour of NDSU, my alma mater, where I thoroughly bored the kids pointing out all the buildings I had classes in, and the dorms & house where I once lived. We drove by my favorite watering hole, The Bison Turf, and it was hard not stopping for a cold pitcher of Killians Irish Red Lager as we often did in college...too often probably. We did get to Paradiso for supper though. The margaritas were just as good as I remembered, though instead of $2, they were $4 for a 17 oz drink. Still a good price. The food, however, was aweful. My fajita salad tasted the same as Cheryl’s enchilada, which was a plain, boring mass of mush.

We left there with Cheryl driving and me trying to sleep. The kids watched a bit of Star Wars 2 but fell asleep before it finished. The kid were funny. They complained fiercely if anyone was “touching” them, but after they fell asleep they all seemed to use each other as pillows.

Near Bismarck, around 2am, Cheryl got too tired to drive and I took over. Cheryl opened the back door to re-situate the kids and let in about 2000 mosquitoes in the process. This turned out to be my good fortune as I’ll explain later.

After a stop for a hot cup of coffee, I was ready to go. I thrive in late-night, long-distance driving and this was no exception. To make an all night drive takes some prior planning. To keep me going I had some great music to listen to, with headphones, like Allman Brothers Band, Derek Trucks Band, and FiveTen. I also kept busy swatting all those mosquitoes Cheryl let in. By morning the windshield was spotted with my good marksmanship, though the back of my hand was sore.

In retrospect our timing couldn’t have been better. We got to North Dakota just as the sun was setting and by time the sun starting lightening up the eastern sky, we were entering Montana. I made good time driving through NoDak & Montana, thanks to a lack of traffic and a new radar detector. I won’t mention my speed since my mom is probably going to read this.

I thought all the scenery in Montana was on the western side, but I was pleasantly surprised by the beauty of eastern Montana. As the morning light started shining, it made silhouettes of many buttes, mesas, and hills. Further on down the road I saw a thunderstorm off in the distance. As I approaches the storm the sun came up more and started filtering a great, pink light on the clouds. It was surreal. Finally when I drove through it, the sun was fully above the horizon and I was driving through a thunderstorm in full day light. It was quite a rush, especially in my sleep deprived state.

After that diversion was over, I entertained myself with self-portraits with the digital camera. As I said, I was sleep deprived.

At Billing, 8:30am, I woke the crew up and we ate breakfast and followed that up with some geocaching to stretch our legs.. Cheryl drove for a ways after that as I tried to sleep. That was finally made possible after stopping for ear plugs. Still, I only got 2 or 3 hours in. We stopped in Bozeman for lunch and a break at a local playground. Bozeman is pretty cool town...well their downtown is. It’s a very quaint area, striking in its lack of chain restaurants. Get outside the downtown area, though, and it’s pretty run down.

That night we stopped in Missoula for the night at the Wingate Inn. The kids loved this as they had a small waterpark with two slides. I got to practice my lifeguard skills with William, though. He was doing fine in 2 feet of water and I went over to the hot tub right next to the pool to tell Cheryl that we were going back the room in 5 minutes. After I turned around I saw that William, hanging on the side of the pool, had scooted out to 3.5 feet of water. I hollered at him to get back and he let go, then flailed his arms in a panic as he was in too deep. I was 30 feet away and I jumped in and high stepped it all the way there, grabbing William out of the water. He was shook up, but fine. The real life guard saw him go under the same time I did but hadn’t even finished standing up by the time I got there. After I put William down, I could feel all the parents eyes on me. Not sure if they thought I was a hero or a terrible parent. Not that I really care. When I got back to Cheryl in the hot tub, one woman leaned over and said, “I’ve never seen anyone walk on water before”.

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Photos

The crew is ready!
Here's the five of us in a photo taken by one of my favorite neighbors, Laura, who is Katie's best friend.

Sunrise in the Rear View Mirror
After several failed attempts at capturing a photo of the sunrise that greeted me after we got in Montana, I settled for this

Montana at 85mph
If only we had time to stop.

Using Each Other as Pillows
Every time they moved back there I got a chuckle out of it.

Using Each Other as Pillows
I should have taken more photos each time.

Entertaining Myself With The Digital Camera
By this time I was laughing at just about anything. I drove 1000 of 1200 miles with 3 hours of sleep in between.

Entertaining Myself With The Digital Camera
This one had me laughing for 3 miles, though now I wonder why.

WelcomeTo Billings
This was at one of our geocaching stops. We found a geocache hidden right beind this sign.

A Day at the Movies
Here was our setup for watching movies. Forget the 7 inch DVD players, we had a 15 inch laptop (with DVDs ripped to the hard drive to avoid carrying DVDS with us) in a laptop case designed to be strapped between the two seats. I also had an FM transmitter plugged in to it so the kids could listen to the soundtrack on the truck stereo system. This is a GREAT way to go!

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[5Savages]

From My Mom
You are right - Mom is reading these.Remember that slogan -- "Slow down and live"!