Montana is really Big

Wednesday, September 30
Yellowstone the long way


Took off from Sheridan, Wyoming for Yellowstone. We were headed for the east Yellowstone entrance and planned a stop at Cody, Wyoming on the way. After driving across a steep curvy road which was under construction at the peak, we decided to stop at a little store in Shell, Wyoming to take a break. We had driven a couple of hours and Cody (named for Buffalo Bill) was only an hour or so away. While talking with the lady at the counter, we noticed an intense conversation by a tour bus driver with a load of passengers from England. Turns out, the east entrance to Yellowstone was closed this morning due to a major fire along the road that crosses the park to get to "Old Faithful". The option, was to head north to Montana and continue on I-90 to Bozeman, Montana and come down from the North. No problem? Not if you don't mind a 300 mile detour. We were actually lucky, since if we had not stopped, we would have gone an additional hour or so and then had to backtrack. More "good karma". Just outside of Bozeman, we ran into a snowstorm. The temperature remained around 35, so the roads were just wet. After driving 411 miles today, we are settled into our hotel at the West Enterance on the Montana/Wyoming boarder. Even Homer was silent today as we toughed out the long drive.

"Devil's Tower" Wyoming

Tuesday, September 29. Devil's Tower

"I don't care if they serve free beer on top....I'm not climbing that thing......HOMER"

Mount Rushmore

Tuesday, September 29 Mount Rushmore






"In your face MR. PRESIDENTS....HOMER"

Night at Mount Rushmore

Monday Evening, September 28
Night Lighting Ceremony at Mount Rushmore
Ceremony at the end to honor all veterans visiting the memorial.

Badlands

Monday, September 28 - Badlands of South Dakota










"I'm the baddest, bad guy in the baddest part of the badlands...HOMER"

Corn Palace

Monday, September 28 Corn Palace in Mitchell, Wyoming

"I don''t understand why they make it from corn, then get mad at me when I try to eat it........HOMER

700 miles

After a great family reunion on Saturday, we hit the highway for the great west. With light traffic on Sunday we blew through St. Louis, Kansas City, Omaha, Sioux City and finally Sioux Falls It was a beautiful sunny drive. At the end of the day the trip odometer was on 700 miles. Now that we are out of the flatlands, our next stop should be the Badlands of South Dakota.

"Going Mobile"

This is our first entry in this journal which will chronicle a new stage in our life, which at this point, is an uncharted adventure. We sold our house, boat and one car all within one week of putting them for sale "by owner". We can only explain the great luck we had in "going mobile" as GOOD KARMA. We are putting everything in storage and looking for a new "warmer" place to settle. Packing up our house proved to be a huge task taking all of the time we had prior to closing. On Friday, Sept 18th, we finished loading the moving truck and took off on a 300 mile journey to put our possessions in storage. The weather was a perfect.....everything fit on the truck! I managed to be a capable "truck driver". Our "good karma" continued passing through Chicago at rush hour with very light traffic. We unloaded everything into our storage facility on Saturday, including our Miata. Again, the weather was perfect and everything fit with a little room to spare. We spent the following week visiting family and old friends in Illinois and Indiana. We leave on our driving journey to the west coast on Sunday, September 27.