The Long and Winding...and Hilly and Bumpy and Desolate...Road

I continued my extended detour from my drive to Montana by heading south out of Rapid City, South Dakota. Slightly more than 24 years ago I drove from Chicago to Great Falls, Montana, and my first duty station of my brief Air Force career, Malmstrom Air Force Base. On the way I discovered a peculiar quirk I have, which is the tendency to be so focused on getting "there" that I ignore all manner of interesting things along the way...like The Badlands and Mount Rushmore. What's that? 30 miles out of my way on a four-day, thousand mile trip? HELL NO! I ain't stoppin'!

Well, this time I made certain to convince myself that three days in Great Falls won't be any less interesting than four, and so I stopped yesterday in The Badlands, and today at Rush Mountmore (Tee hee! I just found my new porn name!).



This view greets you as you break through the tree-line on your way up.


Just for a sense of scale...


The view as viewed from the point of view of the view point.


Here they are: George, Paul, Ringo and John.


He had an expensive Nikon. I told him it operated just like a Nikon. I
even set it to full auto so he wouldn't have to try to figure anything out.
I assumed he would know how to take a photo. Maybe he had 'Canon envy.'
I hope he enjoys the damn perfect shot of him and his wife I took with his
Nikon! (Click on photo to see that about which I comment.)


And then you get this parting-shot view, just to
make you get out of your car one last time before
you leave the park!

I decided to head to Montana through the northeast corner of Wyoming. I had never driven through that part of the state before, so I thought it would be fun. The drive down from Mount Rushmore was pretty cool, with a lot of hills and switchbacks.


Another pink road. There's gotta be a reason.


I didn't see her. Do you?


Mountains!


Very soon after I entered Montana I passed a crew that was tasked with
T.P.-ing the road for some reason.


Sunset mountain.


Awesome sunset sky! Not bad for a photo taken through a window while
driving at 65 m.p.h. on an otherwise dark road! I may enlarge and
enframe this one!

I seem to have chosen the wrong time of year to travel across the Northern Tier, as when I arrived in Lewistown, Montana, there were no rooms available anywhere. And there were slim pickins when I arrived in Great Falls -- the NAWEOA convention is taking up all the rooms in the damn state! But at least I got the last non-smoking room at the Motel 6, a disability accessible room. Nothing like having those toilet handles handy when the urge hits you sudden-like!

Thanks to ts2bx Mrs. Farrago for letting me borrow her 70-300mm zoom lens for the trip! (Nikon (DSC) close-up images at Mount Rushmore)