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)

WY IAm Seldom NE-where MT-haNDed. It's MN-inently How I Was RaiSD

I'm on my road trip to Minnesota via Montana...

I hadn't even started Thursday evening when a severe thunderstorm blew through the Chicago area. I waited it out until it cleared in my area, but only an hour or so on my way...


This eerie-looking storm-front loomed, threatened and eventually got me.


I stayed right at the edge most of the time, but then the road curved
and I drove into the thick of it.

I pulled into Des Moines, Iowa, a little before midnight and stayed in an Econo-lodge. It wasn't pretty, but it was comfortable enough.


Iowa


Nebraska


You know damn WELL that I scoured the road atlas for Hardy
(there's one in Arkansas)!


Why is the road pink?


Any guesses as to what this is?* (O'Neil, Nebraska)


I guess this town thinks it's Irish. (O'Neil, Nebraska)


In case you ever wondered exactly where that was (not to be confused
with Themiddleoffuckingnowhere, where Professor lives).


I'm not sure what this place is called, but apparently they have
large toilets. (Ainsworth, Nebraska)


I love this town...I'm just not sure why.


White, now? If I had ever asked someone how the roads were in Nebraska
and South Dakota, I never would have expected the answer to be "colorful."


The hay-rolls on their annual westward migration.


South Dakota


Badlands!

And so I pulled into Wall, South Dakota, hoping to take a gape at Wall Drug, the attraction for which you start seeing billboards as far east as Illinois. I figured I would spend the night in that town, but when I tried to get a room there were none left. There were smoking rooms, but I had a little time to be picky. That time ran out, however. I wound up driving to Rapid City, but just about everywhere I looked was booked or had their honeymoon suites available for $200/night! I got the last room available at a Fairfield Inn and bedded down for the night.




*It's a single blade for one of these!