Windy day in Wyoming . . . Made It to Montana

Today, we rode over 330 miles.  We left around 6:30AM. The plan was to be farther along than we are but with crosswinds of 20 MPH with gusts up to 40 MPH and grooved pavement, we elected to stop in Billings, MT. There were times when we could not go over 35 MPH.We had a couple of side trips: Devil's Tower & Little Big Horn Battlefield.  The Indian legend about Devil's Tower is that some young Indian girls were running from a bear. The bear was catching up to them so the girls gave up & stopped on a rock & prayed for help. The rock began to rise and the bear still tried to catch them. Those are the claw marks that you can see on the tower. We drove through the battlefield but did not spend a lot of time there. While we were there, we got out the sweatshirts and jackets. It was getting cold. Wyoming & Montana are beautiful.  You can see forever!

We got gas in Moorcroft, WY & Jim's car would not start. It was a dead battery. We pushed off the car & it started. The decision was made to go to the next town, Gillette. A NAPA Store had a battery & 30 minutes later, we were on the road again. While we were waiting, I saw a sign across the street that read: Jack's Liquor Store & Adult Day Care.  Ray says that's where he wants to spend his final years.

Just past Gillette,  we saw the snow covered mountains. for the first time.  What a sight! Tomorrow the plan is to get to Glacier National Park. The low tonight is in the forties.  Tomorrow will be jeans & sweatshirts. 

Mt.Rushmore, Deadwood, Lead & Sturgis

Today we had a short day of only 126 miles.  We will make up for it tomorrow because we plan to do almost 500 miles. It was an interesting day. Mt. Rushmore was so impressive. Ray says that he thinks that it is something that everyone should see at least once. Yesterday we bought a national parks pass. At Mt. Rushmore it still cost $11. to park. I bought a national park passport today. Now whenever I go to a national park, I will get it stamped. We ate lunch at Buffalo's Restaurant in Deadwood. Then we went to Kevin Cosner's cassino/ restaurant. There is a lot of movie memorbilia there. After ice cream in Lead, SD, we headed to the hotel but not before a side trip through Sturgis. There is a huge motor cycle meet there annually. It is a sleepy little town. The only thing that I saw of interest was a bronze statue of a nude cowgirl. (She was wearing a cowboy hat). On the way back Jim pulled in to a weigh station. His car out weighs ours by 240 pounds. Our cars are running great! Tomorrow I will write from Montana.

Badlands and more!

We have now driven almost 1600 miles. All is well.  Believe it or not, we actually got gas at the ghost town. It was only a few gallons as it was over $4.00 a gallon. We saw a great exhibit at a rest area of  Lewis & Clark. We went to Wall Drugs. It was very much a tourist trap now but in 1931, the druggist & family really struggled to survive. What made things happen is they decided to advertise free water & ice. That brought in travelers & made a success of the drug store business.  Water is still free. Next we went to the Badlands. Wow!  It reminds me a little of the Grand Canyon & GA's Providence Canyon but much different. While we were on the interstate, we saw two guys on motorcycles go by. They waved but a lot of people wave. They had spare tires on their bikes. Later, we saw them at the Badlands. Because of an e-mail from Jim Hunter, we found out that they are two guys that he works with. Small world! Tomorrow, we are staying in Rapid City because we are going to Mt. Rushmore & other local places. Then on to Wyoming and Montana.

June 4th A Cooler Day

Today was almost 400 miles of uneventful driving.  We went through 4 states: Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska & South Dakota. We will stay in South Dakota for a few days.  We took a slight detour in order to count Nebraska. We saw some pretty farms and little towns. We had to pay $1.00 to cross an old iron bridge over the Missouri River to get back on track. The river is still at flood stage. We then went to Sioux City for lunch. There were people at a civic center there filling sand bags and big trucks there hauling them away. Many of the farms had huge mounds of dirt to hold back the flood waters. Jim did some fancy turn arounds on the interstate today. All went well. We went to The Corn Palace here in Mitchell where we are today. It is a fancy, huge building that has the outside decorated with real corn. There are murals on the outside that they change annually. We had a nice dinner at a restaurant called The Depot. Jim knew about it because of a recent trip he made on his Honda motorcycle. Tomorrow we will head towards the Badlands.

June3rd, almost 500 miles

The St. Louis Arch

We knew that today would be a long day. However, we didn't know that there would not be any rooms available in Kansas City due to a ball game, NASCAR event & a concert. So we went an extra 50+ miles to St. Joseph, MO.  It was very hot again and we had a couple of small glitches that worked out fine.  First, Phil, I don't have the hat you gave me anymore.  A strong crosswind blew it out of the car. If you want it go to mile 67 of I-70, it is probably still there. Next, one of those noisy Z-Kat-A bugs (I have not idea how to spell it!) came in my window & behind my back. I found in on the seat. It was a creepy bug...kind of looked like a small bat. I threw it out the back window. Then we noticed that Jim & Rose's car was losing a lot of water.  Not a big deal we took the next exit & Ray & Jim fixed it too by getting rid of the thermostat & adding 1 3/4 gal. of water. (I didn't know that Model A's don't need thermostats.) It  might have taken 15 minutes & we were back on the road again. It is still very hot but now we are heading north so it should start to get cooler.  I plan to add some pictures soon. Just haven't had a chance yet.

370 Miles the first official day

The adventure begins.

For the most part, today was uneventful. We left at 6AM & got gas. We were ready to go & our car would not start. It was a quick fix. A blown fuse. Ray was trying to take special care to make sure that everything was in great shape. He changed the fuse the night before because it looked ready to blow.  We had some really hot weather, mid 90s today. We are in Paducah, KY. We went to  the river front area to eat dinner. It is very pretty. Tomorrow there is a rod run there but we will be on our way by 7AM.  Padcuah is where the Ohio & Tennessee Rivers meet. Tomorrow is another long day, probably 420 miles. It is supposed to be hot but after tomorrow, we will be going north to cooler temperatures. (Hopefully)

Teri

Just the beginning

This is the unofficial first day.  Ray & I went to Marietta to the home of Jim & Rose. We plan to leave at 6AM tomorrow. We want to beat some of the heat. We are ready to start our adventure. Tomorrow is the first official day.