Day 2 - What a LONG day!
Trip Start
Aug 28, 2011
1
5
38
Trip End
Oct 01, 2011
Where I stayed
The Z-Bar Motel
What I did
Drove from Missoula, WA to Buffalo, WY
Buffalo, Wyoming
Monday, August 29, 2011
The day started rainy and windy in Missoula - we were pretty happy that it had not been a camping night. However, unlike in Tacoma, the rain did not linger and by the time we'd finished breakfast and pulled out of Ruby's Inn, we were dealing with sunny skies. Heather and Kae even got to see Ruby (and her husband, Lou) before we left - what a treat!
We headed to downtown Missoula and walked along the Clark Fork River for a while - plenty of people out riding bikes and walking, and the fish were jumping too. We then ambled over to the University of Montana campus and drove around for a few minutes - I was cool just to see the "kids" making their way to class on the first day of the term
Man, if I could do that over again....
We then got back on I-90 and headed east again - through Butte, over the Continental Divide, and into the small town of Whitehall. We hung out there for almost 2 hours! It was really cool - one main drag, a big park, and lots of "not much else." Real small community. Anyway, we found a geocache there and then got some food at the supermarket and had lunch in the park. The girls even got a trucker to honk his horn for them!
After Whitehall, it was up and over a couple more mountain passes, through Bozeman, and then we found ourselves to be just north of Yellowstone National Park, and driving along the Yellowstone River. My brother Dave and I canoed this river for a few days over 25 years ago. It was kind of neat to re-visit the place.
Then we kept on driving - through Bozeman, then Billings (lots of natural gas refineries there), and finally I-90 turned left and headed south towards Wyoming. By now, we were pushing 5:30 PM - still with a few hours of driving to go....so much for getting any "rest" today.
We took advantage of our location and pulled into the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. It was "too cool for the fridge," as they say. I wish we'd had more time to spend there, but we did get to see some pretty neat things in only an hour - a national cemetery, the site of Custer's Last Stand, and all the land that the Indian tribes kicked the US Army's butt on about 150 years ago. Pretty amazing stuff....
It was then back on the road as the sun was setting over the Rocky Mountains to the West. We stopped for some quickie burgers and tacos (road food) in Sheridan, WY just north of here, and then got to our motel at about 9:15 PM. It seems like a pretty neat place - I wish I got here in the daylight so I could have seen what it looked like. ;-)
Quote of the Day: Kaelise - "Man, these Montana people are friendly!" (said as she was exchanging waves with random passers-by in Whitehall)
