Montana

Funny, but for some reason Montana makes me picture the Marlborough man...although apparently the image created was from Texas. Which I found out by looking it up, and in the process of my research, I unfortunately discovered that when you google 'Montana' you get many images of Hannah Montana - I am sure they love that association there!

But back to our trip. We drove out of Yellowstone - such a beautiful park with incredible variation in the landscape - and into Montana looking for a place to stay. On the recommendation of both Pauline and The Lonely Planet (LP) - Bozeman, Montana is a pretty cool place. So we set our targets there. We were also pretty hungry at that point and trusted the LP recommendation for "Plonk" to have some dinner and a nice glass of wine. We walked in to discover great local place with a nice wine selection and live jazz. Based on that find, we decided Bozeman was in fact - cool.









Hotels were available at pretty good rates on the main strip and so we checked out a couple - one based on our waitress' recommendation, and the other based on the LP's recommendation. The first didn't appeal - so we picked the kitschy Lewis & Clark on the main strip recommended by Lonely Planet.








And once we checked in to our "newly renovated" room - well that is where we realized this was our first bad choice in Montana...

...'nuff said - we won't show you the up close or get into some of the others staying in the motel (either booked in or staying in a boarded up suite under renovation...but thankfully the beds were clean, and we did get some sleep.


In the morning, we made our way over to the local's favourite breakfast spot for some local specialties.

I confidently ordered the scratch biscuits with gravy, sausage and poached eggs and Joe had the uber healthy chicken fried steak which he has been curious to try. We discovered, both are drowned in a white thick gravy studded with sausage bits...I think I lost about 3 years off my life that morning and I do believe I saw pity on the waitress' face as she took my plate away with a cup of gravy (looks like pudding) left on my plate that I had scraped off my biscuits. Yes I exaggerate - but I did honestly have enough of a shock that I will ask what the local interpretation of gravy is for the rest of my life. The biscuits were, however, some of the most tender and delicious buttermilk biscuits ever!

That was our second and final mistake in Bozeman...it really is all about choices, and perhaps doing a bit more research but don't get me wrong, both Pauline and Lonely Planet are right in that Bozeman is a cool place!

Montana is so pretty. It really doesn't matter where you aim your camera - the scenery is gorgeous.









Last stop in Montana was a cool town called Missoula - another University town and here we found a great pub with VEGGIE SANDWICHES!! People are really friendly and the food and local beer were fresh and delicious!

Yellowstone and Montana

Buffalo Wyoming is not necessarily a destination - for us it was a great stop on our way west and we found ourselves at a brand spanking new Hampton Inn, with the friendliest service, friendly travelers (from Bozeman) and a nice, new, clean room.

From Wyoming's wide open spaces (the vastness is sincerely awesome)...when Joe slows down enough for me to get a photo that isn't looking like a smear across our window...









We drove into Yellowstone National Park. Such a diverse landscape with 50% of the world's geysers, many many hot springs (we lost count) and wildlife that stopped traffic.

Yes, Joe may rib me, but I do love the wildlife, the not so wild-life like the cows and you might catch me chatting to them. I'll admit it...like the first guy we encountered who came right over to us as soon as we pulled over.









But some of them inspired more awe, and silence. It was the first time I had ever seen wild herds of bison.










The geysers and hot springs were amazing









Including Old Faithful
















but as there was no room at the inn,











we continued our way out of the park via Madison...and decided to make our way into Montana.

But that's another story...

Wyoming

Wyoming - vast open spaces, open roads - great for testing how fast your car can go.

It's also America's largest coal provider, as evident in the longest train I've ever seen.

We can show you more scenic pictures, but there will be plenty more of that later. Instead, here's some of the rest station we took advantage of. Basically, one of the few signs of civilization we saw along the way!

Wild turkeys!

A pet-friendly state

Some more scenes before we retire for the night, which ended up being in Buffalo WY.

South Dakota - Badlands, Black Hills, Rushmore

After our first camp, we headed west through some amazing open space. Fairly flat, lots of cows for Sharon to talk to, and plenty of billboards advertising the Wall Drug superstore that's only 600 miles away. I'm not kidding.

... and in the distance...

What follows can only be shown in pictures - which doesn't even come close to being there...

... and then our camera battery died. Which is very unfortunate, since we immediately started to encounter mountain goats on the road, the odd bison in the distance, and many a prairie dog in "Prairie Dog Town". Oh well, you can always google a picture of them if you really need to see them.

The other travesty is that we had no camera for our visit to the much-hyped Wall Drug. (I believe we passed at least 50 billboards promoting this place. Again, not kidding.) Ok, not so much a travesty. It's kind of like a faux Wild West Honest Ed's, but run mostly by old people who wouldn't accept Canadian pennies. We bought batteries, new tent pegs, 5 cent coffee and donuts. I decided the ninja stars would not be a good idea.

Across the street was modest burger bar, who kindly charged our camera battery while we ate. So here is the rest of our day:

the tacky town of Keystone, before Mount Rushmore

Rushmore from the highway

An "illegal" picture of Rushmore

As warned in our Lonely Planet guide, the Rushmore tourism folks have made it very "trying" to experience this magnificent wonder. It's still free to see Rushmore, but they'll nail you for parking as soon as you get close. We raced through the gates and snapped some shots before the authorities could catch us. Come and get us in our B200 Turbo with Ontario plates, yankees!

...the helicopter that tried to catch us, and failed.

We then ventured to the nearby Crazy Horse monument:

On our way out, we ended up passing Rushmore again, but from the rear. According to Lonely Planet, there is a naturally formed "5th president" somewhere in the pics below.

I thought I had seen it at the time, but it may have been sunstroke.

more Gorgeous George

Logging... at a state park!

And then we're off to Wyoming...