Hey all,
Speaking of those little things I forget to mention...we noticed that in Canada most restaraunts do not serve ice in their drinks. We first noticed this at A&W. Neither of the drinks had ice and then we saw a note on the side of the cup that said something to the effect of: You may notice that our soda pop does not have ice in it. This is because our fountain machine chills the water to a perfect and refreshing temperature while ice only dillutes the flavor! Several places we've been to have not served ice.
My primary reason for this morning's update was due to this past night. Everything you've heard about endless sun in the summer is true! As we've gotten farther and farther north we've noticed that it doesn't get dark until much later. Well, last night it pretty much never came. I woke up around 12:30 am and it was still pretty much daylight out (similar to late afternoon/early evening sun). Then again at 2:30 am it looked like dusk, and again at 4am it was sunrise. This really plays tricks on your internal clock! Combined with the fact that we have gone from Eastern time to being in Pacific, 3 hrs behind and it is difficult to fall asleep. We both are up by 4:30 or 5 am. Oh well,...
Today we are supposed to get deep into the northern Rockies. We plan to stop at a bed & breakfast-ish kind of cabin that is right on the Continental Divide. The guide and map books talk about the amazing scenery, switchback roads, and NO GUARDRAILS! So, I guess that means it should be an interesting day of driving. Well, see you all this evening!
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Day 9, Recap
Since these days are so long, everytime we get out on the road SweetPea and I end up talking about things we forgot to bring up on the blog. In that light, here are some meandering thoughts and things we've noticed...
The farther north we go, the longer it takes to get dark. Last night in Dawson Creek, BC it didn't start getting dark until around 10 or 10:30. By about 5 it is bright out again. I can only imagine that tonight, a couple hundred miles from the Northwest Territories (that is a Canadian province, similar to a state if I'm not mistaken) it will take even longer. Tommorow night's stop is near Watson Lake, on the Yukon border. In the guide book they claim that it is near Canada's 60th parrelel and "never gets dark in the summer". It isn't as far north as our destination so I'm sure darkness will eventually fall.
Oh yeah, Canada uses their own currency and the metric system. The currency is called dollars, but looks totally different. They also have coins for $1, $2, $.25, and others. When we walked into a place for dinner tonight, they had one of those gumball style machines that drops out little keychain toys. In the coin slot there was a note that said "1 Tooney". I looked online this evening and a Tooney is the $2 coin, while a Looney is the $1. Also, while looking for that I found out that a common negative nickname for Canadians is a "frostback". I giggled but don't plan to bring it up in conversation anytime soon. It's just funny to me that some racist names are considered SO negative, while others are just dumb. Oh well,..
While ordering in the same establishment the waitress asked me if I wanted gravy on my fries:
Me: "Uhm, I don't mean to be smart, but what kind of gravy is it?" (I thought they might call ketchup gravy or something like that.)
Her: "Meat?" as she shrugged her shoulders.
When it came, it was actually brown turkey gravy. Dipping the fries in it tasted awesome, too.
We also had to go to the front desk and ask for help using the coin-op washing machine. It was $1.50. The problem is we had .50 coins, 1.00, 2.00, but the machine had 3 slots. So, again the big loud Yankee had to go ask which coin goes in which slot (they were different sizes and not all coins go in all slots).
It's been funny that everytime I have to talk to a Canadian, their eyes light up and they smile when I start talking. I guess some people find the sound of backwoods hillbillies to be interesting. Again,...things that make you go, "huh."
Gas is sold by the litre here. So that makes it a colossal pain figuring out how much you need. I could get off my butt and learn the conversion, but like other Americans I refuse to let the metric system win!
The farther north we go, the longer it takes to get dark. Last night in Dawson Creek, BC it didn't start getting dark until around 10 or 10:30. By about 5 it is bright out again. I can only imagine that tonight, a couple hundred miles from the Northwest Territories (that is a Canadian province, similar to a state if I'm not mistaken) it will take even longer. Tommorow night's stop is near Watson Lake, on the Yukon border. In the guide book they claim that it is near Canada's 60th parrelel and "never gets dark in the summer". It isn't as far north as our destination so I'm sure darkness will eventually fall.
Oh yeah, Canada uses their own currency and the metric system. The currency is called dollars, but looks totally different. They also have coins for $1, $2, $.25, and others. When we walked into a place for dinner tonight, they had one of those gumball style machines that drops out little keychain toys. In the coin slot there was a note that said "1 Tooney". I looked online this evening and a Tooney is the $2 coin, while a Looney is the $1. Also, while looking for that I found out that a common negative nickname for Canadians is a "frostback". I giggled but don't plan to bring it up in conversation anytime soon. It's just funny to me that some racist names are considered SO negative, while others are just dumb. Oh well,..
While ordering in the same establishment the waitress asked me if I wanted gravy on my fries:
Me: "Uhm, I don't mean to be smart, but what kind of gravy is it?" (I thought they might call ketchup gravy or something like that.)
Her: "Meat?" as she shrugged her shoulders.
When it came, it was actually brown turkey gravy. Dipping the fries in it tasted awesome, too.
We also had to go to the front desk and ask for help using the coin-op washing machine. It was $1.50. The problem is we had .50 coins, 1.00, 2.00, but the machine had 3 slots. So, again the big loud Yankee had to go ask which coin goes in which slot (they were different sizes and not all coins go in all slots).
It's been funny that everytime I have to talk to a Canadian, their eyes light up and they smile when I start talking. I guess some people find the sound of backwoods hillbillies to be interesting. Again,...things that make you go, "huh."
Gas is sold by the litre here. So that makes it a colossal pain figuring out how much you need. I could get off my butt and learn the conversion, but like other Americans I refuse to let the metric system win!
We Really Aren't In Kansas Anymore (Day 9)
Today it was hard for me to get out of bed. Unfortunately, the incredibly noisy pipes in our hotel room forced me up once SweetPea started showering and getting ready. Anyway, a quick 'continental' breakfast and we were ready. Oh, by the way, because I'm grumpy by nature and have you here as a captive audience I'd like to point out that 'continental' is apparently hotel-speak for cheap. Of all the hotels we've been to on this trip, all but two have bragged about their complementary breakfasts. These have all consisted of toast, bananas, and apples. Now, I'm certainly not one to look a gift horse in the mouth (and clearly I haven't turned down very many meals in my time :P ) but it kills us that these hotels brag about their breakfast, considering the money you pay, and then put out a loaf of bread and a toaster for breakfast. The hotels that were an exception rather than the rule on this trip actually served hot eggs, sausage, bacon, biscuits and gravy. Anyway, now that I'm done complaining about innkeeping on to the trip...
The plan was to drive roughly 300 miles from Dawson Creek, British Columbia, into the Northern Rocky Mountains to the town of Fort Nelson, BC. As soon as we left town the road went from your typical 2 lanes north and 2 lanes south to a small 2 lane highway. It seemed to go about 10 to 50 miles between any kind of side roads, which in this case seem to be access roads to oil rigs and other industrial areas. Saying it was remote is putting it lightly. Here is some of the scenery from the road. The camera doesn't quite capture the steep hills and breath-taking vistas. Also, notice the complete lack of guard rails!
The plan was to drive roughly 300 miles from Dawson Creek, British Columbia, into the Northern Rocky Mountains to the town of Fort Nelson, BC. As soon as we left town the road went from your typical 2 lanes north and 2 lanes south to a small 2 lane highway. It seemed to go about 10 to 50 miles between any kind of side roads, which in this case seem to be access roads to oil rigs and other industrial areas. Saying it was remote is putting it lightly. Here is some of the scenery from the road. The camera doesn't quite capture the steep hills and breath-taking vistas. Also, notice the complete lack of guard rails!
So, breathtaking scenery aside we spent the better part of the day craning our necks looking for bears and moose. So far on this trip we have seen several farms that have penned bison and elk. These are all awesome looking, but I don't really count them until we see the animals in the wild. We have seen countless signs warning of elk, caribou, and moose. Especially, moose signs. Lots and lots and lots of moose signs. But, no moose! Finally, when we were driving today through some crazy twists and turns in the mountains SweetPea shouted and pointed. This is what her camera captured:
Ok, so her camera was about 3 seconds too late! Just to my left there was a huge cow moose with a little calf behind her. She was so massive and tall that SweetPea asked if it was a giraffe. She later said that she is a city slicker and doesn't know any thing about wild animals (I don't know anymore than she does, but I'll never admit it :P). Anyway, the moose had to have been as tall as the truck. Less than 10 minutes later we were driving down a long straight stretch when another moose came walking out alongside the road with her calf behind her as well. So all day straining to see them, then 2 cows within minutes of each other. Still, no bears... The guide book cautions about bears, stone sheep, wild horses, and bison all over tommorrow's pathway. Should be interesting!
All the rivers we've passed have been gorgeous. Even the ponds and lakes are a brilliant blue color. Oops, I meant, colour! Oh, and all the menus have drinks listed as 'pop' instead of soda. Small things, I guess. :)
Once this was all posted, I remembered that we also saw a dead moose roughly the size of a compact car laying next to the road. Needless to say, she smelled quite pleasant.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Day 8, Into the Wild...
We were up and early today with a 360 mile drive before us on the way into Dawson Creek, British Columbia. This was really our first day into the wild. Up until now, even when we drove through wilderness we stopped in big towns. From this point on out, the towns we're stopping in are smaller fort towns. Basically, a few hotels, restaraunts, and gas stations.
The first hundred or so miles was pretty much the same as the rest of Canada. Finally, we started seeing some large hills and rows of pine trees. We started seeing a lot of what I think are Birch trees, with their white trunks. They are all over the place and I can only imagine that they present quite a sight in the fall.
SweetPea was trying to fall asleep during the afternoon portion of the drive. Throughout the entire day my focus has been spotting animals. So when SweetPea fell asleep it occured to me that we had not worked out a system yet. Was I supposed to wake her up for anything, or only Moose/bears/large animals!? So, 20 minutes later she was deep asleep. Suddenly, I saw something large and brown moving right next to the roadway. I yelled for her to wake up, and the instant she stirred I realized it was a deer. Not a whitetail, but also not a bear or moose. She wiped the sleep out of her eyes, then turned to me, "don't wake me up for anything less than a bear or moose again." Ok, so now we have a system....
Anyway, we are in Dawson Creek, BC for the night. Tommorow we will head out for Fort Nelson, BC. Including tomorrow we have 5 days of driving. See you all on the other side!
The first hundred or so miles was pretty much the same as the rest of Canada. Finally, we started seeing some large hills and rows of pine trees. We started seeing a lot of what I think are Birch trees, with their white trunks. They are all over the place and I can only imagine that they present quite a sight in the fall.
SweetPea was trying to fall asleep during the afternoon portion of the drive. Throughout the entire day my focus has been spotting animals. So when SweetPea fell asleep it occured to me that we had not worked out a system yet. Was I supposed to wake her up for anything, or only Moose/bears/large animals!? So, 20 minutes later she was deep asleep. Suddenly, I saw something large and brown moving right next to the roadway. I yelled for her to wake up, and the instant she stirred I realized it was a deer. Not a whitetail, but also not a bear or moose. She wiped the sleep out of her eyes, then turned to me, "don't wake me up for anything less than a bear or moose again." Ok, so now we have a system....
Anyway, we are in Dawson Creek, BC for the night. Tommorow we will head out for Fort Nelson, BC. Including tomorrow we have 5 days of driving. See you all on the other side!
Day 7, Or I think we're still in Kansas
Greetings and salutations! Again we had a rather uneventful day (thankfully). Today we drove a mere 200-some miles north to Edmonton, Alberta. It is another major metropolis packed full of people. On the ride up we were both amazed over and over how much the land looked just like Iowa or any of the other plains states. It was flat and mostly without trees. Kind of disappointing to be honest. I'm not trying to take anything away from the beauty of Canada but I had built up this impression that Montana and everything north were just these mountain wildernesses that would be home to White Fang or something of that nature.
In Edmonton we stopped off at the Edmonton West Mall. It is the largest indoor mall in the world. Yes, the WORLD. Mall of America is the largest in the US, but supposedly this one trumps them all. We spent a couple hours there and barely saw anything. They have an enormous amuzement park and an indoor water park all within the mall.
While driving down the road we did see several deer and even a coyote. It could have been a wolf but I'm not sure. Anyway, not too much else happened today.
In Edmonton we stopped off at the Edmonton West Mall. It is the largest indoor mall in the world. Yes, the WORLD. Mall of America is the largest in the US, but supposedly this one trumps them all. We spent a couple hours there and barely saw anything. They have an enormous amuzement park and an indoor water park all within the mall.
While driving down the road we did see several deer and even a coyote. It could have been a wolf but I'm not sure. Anyway, not too much else happened today.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Strangers in a Strange Land (Days 5 & 6)
Get ready folks, this is a long post with no pics!!! Well, no updates yesterday because there wasn't a whole lot that was news-worthy. We started the day in Billings Montana and drove to Great Falls. We literally drove around 20 or 30 miles without seeing a single soul. I should also add that this was on wide open land. I mean, for as far as you can see in any direction there were no houses, no cars, no nothing! It was really desolate and depressing. On the plus side, I could imagine John Wayne or a bunch of cowboys charging acrossed the land. The moto of Big Sky Country is very well deserved. It seems that the earth is lowo n the horizon and sky is all you see. Like I said yesterday, compared to the hills and mountains of Wyoming and South Dakota I was really let down.
Montana did give me my first glimpse of no-kidding mountains. We had been driving for quite a while with nothing particular scenic to see when we started driving through these small hills that looked similar to mesas. When we came around from behind one, way off to the west we could see the dark silhouete of a mountain and its snow-capped peaks.
That night we stayed at a nice hotel in Great Falls, Montana. When we left the next morning we could see a long chain of gorgeous snow covered mountains way off to the west that I assume were part of Glacier National Park. They looked spectactular even fronm 70 or so miles away. I should point out that we obviously didn't go to Yellowstone. Earlier this week SweetPea and I were trying to find hotels in Yellowstone and noticed 2 things: hotels there were running close to $200 and higher for nowhere near the park, and second, you can't just show up to Yellowstone without a plan. We weighed our options and decided we'd wait and do Yellowstone on a real, planned-out vacation. Besides, we both want to spend several days at Deadwood in the near future.
When we were in Billings we had breakfast at Denny's. Again, everyone spoke with thick accents that we found interesting (keep in mind I'm not knocking anyone's accent, while taking my own into account!). Anyway, SweetPea said that our waitress resembled actress Nicole Sullivan (she plays Holly the dogwalker on King of Queens). After getting another glimpse of our waitress I had to agree that she did look like Ms. Sullivan's twin, only with dark brown hair. Anyway, everytime she came to the table SweetPea and I thought she really did look like the actress. Once she handed us our bill and it had her name on it, Holly, we were really cracking up since that is the character's name. So, when she came back to the table, I apologized if I was being too forward or making her uncomfortable, but had she seen the show, King of Queens? We said she looked like the dog walker. She started laughing and said she hears that all the time. When we saw her name was the same as the character's we thought it was spooky and had to say something. One of those, 'I guess you had to be there' kind of stories I guess. So yeah, that's my big story for the day....we met a celebrity that wasn't a celebrity at all. Reminds me of the time I met John Travolta in Seattle's SEATAC airport. Ask me about that one sometime...
Anyway, Great Falls was to be our last night in the continental US for some as-yet-undetermined amount of time. The next morning (Sunday) we hit the road early. This was even more desolate than the first day of driving across Montana. Naturally, I didn't gas up before leaving town and after 75 miles we hadn't seen a single town and the tank was down to just over 1/4. We took the first exit indicating gas only to find that it was a small farming town with one gas station that is closed on Sundays, and doesn't offer credit card pay at the pump. So, we were back to the interstate after wasting precious gas we couldn't afford. Fortunately, the GPS indicated a gas station about 10 miles down the road and I was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief once the tank was full.
Something else interesting all across Montana and Wyoming were the pronghorn antelope. They are roughly deer-sized light-tan animals. I'm used to seeing deer that run on sight in Ohio. However, these animals are all over the place here. And they just stand there. We saw them out foraging in fields and even just sleeping. Since there are pretty much no trees, it wasn't uncommon to see a dozen or so just out sleeping 500 yards from the road. Sometimes there was one, other times there were dozens. I can't even count how many we've seen.
Also today, while driving I saw something shoot acrossed the road that resembled a squirrel. I realized it was a prairie dog. We subsequently saw dozens and dozens of them (probably another dozen dead ones too,...). They seem to be pretty stupid as they will dart out in front of vehicles, some of them would just stand there in place in the middle of the road, even with vehicles straddling them at 90 miles an hour!
I've always heard that Candians are friendly people. My first experience wit ha representative of the Canadian border was not a pleasant one. The female customs agent flat out yelled at me and the wife when we handed her our military IDs and travel orders. Apparently, the paperwork my unit sent me with was incorrect, and just by dumbluck I had the necessary stuff. (For me they required my sealed/stamped birth certificate) Anyway, it sucked and she was incredibly rude. I pride myself on addressing others, especially government works in a very professional manner (the same way I expect to be treated). When I was in a car accident years ago the state trooper had such an attitude with me, and then again today. Anyway, I'm just venting and the wife and I had a laugh because there are clearly jerks in all walks of life.
So, once in Canada we discovered how difficult it is to monitor your speed using the tiny little kmh they put on the speedometer! We were crawling at 100 kmh while everyone else flew past us. The funy thing was that all the way to Calgary (where we are spending the night) the cars were all American. In fact, with the exception of license plates you really can't tell you are in a foreign country. Apparently, driving like a bat out of hell while talking on the cell phone isn't exclusive to Americans. Who knew!?
It's funny, I feel like I stand out so badly here. As long as I keep my mouth shut I'm fine. But, the instant I open my mouth I'm clearly a yankee. The look on people's faces when they realize a yankee is here is pretty priceless. There are a LOT of Asian people here so SweetPea said she doesn't feel too out of place.
Anyway, tomorow morning we are heading out to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. So far Canda looks exactly like Montana: flat, big sky, lots of fields with nothing in them. Nothing...zilch...notta...zero... Hopefully, tomorrow we'll start to see some of the natural beauty here. We've noticed that it doesn't get dark until LATE here. In Montana it didn't get dark until 10pm. And it was daylight by around 5ish. Well, I've rambled on for a long time.
I can't think of a good sign-off saying, so...
This is Ripley, last survivor of the Nostromo, signing off. (Yeah, I am weird...)
Montana did give me my first glimpse of no-kidding mountains. We had been driving for quite a while with nothing particular scenic to see when we started driving through these small hills that looked similar to mesas. When we came around from behind one, way off to the west we could see the dark silhouete of a mountain and its snow-capped peaks.
That night we stayed at a nice hotel in Great Falls, Montana. When we left the next morning we could see a long chain of gorgeous snow covered mountains way off to the west that I assume were part of Glacier National Park. They looked spectactular even fronm 70 or so miles away. I should point out that we obviously didn't go to Yellowstone. Earlier this week SweetPea and I were trying to find hotels in Yellowstone and noticed 2 things: hotels there were running close to $200 and higher for nowhere near the park, and second, you can't just show up to Yellowstone without a plan. We weighed our options and decided we'd wait and do Yellowstone on a real, planned-out vacation. Besides, we both want to spend several days at Deadwood in the near future.
When we were in Billings we had breakfast at Denny's. Again, everyone spoke with thick accents that we found interesting (keep in mind I'm not knocking anyone's accent, while taking my own into account!). Anyway, SweetPea said that our waitress resembled actress Nicole Sullivan (she plays Holly the dogwalker on King of Queens). After getting another glimpse of our waitress I had to agree that she did look like Ms. Sullivan's twin, only with dark brown hair. Anyway, everytime she came to the table SweetPea and I thought she really did look like the actress. Once she handed us our bill and it had her name on it, Holly, we were really cracking up since that is the character's name. So, when she came back to the table, I apologized if I was being too forward or making her uncomfortable, but had she seen the show, King of Queens? We said she looked like the dog walker. She started laughing and said she hears that all the time. When we saw her name was the same as the character's we thought it was spooky and had to say something. One of those, 'I guess you had to be there' kind of stories I guess. So yeah, that's my big story for the day....we met a celebrity that wasn't a celebrity at all. Reminds me of the time I met John Travolta in Seattle's SEATAC airport. Ask me about that one sometime...
Anyway, Great Falls was to be our last night in the continental US for some as-yet-undetermined amount of time. The next morning (Sunday) we hit the road early. This was even more desolate than the first day of driving across Montana. Naturally, I didn't gas up before leaving town and after 75 miles we hadn't seen a single town and the tank was down to just over 1/4. We took the first exit indicating gas only to find that it was a small farming town with one gas station that is closed on Sundays, and doesn't offer credit card pay at the pump. So, we were back to the interstate after wasting precious gas we couldn't afford. Fortunately, the GPS indicated a gas station about 10 miles down the road and I was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief once the tank was full.
Something else interesting all across Montana and Wyoming were the pronghorn antelope. They are roughly deer-sized light-tan animals. I'm used to seeing deer that run on sight in Ohio. However, these animals are all over the place here. And they just stand there. We saw them out foraging in fields and even just sleeping. Since there are pretty much no trees, it wasn't uncommon to see a dozen or so just out sleeping 500 yards from the road. Sometimes there was one, other times there were dozens. I can't even count how many we've seen.
Also today, while driving I saw something shoot acrossed the road that resembled a squirrel. I realized it was a prairie dog. We subsequently saw dozens and dozens of them (probably another dozen dead ones too,...). They seem to be pretty stupid as they will dart out in front of vehicles, some of them would just stand there in place in the middle of the road, even with vehicles straddling them at 90 miles an hour!
I've always heard that Candians are friendly people. My first experience wit ha representative of the Canadian border was not a pleasant one. The female customs agent flat out yelled at me and the wife when we handed her our military IDs and travel orders. Apparently, the paperwork my unit sent me with was incorrect, and just by dumbluck I had the necessary stuff. (For me they required my sealed/stamped birth certificate) Anyway, it sucked and she was incredibly rude. I pride myself on addressing others, especially government works in a very professional manner (the same way I expect to be treated). When I was in a car accident years ago the state trooper had such an attitude with me, and then again today. Anyway, I'm just venting and the wife and I had a laugh because there are clearly jerks in all walks of life.
So, once in Canada we discovered how difficult it is to monitor your speed using the tiny little kmh they put on the speedometer! We were crawling at 100 kmh while everyone else flew past us. The funy thing was that all the way to Calgary (where we are spending the night) the cars were all American. In fact, with the exception of license plates you really can't tell you are in a foreign country. Apparently, driving like a bat out of hell while talking on the cell phone isn't exclusive to Americans. Who knew!?
It's funny, I feel like I stand out so badly here. As long as I keep my mouth shut I'm fine. But, the instant I open my mouth I'm clearly a yankee. The look on people's faces when they realize a yankee is here is pretty priceless. There are a LOT of Asian people here so SweetPea said she doesn't feel too out of place.
Anyway, tomorow morning we are heading out to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. So far Canda looks exactly like Montana: flat, big sky, lots of fields with nothing in them. Nothing...zilch...notta...zero... Hopefully, tomorrow we'll start to see some of the natural beauty here. We've noticed that it doesn't get dark until LATE here. In Montana it didn't get dark until 10pm. And it was daylight by around 5ish. Well, I've rambled on for a long time.
I can't think of a good sign-off saying, so...
This is Ripley, last survivor of the Nostromo, signing off. (Yeah, I am weird...)
Friday, June 11, 2010
Two Lonesome Doves
Well, today was another adventure for the books. We got up bright and early, still in Deadwood, South Dakota. Again I have to plug that that place was just completely awesome. We both agree that we will return in a couple years when we can spend several days. The town itself is situated deep in a canyon between some gorgeous mountains. In order to leave the town you must immediately make a steep climb out. Just incredible. When we were checking out of the hotel there was a flyer on the table indicating all the re-enactments happening that day, including Wild Bill's fatal card game shootout and the subsequent trial/hanging. Unfortunately, we needed to hit the road and I knew SweetPea would not accept any further delay on my part.
Being your typical man I again did not gas the truck up the night before. We had just over half a tank of gas. Within a few minutes we were back on the road and heading into Wyoming on the interstate. "I don't need to stop for gas because we're on the interstate and there is gas at every exit." Famous last words, right? We were on the road heading to Devil's Tower National Monument. The first thing I noticed was that although exits were fairly common, almost none had the usual available services signs. So we made the turn for Devil's Tower wit habout half a tank. The road was back and forth through some of the prettiest hills/mountains I've ever seen. I'm sure they aren't true mountains, but are certainly bigger than anything in Ohio!
The whole time I was watching the gas gauge slowly go lower and starting to worry. We didn't see a single car or house all 20ish miles to the monument. Even at the monument there were no services like gas stations. Hmmm, and now we're starting to get low... So, we hopped out for the obligatory photos. Notice the freezing look on SweetPea's face. IT WAS COLD! After taking the pics we plugged the gps for the nearest gas station and I prayed silently the whole way. Pretty stupid of me not to fuel up when we had the chance!
Being your typical man I again did not gas the truck up the night before. We had just over half a tank of gas. Within a few minutes we were back on the road and heading into Wyoming on the interstate. "I don't need to stop for gas because we're on the interstate and there is gas at every exit." Famous last words, right? We were on the road heading to Devil's Tower National Monument. The first thing I noticed was that although exits were fairly common, almost none had the usual available services signs. So we made the turn for Devil's Tower wit habout half a tank. The road was back and forth through some of the prettiest hills/mountains I've ever seen. I'm sure they aren't true mountains, but are certainly bigger than anything in Ohio!
The whole time I was watching the gas gauge slowly go lower and starting to worry. We didn't see a single car or house all 20ish miles to the monument. Even at the monument there were no services like gas stations. Hmmm, and now we're starting to get low... So, we hopped out for the obligatory photos. Notice the freezing look on SweetPea's face. IT WAS COLD! After taking the pics we plugged the gps for the nearest gas station and I prayed silently the whole way. Pretty stupid of me not to fuel up when we had the chance!
After fueling up
we began seeing these things everywhere: Turns out they are snow fences, used to control snow drifts.
we began seeing these things everywhere: Turns out they are snow fences, used to control snow drifts.As we rode across Wyoming we finally entered into Montana. I realize every state has some more spectacular areas than others, but by far the most disapointing place we've seen so far is Montana. I've always heard how spectacular it is, and compared to Western South Dakota and Wyoming it is nothing. Tommorrow when we drive north on the scenic route might change that, but for now I feel let down.
Anyway, we stopped off at the Little Bighorn Battlefield site. It features rolling hillsides covered with grave markers, memorials, and different presentations about the battle. It was certainly a somber site and chilling to think about what had happened on this particular soil.
On a lighter note, when we were driving yesterday I was shocked to see something going charging acrossed the road right in front of the truck: a tumbleweed. I mean, real Bugs Bunny, Wile E. Coyote kind of tumbleweed! haha It was hilarious to me.
Other unusual observations we've noticed is that everyone here has a very thick Sarah Palin accent and says things like, "Oh yeah", "You betcha", and "Don't cha know?". Not that any of this is a bad thing, just a casual observation. I'm afraid to talk for fear of revealing my SOUTHERN heritage. Never thought I'd consider Ohio to be southern...
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