"Go West Young Man" – Part 2

It just dawned on me why it’s called “amber waves of grain”. You see…when you’re driving through that area, you feel just like you would if you were on the open seas – thrown about at the mercy of the wind and all that. It makes perfect sense now.

Anyway, on with the trip!

We woke up Monday morning and started the 8 hour leg of the trip to Rapid City, South Dakota. If you’ve never had the opportunity to drive through South Dakota, let me tell you something: Count yourself lucky! Just as soon as you get within 30 miles of the Iowa/South Dakota border, you start seeing these billboards for Wall Drug, Corn Palace and Reptile City and various other “attractions” that any normal person wouldn’t stop at. I mean, these billboards are spaced out evenly every 10 feet or so the WHOLE way across South Dakota! I’m not kidding! By the time you actually get to one of the turnoffs, all you can think to yourself is “Well, that’s one less set of crappy billboards we’ll have to look at!” Then again, I was worried that even after we passed the turnoff, we would see stuff like, “You just missed Corn Palace! The turnoff was 60 miles ago! Turn around and go back!” It’s hideous and I can’t imagine why anyone would want to stop. Ok, I’ll admit it…we stopped at Wall Drug and were overcome with just the…insanity of it all. I swear the whole town of Wall survives off the revenue from Wall Drug.

South Dakota is one of those places that doesn’t have much going for it. It’s basically Nebraska with less wind. The only redeeming things for South Dakota would be the Black Hills, the Badlands and Mount Rushmore. We drove through these, although not the best way, and went to see Mount Rushmore (with the U-Haul, of course). If you’ve never seen Mount Rushmore (MR from now on), it’s really pretty impressive. Apparently, this guy got a bee in his bonnet and decided that this stretch of rock that looked cool would look even better with some presidential visage on it. On top of that, some other enterprising individuals thought it would be even cooler to build a tourist trap at the bottom of the hill that leads up to the park. Man, that rocks. Nothing like flashing lights and people milling about buying worthless trinkets to add to the splendor of a national monument! Anyway, they’ve done quite a bit of work on MR and the grounds since I was there about 20 years ago and it was a new experience.

We left Rapid City on Tuesday morning for Helena, Montana…another 8 hour drive or so. Wyoming is very rural. I mean, we went an hour on the road without seeing a town at one stretch…it was awesome! And the scenery! Oh…my…goodness! It was amazing. Some of the mountains that you could see off in the distance were snow capped. At one point, there was a storm moving in through the mountains and you could see the clouds pour through the gap between two peaks. Montana was more of the same…but even better.

Some of the mountains that surround I-90 are just amazing. I mean, you’re driving along realizing how funny it is to see the word “Mountain” used at all on the East coast. Some of them were so high and rough looking that the road goes quite a way out of the way just to go around it so you don’t have to burn 3 engines and 2 transmissions (not to mention brakes!) going up and over them. Remember, Montana has Glacier National Park and parts of Yellowstone…it’s that awesome in some places. We got to Helena around 4pm and met up with groovy’s cousin and her husband (Mr. and Mrs. DEA…I’ll come up with a better name eventually guys). We all went out to eat with some of Mrs. DEA’s family and just had a great time talking and relaxing.

The next morning was the big deal. It was the moment my tired body had been awaiting for 40 hours at that point. We were going to get to Missoula. We got up and headed out again on the road. Let me tell you about a little thing called “MacDonald Pass”. Many years ago (some say around the year 1990), these two guys were driving along this stretch of road that hadn’t been named at that point. Well, one of the guys decided that he wasn’t about to look at the tail end of the other guy’s car anymore, so he decided to go around him. Unfortunately for him, the sharp turn coupled with the 50,000 foot drop off proved to be just a bit much for him and his car “left the road” (to use the insurance term). That guy’s stupidity was forever immortalized by the naming of MacDonald (the guy) Pass (the stupid thing he tried to do). All joking and exaggerations aside, MacDonald Pass frequently closes in the winter because it’s impassible. And the view from there…it’s awesome.

We pulled into Missoula around 11am. After talking with the landlord and getting our keys, we went up to the apartment and began unloading all our stuff. That process took until yesterday and I’m pleased to report that 90% of everything is put away! YAY! I’ll describe Missoula: Missoula is a college town nestled in a valley surrounded by mountains with even higher mountains (with snow on them!) off in the distance. I’m looking out the office window and I see the interstate (it’s close enough to see, but far enough away not to hear…then again, so few vehicles are on it, I don’t know if I could hear it or not anyway!). Out the living room window, all you can see off in the distance are mountains (with snow!!). Missoula itself is not what you would think. It’s kind of a mixture of mountain/outdoor folks, California hippy types and business people. Oh, and I would venture to guess that about 30% of the people here ride bikes through town instead of driving (I don’t know what they do during the winter though…besides freeze).

One last thing: we counted all the different license plates that we saw on the whole trip: We saw 45 states and 4 Canadian provinces! All we were missing was: Hawaii, Arkansas, New Hampshire, Vermont and Rhode Island…not too shabby!

We survived the journey. We have a new home. The next task…find a job!