On the road again...

Arose from the deluxe Ramada accomodations to a McDonalds sausage biscuit. (The Ramadas continental breakfast appeared to have come from some continent but none that I am familiar with). The general ambiance of the place is evidenced in this picture. Notice the horse trailer under the Ramada sign. Enough said.

It was a day of Discovery... #1. Pompeys Tower. Have you ever heard of Pompeys Tower? Well neither had we, so being the brazen explorers that we have become thought we should find out! Well, it is where William Clark (AKA the Lewis & Clark expedition), carved his name into the sandstone of this big pile of rock (see the picture). We hiked to the the very top dodging cottontail bunnys as we went. It is the only remaining sign of the L&C expedition remaining in the west. So there you have it...NEW KNOWLEDGE...go forth and serve!

Next we found Katies Montana home...Picture attached, nothing more needs to be said. Never have we seen so many trailers in one place...Question of the day. Which came first, the tornado or the trailer? Hmmm. Have to think about that one.

The herds of cattle didn't seem quite as happy here. (No picture attached...Much to everyones relief.)

We found where all the oil is. There were lots of oil wells in Southeast Montana. Also, get this, they not only cut the grass by the side of the road in Montana, but they roll it up in big, huge bales. We don't know what they do with it after that, because there were lots of rotting rolled up bales of hay around too.

We found the North Dakota border. A first for Mom. She thinks she will like Nebraska better than North Dakota. Only cruised through the southwest corner of ND. Then on to South Dakota. Ya know, it pretty much looked like North Dakota. Don't know why they just don't have a state named Dakota and call it good. But hey, that's politics for you. Politicians must not have had to take any Geography classes or they would have seen the wisdom in memorizing one less state capital.

We only got lost twice today. Once when we missed the turnoff and had to backtrack 10 miles. That was outside Miles City Montana. How do you miss a turnoff in Montana. They have sooo many. Anyway, backtracked 10 miles and found the right turn (actually it was a left turn then). This was after we stopped at the DQ in Miles City, annnnddddd saw the sister Missionaries. They didn't look happy but who would if they were sent to Miles City.

Then we missed the turn on our way to Deadwood, SD. (That's after we got into South Dakota by the way). Didn't actually miss the turn, we drove by it on purpose, because I didn't think we should turn there. Turns out (notice the pun), that I was wrong. But....I made it right by taking the next turn and having your mom think I was crazy for cruising through the back country. We did get back on the road to Deadwood. Actually, Deadwood used to be a goldmining town, but now folks just gamble there. Still mining the gold, I guess.

Finally we got to the Black Forest Inn. I did good! Fun place, a charming B&B stuck in the 80's. They had wallpaper like we had in the Orem house. Yes... Really! Mom was happy....