September 8, 2011

Had a nice breakfast at the Holiday Inn Express and left Missoula just about 9am. Once again, the scenery was beautiful. Rocky Mountains, Pleasant Valley, high plaines, and the Yellowstone River accompanied us on our route. It is always fun and interesting to cross the Continental Divide. I always wanted to stop at the top and leave my waters running down both sides...maybe on the way back! We had seen signs for a place called the Wheat Montana bakery and deli. We decided to see what it was about so we exited the freeway kind of in the middle of nowhere and could hardly find a place to park in a very large parking lot. The place was very cool and Rose and Insplit a turkey, cucumber, lettuce sandwich with chips. Rose, of course, also bought a gigantic cinnamon roll filled with cream cheese. It was pretty good. Rose drove most of the way today. She's a great driver and I enjoyed actually seeing the scenery from the passenger seat. Once we left the Continental Divide we spent a lot of time cruising pretty quickly over the high plaines. Speed limit here is 75 and Rose has been known to get a heavy foot! I was struck by the emptiness of the place, and how the early pioneers must have had to scratch like crazy just to survive. As I saw some very large ranches I was reminded of the struggles between the cattlemen and homesteaders and sheepherders. Because we had been sitting for quite a while I was uncomfortable riding in the air-conditioned Audi Q7, zipping along at 80mph. I can't imagine what it must have been like in a covered wagon! We drove into Billings at about 3:45 and found our Motel, the C'Mon Inn. Rose and I are sitting in the atrium just outside our room sipping a spirit or two, waiting for the pizza to be delivered, listening to the waterfall in the atrium. I think it was in the 90s here today. Tomorrow we are off to Keystone SD. We'll take most of the day to get there and we'll see Mt Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and some of the other local attractions the next day. We'll stay there one more night and then head East to Oswego...go East old man!!!