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Jen  > Travel > Highlights of Roadtrip '04
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Jen > Travel log of Wild West Road Trip ‘04 7/8 Thursday MD, PA, OH After almost no planning or forethought, Erin and I leave town at 2:00 p.m. on a Thursday afternoon. We’re heading West with a few guidebooks, a few contacts, and an atlas. What more could we need? We’ve done this road trip thing before, and we have good practical ideas on how to correct any mistakes we made the first time. For example, I need to be sure my coffee and breakfast is taken care of every morning, and Erin needs her hot shower every morning. For eight and a half hours we drive hell bent for leather (I’ve always loved that phrase!), directly west. It seemed appropriate to stop in Akron Ohio for dinner, the birthplace of my sister Charlotte.
Jen > 7/9 Friday IN, IL, WI, MN, SD On Friday morning, we managed to get up and out by 7:00 a.m.! We drove and drove and drove—a total of 16 hours! In the construction traffic outside of Chicago we saw a minor miracle, a mama duck crossing the six lane highway with six ducklings. The baby ducklings were struggling to keep up, and stumbled from time to time. The traffic was moving at a decent pace, so how they managed to get across safely, is beyond me! Central South Dakota is a funny place, there is absolutely nothing of interest—so they built fake tourist traps to draw the tourists in off of the road. We called these traps “The Suck.” Having had a terrible time at both the Corn Palace and Wall Drug on our first road trip three years ago, we knew better than to let ourselves lose time stopping there!
Jen > We chase and are chased by thunderstorms through the Badlands of South Dakota. We stopped in Deadwood for lunch, and start to get the feeling that we’re entering the Wild West. This is a touristy town for gamblers, but has a fun spirit. We begin to take on our own Outlaw personas “Calamity Jen and Erin Oakley”. We joke that we’re running from the law, but they ain’t chasing! We stopped for the night in the big town of Billings MT. We enjoyed a night on the town out at the local singles bar, even if none of the locals wanted to come talk to us. We figured we were too outgoing and citified for those “white bread” boys anyway!
Jen > 7/10 Saturday SD, WY, MT We woke up the next morning with a surprise view of the Missouri river from our hotel room in Chamberlain SD. The funny thing is that we stopped in this town on the way back and I recognized this bridge before I recognized the name of the town! Talk about deja vu!
Jen > This was a charming town, with one stoplight, a McDonalds, and a gas station. We took it easy here after driving so long the day before, we left at 11:30 a.m. This day we drove nine and a half hours, bringing the grand total to 34 hours of driving to get to Montana.
Jen > 7/11 Sunday Billings and Pintlar Scenic Route Sage brush fields near Billings
Jen > Shortly after noon, we get to Pictograph Cave State Park, our first official field trip! We heard a rattlesnake hiss soon after we read the sign warning us to stay on the path and watch out for snakes!
Jen > The pictographs we could see in the caves were fascinating.
Jen > We decided on a hunch to deviate from our original plan to stop in Red Lodge and stay with a friend of a friend, it was still early in the day and we could make more road time if we kept going. It seemed like a good idea to keep going towards the coolness and mountains. We stop for the night at a small ice fishing motel facing the lake, the scenery was amazing even if the service was not. We got treated rudely by the teenage girls waiting on us, they must have thought we were lesbians—two women traveling alone. This was the only negative experience like this on our entire trip, it could have been much worse.
This was a charming town, with one stoplight, a McDonalds, and a gas station. We took it easy here after driving so long the day before, we left at 11:30 a.m. This day we drove nine and a half hours, bringing the grand total to 34 hours of driving to get to Montana.
> This was a charming town, with one stoplight, a McDonalds, and a gas station. We took it easy here after driving so long the day before, we left at 11:30 a.m. This day we drove nine and a half hours, bringing the grand total to 34 hours of driving to get to Montana.
This was a charming town, with one stoplight, a McDonalds, and a gas station. We took it easy here after driving so long the day before, we left at 11:30 a.m. This day we drove nine and a half hours, bringing the grand total to 34 hours of driving to get to Montana.
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