Denver, Colorado

Mile 5870

At Dazbog Coffee in Denver now. Just wanted to grab some coffee for the road and post a blog really quickly on our way out of town. Other than our time in Denver, it was mostly a driving day again yesterday, so there isn't much to tell:



After a long coffee break at Dunn Bros. in Rapid City, we returned to Mt. Rushmore for a quick stop for more pictures. Then we headed south through Wind Cave National Park. Didn't get to go in the cave since no pets are allowed, but we did run into all sorts of South Dakota wildlife along the way.

After that, we turned west and crossed the border into Wyoming at mile 5407 and continued south until we got to Cheyenne where we spent the night. In the morning, headed south, crossed the border into Colorado at mile 5750 and continued on to Denver. We had lunch in Downtown Denver with a friend from high school, Yasmin, and her son and two neices.

Post Office buildings

Remember the statement about post offices? Here's a perfect example. We passed through the town of Hot Springs, South Dakota, population 4201, just before crossing the border to Wyoming. We passed the police station first:



Then several blocks later we saw the post office:




One thing about this town is that it had a really cool coffee place called Flatiron Coffee, so named because the shape of the building resembles the Flatiron in New York. They roast their own beans, but no free wi-fi. But what was striking about this place was that it seemed so out of place in this otherwise rather desolate town. There was a very large, beautiful, grassy patio area where they apparently have a BBQ every Friday afternoon. There was a girl grilling burgers and stuff for the customers. When you stepped inside, it was like you walked into a very cool cafe in the city. Like the doorway was a portal into another place or something. Cool music playing, cool atmosphere. All the customers were 20-somethings, who didn't seem to be locals. But this town was so remote, could they have been passing through like us? Didn't have the foresight to take pictures so you can see it by clicking here.

Finally, heading west!

Mile 5362

We are at Dunn Brothers Coffee in Rapid, South Dakota right now. They roast their own beans too. Taking a relaxing break after an extremely busy day yesterday. Let's get right into the days activities:

Hit the road early at 6:30 am Thursday morning. Stopped at Java Jae's in Gillette, Wyoming for coffee and a bagel and a quick email check.


At mile 4950 we got to the entrance of Devil's Tower in northeastern Wyoming. Took a few pictures and headed east. We hit the 5000th mile of our trip just outside of Sundance, Wyoming and crossed into South Dakota shortly thereafter at mile 5025.


We had noticed a lot of bikers on the road since way back in Montana earlier this week and didn't really think much of it. Figured that as we got closer to Sturgis, SD, well known as a biker's town, it seemed natural. Then as we got into Wyoming we started to notice that some bars that we passed had "Welcome Bikers" signs. What we didn't realize that this was the opening weekend of the 66th Annual Sturgis Biker Rally. It's actually a pretty incredible event. This tiny town of almost 6500 people surges to over a half million in total attendance. The original plan was to stop by and take a picture by a "Welcome to Stugis" sign or something. We had no idea that we would actually be able to attend the rally. Timing is everything.

After that, we took a ten mile drive to the town of Deadwood where Wild Bill Hickok was gunned down at a poker game. Urmr, take note. The HBO western series is set in this town. Never seen it, but now we have to get the DVD.



We drove about an hour south from Deadwood to get to Mt. Rushmore at mile 5121. Unfortunately, pets are strictly prohibited from entering this place. Not sure why since every other National Park allows them. So we took pictures from the outside. Just 15 miles southwest from there is the Crazy Horse memorial. Now this was impressive. It is still a work in progress so it is interesting to see what they have done and what it is planned to look like. This unbelievably massive project was started back in 1948. The original sculptor died in 1982 but his work continues. So far, only the face is completed. But when it's finished, it will be the largest mountain carving in the world, dwarfing Mt. Rushmore.


From there, we went even further east to Badlands National Park. This was not an originally planned stop, but it was only an hour further, so why not? Glad we made the trip. What an awesome place! The east end of the park where we exited, marked the farthest distance we will travel from home on this trip. From this point, we turned back west and began our meandering journey home. It happened at 9:03 pm at mile 5280. At this point, we were 1106 miles from home "as the crow files." Again, for the geography geeks, this occured at N 43.841, W 101.899. Google map it and you can see where we were.

We camped out near the Badlands shortly thereafter. Slept in the car though. There was a thunderstorm approaching and we didn't want to be in a tent. It made for a pretty spectacular lightning display though.

Whew! What a day! Luckily, we got to see a lot because everything was bunched pretty close together. But it was still a long day. Westward ho!

Interesting links:
Sturgis Motorcycle Rally
Read about the Crazy Horse Memorial

Dave's Rant

(Editors note: I have been trying to do this blog somewhat from Hapa's point of view, or at least a generic point of view, since it is his blog. But I just had to tell this story.)
I have been been finding myself really losing patience with people on this trip. From the idiotic tourists who go into areas that are clearly prohibited, mucking up the scenery that other people trying to take pictures of. To the inconsiderate RV drivers who can't seem to drive over 45 on 65 mph single lane roads. Either they are cluelessly oblivious to the line of cars behind them, or they just couldn't give a rat's a**. (Sorry for the censorship, but my parents are reading this blog too.) The phrase "people suck!" could be heard emanating from this little SUV quite often. I had found myself losing faith in people as they continued to prove to me that most of them are self-centered, inconsiderate morons. Then last night, I bumped into this girl in the lobby of the motel where we were staying. Actually Hapa bumped into her. I knew I had him around for a reason. We started talking and she asked me what I was traveling for. I told her that this was a post-layoff trip and explained all that had happened with my job. Not knowing me from Adam, she handed me her card and told me about her company, and said that they were in a hiring frenzy. By the way, visit them at www.backcountry.com . Now, they are based in Park City, Utah so it might take a lot for me to move there,. But I was taken aback by her generosity to a perfect stranger. There ARE still good people out there. So thanks to Kristin for restoring my faith in people, or at least reminding me that there is a balance in the world. And it had nothing to do with the fact that she was gorgeous! Thanks, Hapa.

Old Faithful

Mile 4793

We have made it to Sheridan, Montana and found free wi-fi at Burger King. We'll post this entry and then go a little further and camp for the night. Today was another driving day, but we did get to do something special:



Checked out of the Best Value Inn and headed south. At mile 4490 we entered the Yellowstone National Park west entrance and crossed the Wyoming border very shortly after that. Within an hour we had made it to Old Faithful. We got there just half an hour before the next eruption so we had time to walk around a bit and find a good viewing spot. I'm surprised by how crowded these places have been mid-week. There have been a lot of European tourists on this trip, as well as Americans on summer vacation. After watching the geyser erupt, we headed for the eastern gateway to the park. Unfortunately, this turned out to be quite a headache. There were long delays because of road construction, but it paid off after we got through it. The drive from the east entrance was just stunningly beautiful.

The rest of the day was spent traveling east across northern Wyoming. This could possibly have been the most beautiful drive of the trip so far. After that gorgeous drive from Yellowstone, the town of Cody was a nice surprise. It's always interesting how you can have nothing for miles, and all of a sudden there is this city in the middle of it all. Cody was very nice town, it had a kind of vibrancy to it. They were advertising a rodeo in town later that night. Wish we could have stuck around for it. Then as abruptly as Cody came upon us, it was gone as we continued east. When we got to Bighorn National Forest, we took the Bighorn Scenic Byway traversing the mountains via Shell Canyon. Wow! The canyon is just amazing! A rushing river with sheer rock walls and the Shell Falls were fantastic! It quickly got dark as we got to the other side of the mountain and we soon found our way to Sheridan.

A lot of driving today so more random thoughts:
It seems like the post office is almost always the nicest building in town. Even these tiny little stops, with populations under 100, always have a really nice post office.

The mosquitos seem to have disappeared ever since we got into Montana.

Country music isn't that bad, ya'll.

Bozeman, Montana

Mile 4390

We have checked into a Best Value Inn in Bozeman, Montana for the night. Got here kind of early, about 7:45pm, so there is still a couple hours of daylight. Lots of time to relax a bit before hitting the sack. It'll be nice to sleep in a real bed after sleeping bags for the past few nights. Not much went on since we left Columbia Falls:


Today was mostly a driving day. Not much sight seeing. We did stop in Helena, the capital of Montana. Another nice Montana town.

Since there wasn't much else to our day, a few random thoughts about Montana:

We've done a LOT of road trips and no matter where we went, when we would scan for stations on the radio, there would always be a Spanish station coming in crystal clear. California, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, even in the middle of the desert, or all along Interstate 40 across the US. There was even one point crossing from Oregon to Washington where the only station we could get was Spanish. That is not the case for Montana. The likelyhood of finding one seems to fade as you travel east.

We don't have any accurate measuring instruments, but the sky here seems to be the same size as anywhere else we have been.

There's a huge anti-crystal meth campaign going on here. It's everywhere, on billboards, tv, radio. Must really be the middle America problem you always hear about.

Took almost a full day to remember that we crossed into the mountain time zone when we got into Montana. Thought we were ahead of schedule the whole time.

The fire that detoured us at Glacier National Park continues to grow with no end in sight at this time.

Forgot to mention, we hit an owl Sunday night on the way up to Glacier National Park. It was very dark but we could clearly see it in the headlights standing on the road in the opposite lane. As soon as we got close it flew right into the car. Very strange. No idea what happened to it.

Also almost hit a deer yesterday. One thing to remember, they always seem to travel in pairs. And it's the second one that usually gets hit because you aren't expecting another. This happened to my brother in Maryland and it did serious damage to his Audi. His warning about two deer saved me this time and another time in Utah. Both were very close calls. Although I saw another one today cross the road. I wasn't going very fast so I stopped and waited for the second one which never came.

Montana Coffee Traders again!

Mile 4062

We are at Montana Coffee Traders again. This time we are in the town of Columbia Falls. This has become the favorite place to eat breakfast on the trip. They have the best coffee! The waitresses are cute too. They roast their own beans. Not at the restaurant, but a few miles away in Whitefish where they are based. Check them out at www.coffeetraders.com. Anyway, after that little commercial, here's what's happened since the last Montana Coffee Traders we reported from:



We headed up to Glacier National Park. We didn't have any problems getting in through the west entrance. If you remember, we were worried about a reported forest fire in the region. However, we found out when we got there, we were able to go almost all the way through the park and stop five miles short of the east entrance. So, we were able to drive about 45 miles into the park and see most of it. Unfortunately, the plan was to leave on the east and continue on to Great Falls. Instead, we had to turn back and retrace our route back to the west entrance. We did get to see a lot of beautiful scenery though. Never saw "A River Runs Through It" but now it seems like it would be worth a viewing. Even got to see a bunch of mountain goats. We also reached the northernmost point of the trip at mile 3921 at the Loop Lookout. For the geography geeks, that was at N 48.755, W 113.800. At this point, we were 1066 miles "as the crow flies" from home. Thanks to the Canadians, this is a far north as we will get. Blame Canada!

We lost a lot of time backtracking and decided to camp out by the Hungry Horse Reservoir on the southwest side of the park. When we left the park we started out driving around it to the east side so that we could go to Great Falls. But it was pretty late by then, so we turned back and spent the night here. Instead today we will just head south and go through Helena. The talk around town is about the forest fire and it sounds like its spreading rapidly. So our pathway to Great Falls might be blocked anyway.

Kalispell, Montana

Mile 3856

We are having breakfast at the Montana Coffee Traders Cafe in Kalispell, Montana. Very nice little town. Actually, it's pretty big for being in the middle of nowhere. It's near the west entrance to Glacier National Park. We hope to go up there today, but there are a lot of forest fires in the region, so we may get detoured again. We'll see. So let's get you updated on what's gone on since we last posted.



Got up Sunday morning and decided to go back into Seattle and see the fish throwers at Pike Place Fish Co. They are very entertaining, joking around and having fun with the onlookers. They even have a fake stuffed fish that they throw at the crowd to freak people out. Everyone wanted to have there picture taken with the fish throwers holding up one of their gigantic salmons. The best quote: "Folks, we do sell fish here! This is not the aquarium!" There was also a monk fish (those big flat ugly fish with the big mouth) hanging over the edge of the display. You can see it in the foreground of the picture. When people would walk up to it, the fish guys pulled a rope in the back and it would flip up and scare people.

After that, we hit the road for the long trek across Washington via Interstate 90. We encountered our first rain of the trip on this drive. Not very heavy though. We have been lucky with the weather. It's been perfect! Around mile 3590 we got to Spokane and stopped to look around. We took a walk around the Spokane Falls. Another very nice little big town in the middle of nowhere. Actually, this is a really big town.

By mile 3627 we crossed the state line into Idaho. One of us slept through the entire state as we hit the Montana border at mile 3701. Montana is really a beautiful state. When we left I-90 to head north toward Glacier National Park, we took this mountain road with gorgeous scenery. Another road that followed a river, but somehow this one was even more special. It was a little dark by then, but you could still see everything.

At mile 3815 next to Flathead Lake, we hit the 1000-miles-from-home point according to the handheld GPS. Meaning we were 1000 miles "as the crow flies" from the house in Aliso. Right after that, we stopped for the night near the town of Somers at the northern tip of Flathead Lake. It was only seven miles to get to Kalispell where we are now. Wish us luck! Hopefully, we will be able to avoid the fires and get into Glacier National Park.