Day 5: South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana & Idaho

Day 5 Stats:

Miles: 450-ish

Highway Patrol: 3 (but 1 was city police and 1 was county sheriff - at the same intersection)

Tolls: 0

Hitchhikers: 2

To date this has been my longest drive on the trip. I left the Black Hills and had planned on driving through Wyoming to get to Idaho, but my GPS unit said to go around Wyoming and drive through the southern part of Montana. Figuring a GPS unit is better at directions than me and a very large Rand McNally road atlas that I haven't really looked since I started my trip, I went with the GPS.

Though it was an extremely scenic drive..."amber waves of grain" come to mind, I saw more road construction than I have ever seen. And I ended up on many a dirt roads and backroads, and even the interstate would at times be a dirt road!

As an update to my previous posting about the most common demographic visiting national parks, I need to add: bikers. Both true "bikers" (aka the ones you don't want to mess with) and what I call "accountant bikers" (aka the ones you love to mess with). Since most of the "accountant bikers" were probably in college when "Easy Rider" came out, I think they are going through a mid-life crisis, and have the need for speed; or at least the need to spend hundreds of dollars on Harley-Davidson branded leather goods (which obviously have seen VERY little wear). I came across one said "accountant biker" who for some reason couldn't figure out the credit card payment system at a gas pump...20 minutes later he was on his way...and the peaceful, easy feeling that I had developed over the past few days had disappeared. CURSE YOU ACCOUNTANT BIKER!!

But I digress...

My ten-plus hour drive continued through goregous landscapes....the buttes and grasslands began to weave in mountains and fir trees.... And I quickly realized why Montana is called "Big Sky Country" because the sky seems to be so much larger than any where else I have ever been. I found myself taking pictures of the dramatic sky more than the landscape. I took 129 pictures on this drive and the only time I got out of the car was for gas, food and bathroom break!

The one issue I did have with Montana is the number of factories that seem to dot the landscape. I totally understand the need for people to maintain a livelihood, but it was rather distressing to see a Halliburton factory or processing center. Does anyone know what Bentonite is? Well I found the world's capital of it in Montana.

They day ended at a very cute lodge where the proprietors, a couple from Switzerland and I watch the Democratic National Convention.

Next stop: Yellowstone (I do mean it this time)!