It’s getting very hard to remember what state we are in...
Saturday, “Cinco de Mayo”, we headed out at 9 a.m. for what we knew would be a long day of driving. Leaving Rapid City, SD we went North or West, or Northwest... First stop, Devil’s Tower http://www.nps.gov/deto/index.htm. It was misting, and then raining, but we decided to do the 1.3 mile hike around the base anyway.
It was - I can’t even think of an appropriate adjective, honestly. But, I was just really, really struck by nature’s beauty. Again, at first, we were skeptical. I mean, it is not exactly just off the highway. We had to drive awhile to get there. And every time we do that, I keep thinking about the pioneers on horseback or with wagons and just can not imagine!
And to think there is not another formation like it, just boggles my mind!
After Devil’s Tower, we had a couple more hours and decided to stop for dinner in Billings, MT. We were hoping to find a Mexican restaurant to celebrate Cinco de Mayo and stumbled upon a Mexican restaurant http://donluisrestaraunt.com/main.html?src=%2F and small street festival. We also noticed a banner for a rodeo and really wanted to find it, but after walking the downtown area, decided we had better just get to our destination. Downtown Billings reminds us of Milwaukee in the early 90's - a quaint place to stop but not much else to see or do.
After that, it was a few more hours to Belgrade, MT. It amazed me how much land there is out here! And little to no traffic - we think the locals must not use the highway and there’s not too many tourists yet at this time of year (which is fine with us!). There’s actually gates that close the highway - presumingly for snow. The speed limits are another thing! Not 55 or 65 but 70 or 75-even through a “metro” area! Sparky (my car) is just not used to those. (I once noticed Dave was driving 91 MPH! A record in the Prius!). Of course, that allows for better times but worse gas mileage. Even though there are posted speed limit signs (sometimes) there are very few Po-Po! In all the hours of driving today, we saw maybe 2!
We would drive for miles between exits and then the exit would be a dirt road - seemingly to someone’s ranch. The only things we would see were land, animals and utilities - even what appeared to be telegraph lines running along the railroad tracks. I have never seen nothing for as far as the eye can see! It is beautiful, yet lonely.
We were coming up to the Rocky Mountains at sunset. It wasn’t a particularly incredible one, but still so lovely. I continue to wonder what people do here, for work, play, school, travel... but the space out here certainly lends itself to anything!
Our night finally ended at the LaQuinta at around 9:30 p.m. - keeping our expectations low - but we were pleasantly surprised at the level of accommodations for the price!
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