Into the great wide open

Hello everyone! My apologies for the delay in publishing an update about my trip. Last night when I arrived at my hotel I was quite bushed, so straight to bed I went. Interestingly enough, here it is almost 10pm mountain time tonight, and I'm awake, even with the longer route today. Anyway, you're probably interested in the details. Let's begin!

After a most awesome weekend of seeing a cohort member, my family, and attending a boating tour for my friend's bachelor party, I set out at 4:30am on Sunday from Waukon. It was an early morning most definitely. I'll spare you the first few hours of my trip, but once I got to land of North Dakota I noticed something that made me wonder if I was in New Mexico already. Then, it hit me, I know why some people think this ND is a myth. I question whether it really existed in the first place. After crossing the entire state, I think someone just got lazy and pressed "Ctrl+C" over Nebraska and "Ctrl+V" where ND was supposed to be. Suffice it to say, I think you'd be hard pressed to find an efficient land route to New Mexico that isn't flat and boring. So, after arriving at my hotel in Glendive, Montana at the end of the night yesterday, I settled in and slept til 4:30am again, only this time I had a much more exciting route before the end of the day.

From Glendive I headed north up until I hit Highway 2, which was a nice long stretch of highway, surrounded by fields and fields of amber waves of grain. As I pushed further west, noticed that it had been since Iowa that I had my top down, so it was about time I made that happen. I spend the remainder of the trip going through Glasgow, Havre, Shelby, and took 89 north from Browning until I ended up in St. Mary (a place with nearly $5/gallon gasoline). All of it was worth it though to experience the next two hours of my journey.

St. Mary was the start of the main attraction for this trip. Last year's helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon was cool, but this was all about the drive. The Going-to-the-Sun Road was the purpose of this trip, and what a trip it was. The sights were spectacular (with the exception being the first few miles where there was construction).

Quite remarkable that such a place is still accessible. There was so many people, however, so the Sebring and the Maserati a few cars behind me weren't able to stretch there legs very much. It was a very enjoyable day, and there was plenty of time to just sit back and take it all in to reflect. As for tonight, I'm in Butte, MT. I've had my supper and now it's time to rest these eyes of mine. They saw a lot of awesomeness today.

Enjoy the pics and the upcoming updates! I'm switching it up with tomorrow's update, at least scenery-wise. Stay tuned!