Days 3-6 - Sorry for the delay

I apologize for the delay in posting. We have been super busy the past few days, and I am just now finding time to type. Whew!

So, we left Walla Walla heading to Butte, Montana. Some people like to call it "Butt" Montana, but we thought it was pretty charming. We left Walla Walla and headed north and then east. We went through Spokane, WA. I had never been through there before, but it would definitely be a place I would like to visit again one day.

Then, we crossed the state line into Idaho. I wish we would have been going to Boise, because I would have taken a pic of the "Ore-Ida" potato place. I had no idea until last year that the potato company was named that because it was on the Oregon/Idaho state line. Kinda like the "Florabama" but not quite as fun.

Anyhoo, Idaho was beautiful. I have to stop here and tell you that Brian and I have started a kind of cheesy collection. When we went to Whitman Mission (see first post), we learned that each national historic site/monument has a "stamp". So, we decided to get as many stamps on this trip as we could. So far we have gotten seven of them. We were driving through Idaho and saw a sign for a National Historic site, so we stopped. It was actually the oldest standing building in Idaho. It was a mission, and it was really neat. We got our stamp, and went on our way.

Soon, we passed the MST time zone, and we were in Montana. By far, the prettiest state we have been through. It is so beautiful. People made fun of us for staying in Butte, MT, but it was a really cool little town. Apparently, it was a really big, happening place for minerals mining, but isn't really anymore. We ate at an old bank there (and drank a really disgusting beer - see Brian's face below) and drove around the city a bit. The next morning, we got up to go have "Butte's Best Latte" at a place called the Great Harvest Bread Company. So, I go up to the counter and said, "I'll have a grande, sugar-free almond, non-fat latte". The guy behind the counter said to me, "You'll have a gra...nd...e what?"...then, he says, "All we have is 12, 16, and 20oz cups". I felt really bad for being an awful Seattle coffee snob, and I think he decided to show the "city slicker" who was boss by giving both of us the worst coffee we had ever had. HOWEVER...he gave us a taste of some cinnamon bread that would knock the socks off of any Starbucks lover any day. We ended up buying a loaf of it.

From Butte, we drove along a 2-lane highway to Yellowstone National Park. It was CRAZY! Of course, we stopped by the junior ranger station as soon as we got there to get our stamp because we are cheesy losers that way. Then, we started driving through the park. We were going along, and then, TRAFFIC JAM. I was like, "Geez...am I on 520?" I was having major flashbacks. We found out about 30 minutes later the reason for the congestion...a heard of buffalo. It was so cool. We were only about 20 yards away from them.

As we drove on through the park, we came to some really neat geysers. They had a big boardwalk around them. We saw some fumaroles, and boiling pools of acidic water. The whole area where these things were was called a caldera. There was boiling mud and really cool (but scalding hot) pools of water that were a pristine aqua blue color (this was because of dissolved copper). Brian's aunt Marji said that there are several people a year who die here because their dog runs into the scalding hot mud and they go chasing after their pet. Really scary! We drove across the Continental DIvide a couple of times too, which I thought was pretty neat.

We then drove to Old Faithful where Brian tried, unsuccessfully (or so we think) to stop it up. We didn't have time to wait for it to blow, but we did see where it would have blown.

Then, we made our way on through the park and up to Billings, MT, and the home of Chandra and Dale (Brian's cousin and her husband).

They graciously waited on us to get to Billings, and we went and had dinner with Aunt Marji, cousin Chandra, her precious daughter, Alli, her husband, Dale, and cousin Sonja. THANK YOU, Chani, for letting us stay in your house for a couple of days - and thank you, Tyler, for letting us take over your bed! Chani got up and made us a tasty breakfast on Saturday morning, and Dale drove us over to Custer's last stand - or more appropriately known as "The Battle of Little Big Horn". I think that Alli ESPECIALLY liked going there (Alli is almost eleven and probably would have preferred to be anywhere other than the site of the Battle of Little Big Horn - I know at her age, I would have rather had my eyes rinsed out with rubbing alcohol, but she was a trooper). We learned all about the battle, and also learned that we gave the native americans some really crappy land to live on for reservations.

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The highlight of the visit to Billings (other than finally meeting Brian's cousins - because really, that was the REAL highlight - well, that and the ribs) was getting to drive Brian's uncle Brad's Shelby Mustang GT 500 - yes, that is "500" for 500hp. What a fine piece of machinery!

After an awesome meal of ribs and corn on the cob, we called it a night, and went back to Chani's for our final night in Billings. THANK YOU again, Chani and Dale for being such great hosts. It was great meeting you both, and I look forward to seeing you again soon.

We left Billings Sunday morning and headed east to South Dakota. After a brief run through Wyoming, we made it to SD. We went to see the Crazy Horse memorial first. It is pretty crazy that it has taken them 50 years just to carve the face of Crazy Horse. It will not be finished in our lifetime, and probably not even in our children's lifetime. We stayed there for all of about 10 minutes, and rushed to Mt. Rushmore. It was really neat. I thought that I would think that it was cheesy, but, no, it was really cool. Brian and I thought that Lincoln and Washington looked the best. We stayed there about 20 minutes and left for the Badlands. This is such a whirlwind trip, it's crazy! (Note: On the Crazy Horse picture, you have to look pretty hard to see it as you can't get very close to it, and only the head is complete).

We were driving along, in South Dakota (I was in the driver's seat), and the Garmin told us to turn down a dirt road. Of course, my redneck came out, and I was tearing up that dirt road...riding with the window rolled down, wishing I was listening to some Free Bird. At first, we were just passing some pasture land, and then, all of a sudden, it was like we were on another planet. Apparently, the "Badlands" started forming about 75 million years ago and it looks like something you would see in a Sci-fi movie. The pictures don't even begin to show the beauty of it.

We made our way to our "cabin" for the night. After a cool hike through some of the Badlands, we went and ate dinner, checked our beds for bedbugs (we were staying in a national park, and I was scared of bed bugs because of Brian's Aunt Marji's stories), and went to sleep. We had 535 miles to cover the next day...