Our trip

Thursday morning Matt had to sign out of the barracks at 9:00. I stayed at the hotel and showered and packed all of our things into our bags. He got back to the room about 9:15 and took a quick shower and we were on our way. We stopped at the Haji mart (won’t miss that place) and fueled up and hit the trip set on the car. I started out driving and drove and drove and drove. We stopped in Wallace Idaho at some point and got some ice cream. This is one of the most beautiful places I have every seen. I love this area of Idaho and if we were rich I would build a cabin on top of a big mountain and live there in the summer.

Matt drove for a bit while I took a nap. We planned on stopping in Missoula, Montana because Matt’s friend from the Army is living there now. We could have drove farther than there but oh well. We ate dinner with him and his girlfriend at Hooters. He’s kind of a well how do I put this nicely…. well an idiot basically. Nice guy but not the sharpest tool in the shed. He was ignorant to the waitress. He wanted to buy our dinner but when it was tip time I made sure to let him know that I would be doing the tipping. At one point we went outside to smoke a cig with them and he pulls a revolver out of his car to show Matt. Um hello… can you just be whipping out guns in the middle of a city. Maybe in Montana. I don’t know but it scared the shit out of me so I went back inside. I have a record. I’m not going to be getting into trouble for stupid crap.

So we said good-bye and went to the hotel and I looked up when Sturgis bike weekend was because we had been seeing a bunch of motorcycles. It started Sunday. This was Thursday night. We figured we could make it through Sturgis tomorrow and it would be ok. On Friday morning we were on the road by 7:45 a.m. and didn’t get out of Montana until around 5. Let me tell you, that state is freaking huge. Not just a little big. Enormous. Gigantic. Looonnnnggg. We took a 2 lane highway “shortcut” towards the end of Montana and were in Wyoming for like 10 minutes and then crossed into South Dakota. We got to Sturgis around 6. We stopped there and got some gas and munchies and kept driving. About 9:30 we decided we were ready to stop. So we were 3.5 hours from Sturgis. We stopped at a town called Chamberlain or something and every hotel was full except one and they wanted $180. No thanks. Garmin referred us to a hotel that about 25 miles south of the interstate. Called there and they had a room. So we took another 2-lane highway south to this hotel. We got there about 11:00 because we messed around trying to find a hotel for so long.

The hotel was ok. Nothing to brag about. At least they had a bed for us. Saturday morning we were on the road by 7:30. We were bound and determined to make it home Saturday night. Since we were south of the interstate we took another 2-lane highway to the I-29, which we needed to get to anyways. On these 2-lane highways the speed limit is 65 and there was no construction, unlike the interstate. So it probably actually saved us a little time to go off our route. Still seeing lots of motorcycles. Iowa is boring. I think I slept a little. Missouri took forever too. And Kansas City does suck. Lots of construction and crazy drivers. We must have saw 25 cops in Missouri. I didn’t slow down though. Whatever. Crossing into Illinois was awesome. Best trip across the Mississippi River ever.

When we were within 15 miles from our house we saw a rainbow, which to me, was a very symbolic thing. I had a little tear in my eye. Matt loved the house.

Things to note about our journey

· It is 2260 miles from Seattle to where we live.
· Matt drove 6 or 7 hours out of 33.
· Matt gets nervous driving through bigger cities.
· I pee a lot
· Garmin doesn’t like bathroom breaks.
· Garmin doesn’t always know the quickest route.
· Maps are a good back up
· Truckers will let you know if there is a cop ahead.
· I would rather drive through the mountains than cornfields.

So glad to be home!!!