10/14/22-10/15/22
Another 30 hour road trip. The way to Montana felt so difficult. We kept hitting traffic and construction throughout Indiana. I told Kealy, “I really don’t like driving at night and I definitely don’t want to drive through Chicago.” Originally, Waze was routing us around Chicago, especially being a Friday evening. Then I was driving along through Gary and knew it was taking us over the Chicago Skyway, right into downtown. Well, it was a Friday night driving through Chicago… aka a parking lot. We sat for probably over an hour. So yes, I was driving through Chicago on a Friday night in the rain. Chicago is a cruel place to drive. No one lets you in. Everyone’s honking. Everyone’s nearly getting in car accidents all the time. People rarely use blinkers. I try to let people in to boost my karma in Chicago. It doesn’t work.
We switched off not long after Chicago. Kealy took over and drove into Minnesota, where he struggled to find a rest stop. I think he drove until nearly four in the morning. We slept for a long time at the rest stop. Maybe our trip to Utah made it feel normal to sleep in a car at rest stops. I remember the first time we did that I felt like I was on display trying to sleep.
I always have this idea that these road trips will be full of really cool stops – all the national parks and other things. In reality, these road trips mainly look like this:
Just flat. I was trying to catch the sunrise while we were still in Big Sky Country (on the way back). North Dakota felt long. I was surprised how many tiny lakes there were around us. I drove us from Minnesota to Montana (after a stop at Caribou Coffee). North Dakota was epic!! However, North Dakota sported speed limits and winds so high we had to take the roof bag off the Kia.
I really wanted to drive through South Dakota to see the Badlands, but it would’ve taken a couple more hours to get there and we didn’t really want that after going through Chicago. I didn’t regret driving through North Dakota as soon as we saw Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The landscape was layered with grassland, painted hills, and bison poop. We saw bison on the drive out of the national park! I of course went to the visitor center to get a stamp. The visitor center felt weirdly deserted, but the rangers were nice. I could tell it was one of the least visited national parks.
Then, the last stretch of the trip. Montana. We were excited to be in the last state of our trip. The fall colors were a stark contrast against the mostly bland landscape. The speed limits went up significantly. And Montana 200 gave us a run for our money. I was driving along near the Montanan badlands and came up to a construction zone. All of a sudden, there was a sign that said PAVEMENT ENDS. I was like, “What do you mean?!” For about 40 miles or so, the pavement dropped off. We were driving up and over hills at a pretty slow pace. We even hit a pavement-less roundabout.
Eventually, when the pavement decided to come back, I grew really tired. There were deer EVERYWHERE. Right next to the road. More deer than we’ve ever seen on a road trip. Why? When they have so much wilderness in Montana. There was a buck with a large rack right next to our lane. I thought, “Please just let us make it there. That buck would destroy the Kia.” We finally got to Great Falls. It was bigger than I remembered, and we had to drive all the way through town. Kealy commented on all of the casinos. Kealy, Dori, the Kia, and I had never been so happy to get to our destination.
