Missoula, MT to Glendive, MT
Trip Start
Jul 02, 2008
1
19
21
Trip End
Jul 21, 2008
Glendive,
Montana,
United States
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Vacation Day 18
Missoula, MT to Glendive, MT
Well, have you ever wondered how big Montana really is, well let me give you the answer. They don't call it big sky country for no reason. Lets just say it doesn't surprise me, this being probably my 7 or 8th time driving across Montana, it never gets any shorter. The thing is you don't even really get to appreciate what Montana has to offer when you are just driving through. The interstate does kind of go through the mountains, enough to get the ears acting up if you are prone to ear problems, like some I know, but would you really expect an interstate to run through Glacier National Park. No, having been there, there is absolutely no way an interstate could run through Glacier, Yellowstone or the Tetons, all of which are in this area we are diving through today. The interstate is splitting the parks and sticking to the low passes and the plains. To add another bit of twist to this, the stories about the plains being hot, well that is no lie. When we were in Missoula the weather said it would be up to the 90's today, but as we went into the passes the temp was lucky to hit 75 degrees, as soon as we came out of the mountain (if you want to call them that) it was up into the 90's
Smoke Jumpers gear
. Which is by far, a huge cry from the past 10-15 days of vacation where we were running around in hats, gloves, coats and still complaining of being cold. Not that it was really that cold as much as the wind, then further complicate it with the first few days being nice temperature wise in the 70's but exceptionally buggy. So no matter what the weather there will be annoyances, but thats OK because what would vacation be without some small annoyances, thats why I travel, not for the annoyances but for the adventure of not knowing what will happen next.Today has been pretty good, all in all, a little warm but hey, not bad. Looking in the mirror today, I realized just HOW MUCH sun I got sitting on the back of the ferry on Thursday. It was a rather nice and sunny day, but my face has a lot of freckles showing right now, not to badly burnt, just looking rather freckly.
This morning we stopped at the Missoula Smoke Jumper Center and Fire Study Center for Wildfires and did a geo-cache that was there along with explore the area. The "Hot Shots" were not there but that was not surprising as many wildfires are going on out this way, they have probably been mostly all dispatched to fight the fires. After that, we stopped at the Sky King's grave aka Kirby Grant Hoon Jr. to log a virtual geocache. Kind of interesting, the grave was nothing like I thought it would be. Just a simple grave, nothing like I would have thought a TV star of the 60's would have. We have been driving most of the day between going across the plains and through the mountain passes we have managed to pick up a few geocaches for some brake's. We stopped at Pompey's Pillar for a virtual geocache and an earthcache. We are doing some haul butt driving right now in order to get to the motel/hotel at a decent time frame, unlike last night. Thats what happens when you change 2 time zones in a day. The first time zone change was when we stepped off the Alaska Ferry, you stay on Alaska Time the entire time you are on the ferry, regardless of what time zone you may be in, so you step off it and suddenly you are on Pacific time zone one hour ahead and then we crossed over to Montana last night which bumped us to Mountain Time Zone which we will be staying in until we cross the time zone again near Mandan, North Dakota.
So anyway, tonight's stop is at Glendive, Montana and tomorrow's stop is Baxter, Minnesota and the following day, home. Ugh, really can't say that I am looking forward to going home. Traveling is always so much fun, just getting away and meeting new people. Like the guys that hung out on the back of the ferry, just goofing off and talking and of course the infamous thing of me always finding a guy or two on vacation to hang out with. The guys I am referring to, got on in Skagway and were with us the entire trip and generally, just gave me a hard time/ flirted pretty much the entire time, but when it came down to it, it was all fun and games. There is always something to be said for being single when you travel. You can hang around with who ever you want and don't have to worry about upsetting anyone.
Been catching up on some sleep today, actually that being said we all are. Seems everyone has been tired and napping of and on all day. Just been an exciting couple of weeks, because no mater where we were on the trip there was something of interest, first it was the whole Alaska Highway thing and actually taking time to explore it and stop and watch wildlife, then Skagway, and taking time to explore the Klondike Gold Rush and see watch the 1800's were like and then last and certainly not least the ferry and just kicking back and relaxing watching for wildlife and checking out the towns we docked in, if even for only a couple of hours. Anyway this is really the first day in which there isn't anything exciting happening, so I think everyone is just starting to think about what we saw and how long ago it seems that we were doing these things.
But I guess, all good things must come to an end, but it won't be forever, I will be out traveling again before too much longer. I have to or I do really go nuts, traveling is my only way to ensure that I don't go nuts. Besides why not travel, it makes life interesting.
