Go West Young Man

Home Sweet Home

2007-05-18T15:12:00.000-07:00

Got home today after 1:30 pm. Another long drive. If you ever drove through Kansas, you know what I mean.

It's good to be home. Home Sweet Home.

Gonna crash through the next 3 days, and then I might go back to work on Tuesday. I will have to wait and see how I am doing.

How am I doing now? I feel like a huge truck ran over me...several times. Haha.

I will recover though.

Colby, KS

2007-05-17T17:31:00.000-07:00

I am in Colby, KS now after a 11 hr drive.

Ouch.

From Sheridan, Wyoming to Colby, KS is a contrast in so many ways. The geography is just varied and superb all at the same time.

From Mountains to waving grains. Geesh.

This country is SO huge and you don't realize that until you drive it and see that firsthand.

I have the total utmost respect for the pioneers, the settlers of this nation who went out west. The courage just to go from a settled life in the east and go west is just amazing. The fear, the doubts and the joys of living in the wild wilderness of the west is something to just think about.

Tomorrow...going home. Yeah!

One week of intense driving and sightseeing is almost too much for an old man like me! I can't do this anymore, sad to say. It probably will be my last vacation, unless I fly somewhere, and I don't see that happening in the future.

O, Canada!

2007-05-17T17:24:00.001-07:00

Did I tell you that I was on the US/Canada border?

In the background of the first picture you can see the gate house. I didn't go back there though to check it all out. You can see the sign on the right, "tax free". Darn, should have got something, haha.

The province that the road was going into is British Columbia. Beautiful province from what I heard. Now I can see that :)

Greetings from Sheridan, Wyoming

2007-05-16T20:10:00.000-07:00

It has been a long, long day. About 10 hrs worth of driving through God's courageous countryside.

Ain't He just good!?

From Kalispell, MT to Sheridan, Wyoming is a trip that one should take in their life time.

So many different facets of God's creation. From mountains that just touch the sky down to green rolling hills filled with cattle, horses, llamas, antelope and sheep!

Who would have thought all this up? Certainly not Darwin! Haha

Heading homeward as I said last night. I have a change of plans on the way going home. I was going to take I-25 down to Denver and over to Colby, KS. But there is a much simpler and faster way.

I know before I said I don't like country roads, but I am going to do it, just the same. Up in Kalispell, the roads were not to bad, and I hope the roads in Nebraska and Kansas are not to bad either. Sooo....pray for me that I won't get "lost" out in the middle of nowhere! Haha

Going to hit the bed here in a few and wake up early, so I can get a headstart.

Hopefully, the internet connection at Super 8 will be much better than here. This motel doesn't have a public computer as other Super 8's do and the signal connection is so ridiculously low that I am, as of this moment, sitting on the floor next to the motel room. This is the only place that I can get a strong, consistent signal.

Just plain pitiful. They advertise they have wireless internet. Yes, they do have that, but I don't like to sit on the floor typing. Very, very uncomfortable.

BTW...did you know that McDonald's have WiFi now? Yep, but guess what? It ain't free. It's throught ATT&T and you have to pay for WiFi.

That sucks!

Anyways...good night and hope to type tomorrow night!

Glacier National Park

2007-05-15T20:23:00.000-07:00

Left Kalispell around 7 am heading north to West Glacier, MT, the western entrance to Glacier National Park. The weather was superb....sunny skies with no clouds, the temps in the 60's. Excellent day to explore the park.

Here is the entrance to the Park.

Once I paid to get in to the park, I got on the Road to the Sun Road, a 50 mile road that travels through the whole park to the east entrance at St. Mary. The road, however, was partialy closed. I can only go 14 miles eastward. The reason is because it was blocked by snow or some other weather related. That was okay, I knew I came here early in the season. In fact, most of the businesses were not open because it was before the "summer" season started. But the park was open, so I went on the Road and the first came across Lake McDonald:

The Lake is the largest in Glacier and it is beautiful, especially in the morning. It was so calm and peaceful. No pollution at all.

Since it was early in the season, there was still a lot of snow in the mountains and that means a lot of water going into the main river that goes through the park, Flathead River. Take a look at this vid:

Route 2 is a scenic hwy that goes from the western entrance to the eastern entrance of the Park. This vid is of a waterfall along Rt 2. Ate lunch there and it was a popular place for people to stop by to take pics and vids.

Marias Pass - Continental Divide

Here are some pics that I took:

After visiting Glacier, I headed back to Kalispell, but then made a decision to go to the US/Canada border. It was about 60 miles north, so I went. I didn't go across the border, but had some pics :) I saw the mts of British Columbia, Canada, haha

So, my goal was met. I went beyond Billings, MT, the place where I turned back 2 yrs ago and then I went to the northern part of the state to Glacier National Park.

If you ever have a chance to go see some of the most beautiful part of the country, go do it.

My thinking is this: If you want to go see something that you have never seen before and always dream of go seeing it, just do it. If you don't do it, you probably never will.

That is why I have seen some pretty nice and awsome places here in the U.S. I have seen New York City, I have seen the Smoking Mountains, I have seen most of Wyoming, South Dakota and now Montana.

I am heading back homeward tomorrow morning. Yes, I know. It's only been 4 days since I started this trip, but you know what?

Home is Home-sweet-home, always. Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz is right.

There is nothing like home.

I have enjoyed this trip tremendously. God has blessed me in a whole bunch of ways...His creation is the most obvious blessing.

They say that Colorado is God's country.

I have to disagree on that! I say that God created Montana first and then destroyed the model! He then had to make another model for Colorado! Haha. Just kidding, but the creation in Montana is just simply awesome.

I am not heading back the way I came. I-29 is still under water in some parts. So, I am heading to Sheridan, Wyoming tomorrow. Then downward through Wyoming through Denver, CO to Colby, KS.

Then on Friday, from Colby to Columbia.

I will need a week to recover, haha. But I loved it all.

Greetings from Kalispell, MT!

2007-05-14T14:35:00.000-07:00

Greetings!

Today started in a really quirky way. I knew I was in Mountain Time, but my body thought it was still in Central.

I usually wake up at 5 am on weekdays. Today? I woke up at 5 am...but it was actually 4 am.

So...thinking that, I got cleaned up, packed up, and ready to head to the nearest McDonald's.

Well, by the time I got there it was about 6 am, but it was actually 5 am. LOL So, of course, they were not opening up for another hour.

Sigh. Silly me.

So, I got my Diet Pepsi and my Special K bar and I was ready to go hit the road.

It was still dark at 5 am, but there was light in the east...
So I hit I-90 west.

Started to see the Mt ranges about 1 1/2 from Billings:

I took a detour of sorts today. I went to see Helena, the state capitol of Montana.
Here are two clips:

Small Capital for a HUGE state!

I didn't stay long in Helena. Got gas, saw the Capitol, then headed west on Hwy 12. Took some vid of that scenic route:

At the Continental Divide...

The next big stop was Flathead Lake.

"Flathead Lake, the largest freshwater lake in western US. Flathead Lake is 28 miles long by 15 miles wide and over 300 feet deep. The lake was originally formed by a glacier and is now continuously fed by the Swan and Flathead Rivers."

This Lake is HUGE. Hwy 93 for the most part travels along the Lake. Here are some pics that I took of the Lake:

Simply amazing! I got a vid as well:

Now I am in Kalispell at the Super 8 and I am exhausted. Going to bed early tonight, then head off to Glacier National Park :)

See ya tomorrow evening!

Day 2 - Murdo, SD to Billings, MT

2007-05-13T14:07:00.000-07:00

Left Murdo, SD at 6 AM this morning. This town is out in the middle of nowhere. So is I-90. Here's a vid:

Badlands

Black Hills of South Dakota - Taken west of Rapid City, SD

Wyoming!

I see Mtns, Gandalf! The Big Horn Mts

The Open Sky of Montana

First things first...

2007-05-13T12:43:00.000-07:00

I left Columbia and got on Hwy 63N around 6 am. It wasn't bad traveling at that time of the morning, for hardly anyone was on it. I made good time getting to Kirksville in northern Missouri in about 1 1/2 or so.

I stayed on 63N into Iowa and made it up to Des Moines with no trouble, in 4 hrs. Not bad at all! Most of the hwy was 4 lane (which is good!) but there were parts that was 2 lane. No problems of getting behind grandpas and grandmas :P

From Des Moines on up was great. I-35 is a great Interstate. From Des Moines to Albert Lea, MN was 2 hrs. Remember I had to take the "Great Detour" from the Missouri River flooding on I-29, so I had to take the longer route. Anyways, Minnesota is not bad. It's true about the 10,000 lakes on their drivers plates. Everywhere you look, there was a small or large lake.

When I got into Albert Lea, it started to rain hard. But I found I-90 with a little detour of downtown Albert Lea. Ahhh....signs telling you where to go would be a great help, Minnosotains! :P

From Albert Lea westward on I-90 was long. It took me about 6 hrs or so to get to Murdo, so it was around 6 or 7 pm last night when I got to the motel. I was tired. My butt was not happy. Then the problem with the Internet connection happened, and it was a very grumpy evening.

But I went to bed and got some well rested sleep.

That was the end of Day One :)

Here's a short vid of Iowa.

Going into Minnesota in this vid:

Albert Lea rainstorm and I-90

My Apologies

2007-05-13T12:29:00.000-07:00

My apologies for not posting last night.
For some reason or another, I couldn't get connected to the Internet last night in Murdo, SD. My laptop said it was connected to the wireless Internet, but I couldn't get connected. If that doesn't make sense, don't worry about it! I was not a happy camper last night.

Anyways..lets get on with this blog!

Rental Car

2007-05-11T15:34:00.000-07:00

After work today, I picked up my rental car.

I didn't want to use my car...really didn't want to add up the mile. It's a Dodge Neon and has pretty good gas mileage, but I wanted a smaller car to save on gas.
The gas price here in Missouri is $3.05 a gallon.

Gads.

I can imagine what it is out west and north.

So, I got myself a smaller, economy car. The Chevy Aveo. It's brand new, about 7,000 miles on it, but it is a plain jane. No bells or whistles at all. What I mean by that is that it has no power locks, no power windows, no cruise control, no DVD player, no tilt wheel. Basic car as you can get. No biggie for me, I can deal with it.

So long as I got my iPod, I'm good to go :)

Yep, it's a Yellow Critter.

We shall see how it goes on the road early in the morn.

I hope that I will do an entry tomorrow evening at my hotel room. It's supposed to have Internet connection. I am staying at Super 8 motels during the whole trip.

Until then...

Detours

2007-05-10T15:16:00.000-07:00

For the last several weeks, the Missouri River has been flooding the low lands in upper Missouri. I-29 from Kansas City to the Missouri/Iowa border, I heard, is pretty much closed and have to go through detours.

Bah humbug on that. So, a change of plans for Saturday.

I am taking Hwy 63N from Columbia to Des Moines, IA, then hitting I-35 to I-90, which is the Interstate I plan to take to Montana anyhow. From what I figured, it will take me 2 hrs extra by going this way, but in the long run, it's going to be worth it.

I could take I-70 west to Colby, KS and then go north to Murdo, my first destination, but I don't want to take any county roads for I have no idea how they are. 2 lane country roads are not my cup of tea out in the middle of cornfields. :D

That is my plan...at least for now. But it probably will be that way, for there have been some huge t-storms coming into Missouri and that won't help the all - ready flooded highways and Interstates.

Ahh..traveling. :)

Introduction

2007-05-08T14:16:00.000-07:00

On May 12th through May 29th, I will be heading out to Montana and surrounding states for vacation.

I am planning to take my laptop, camera, vidcam and record every thing that I can and post it here. Hopefully it will be a fun experience for me and for you as you read this blog.

It's Tuesday afternoon and I haven't got anything ready yet, but I have several days left though.