Bismark, ND to Billings, MT – 5/9/2017

May 9, 2017 (Tuesday)

Slept really well. The sheets were so soft and the bed so comfortable. Michael got up and went down to breakfast and brought me back up some eggs, yogurt, orange juice and coffee (two trips – what a great husband). We enjoyed the extra day of rest and felt we needed it. The weather started out looking nice but as the day progressed we hit rain. The drive today was to Billings, Montana – almost 450 miles. Long day for us but we’ll be putting in longer days until we get home.

Some camels in a big yard as we are headed out of town.
Big change, it has been so windy for us.  No wind this morning, can even see reflections in the water.
Huge cow statue in the distance.
I see where the ice sheets were.
I think an oil train.

The drive was on the main highway and good roads. We stopped three times – once in North Dakota at Theodore Roosevelt National Park, at a place called Painted Canyon, to go to the bathroom and look at the view.  Pretty spectacular!  While there we saw lots of evidence of buffalo running loose (aka poop), but no buffalo.

And rest stop.
A very nice little dachshund.
Painted Canyon.
This was an undercut drop off where we were standing, pretty dramatic.

Looks like the beginnings of the bad lands.

The second stop was somewhere in Montana to get drinks, and the third was at a rest stop to go to the bathroom again. At this particular rest stop there were signs warning of rattlesnakes in the area and to be careful. You had better believe I was looking everywhere to make sure I didn’t run into one.

Another state line.
You get so used to it. It is hard to go back to 65 or worse, 55.

No problem.
The last ice age came through here.
I just see ice carving this rock out of the planes.
A museum dedicated to support the Biblical history of the world.
They argue that pre-flood, T.Rex was a plant eater.
The landscape changes and the vegetation with it.

We got into Billings and were hungry so we stopped at the Applebee’s near our “home.” We weren’t impressed with their food and won’t be going back anytime soon.

Everything was peppery, jalapeno, hot hot hot and not to our liking.

We got to our lovely hotel – Boothill Inn and Suites. I booked it through hotels.com and paid much more than I usually do (almost $100.00 for ONE NIGHT!). Not sure what I was thinking unless I wanted to make sure we had a comfortable night’s sleep.

Oh, look, another motel room.

Edie loved the sheets.

That was our day. Hope yours was great!