We planned to start with a circuit of the United States, and planned a route to see as many people as possible (unfortunately we couldn't find a way to see everyone). For our tour, we booked a rental car. Economically, it would have been better to buy a car and then sell it afterwards, like is common practice in New Zealand.
It's a little more problematic in the U.S. If we bought a car, we would have to register it in our state of residence by going to that state. Although we both have U.S. citizenship, we don't actually reside in any particular state, so we would first have to jump through whatever hoops are necessary to establish residency in our selected state before worrying about the car. Then there was the fact that we wanted to start and end the trip in Canada. Buying a car, registering it in a different country and then selling it across the border triggers all sorts of import duties going either way. Without a car, getting across the border is a problem, particularly since Erieau is nowhere near the border. That is how we eventually decided to bite the bullet and rent a car. Picking it up is easy, leaving it behind is easy, and our contract says we can drive it anywhere within the U.S. and Canada. The car we got gets forty miles per gallon and had less than three thousand miles on the odometer when we collected it.
Our first real stop was to be my Uncle Jay's cabin, which is almost at the geographic center of Montana. To get there, we needed to do three solid days of driving.
The first day, to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, was always going to be a long one, but since Begonia was now much farther east than we had originally planned, we had to add two more hours of driving. In order to not make that worse by getting stuck in morning rush-hour traffic in Chicago, we had to leave Erieau in the quiet darkness of one o'clock in the morning.
We made it to the border crossing at the tunnel between Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, Michigan at three a.m. We were the only one there. The officer seemed a little annoyed that we were not a straightforward case. We pulled up in a Canadian car, which was not ours, handed over two U.S. passports, which had last left the country months ago from a completely different place and not by road, and then told him we were heading nowhere near any address in his system.
We crossed the border back into the USA in full dark (and zero traffic) and then had a blur of scenery as we travelled west
I think the poor guy was just tired. It was that time of night where it gets really hard to stay awake if there is not that much going on, even for people who regularly work the night shift. The first thing his system did was read our car's license plate number. This caused him to start with the spiel he uses to determine if a foreign national has a legitimate reason for being allowed entry. As he was doing this, I was thinking something like 'Why are you hassling us? We're citizens.' Then he asked for our passports and seemed to think the same thing.
He let out a sigh, "Welcome to the United States."
We're in!
Maryanne insisted on a few stops - here we are at the home and museum of the "Jolly Green giant" in Minnesota, and to 'nab' Iowa we diverted to the tri-state marker and ran around
We had just a few minutes delay at the beginning of Chicago's rush hour, and then it was a lot of empty road and fast speed limits to Sioux Falls. We were able to make it to the river feature that is the city's namesake just before the sun went down. That gave us just enough time to do a walk around the park before heading to our hotel. We had driven nine hundred miles and touched seven U.S. states and one Canadian Province.
Sioux Falls just before sunset
That made for a long day. We ate a quick dinner at a place we selected entirely based on it's proximity to our motel, and then spent most of our time in the room looking at the back of our eyelids.
The next day, I had billed as a tourism day. That was misleading because it was still a long day with a lot of driving ("only" 550 miles), plus we squeezed in visits to Mt. Rushmore, The Crazy Horse Memorial and, right at sunset, Devils Tower.
More blurred scenery at the start of day 2
Maryanne insisted on a stop to feed the Prairie Dogs
Mount Rushmore, included a stop for ice cream and we were quite taken by the light fittings in the cafe
More blurs of scenery as we wisk along
The Crazy Horse Memorial (to all Native Americans) is a long way from being finshed, but included a great museum telling the story of the memorial, and the history of various Native American groups. It is also where we spotted our first snow!
We squeezed in a visit to Devils Tower (apostrophe omitted deliberately) before dark arrived. You may recognize it from the The 1977 movie: Close Encounters of the Third Kind
We finished the day in Gillette, Wyoming, which is the center of Wyoming's coal industry and not a great spot for tourism, but we were at least getting far enough west into the part of the country where really good Mexican food is ubiquitous instead of rare. that certainly helped make up for the post-apocalyptic view on the way in.
We grabbed a quick Mexican meal for dinner before a rest for the night
After that, it was just an easy six hours into Montana, including a provisioning stop in Billings, to Uncle Jay's (& Aunt Marie's) cozy cabin.
More blurs of scenery
Once we left the last settlement at Rygate, where Marie works as an elected official, it was just thirty five miles to the cabin. We were surprised to find a nice, two-lane road with a seventy mile per hour speed limit heading out of town. We'll be there in no time!
The pavement ended ten miles later with no notice. Jay later told us that locals drive the dirt roads at about forty miles per hour. They all have big 4WD pickups for coping with winter snows. Our rented economy car with its little tires and low clearance had to slow below thirty to feel safe. When we got to Jay's address an hour later, we discovered that's just the location of the mailbox. It was still a few more miles to the actual house.
We enjoyed several days of relaxation and time with family - we were made to feel welcome and were very much looked after in their cozy home and amazing surroundings of 'Big Sky' Montana
Wow! The place sits in the middle of thousands of acres of rolling grassland (what Montanans call 'a little') backed by craggy mountains. The view out every single one of their windows is of magnificent solitude and astonishing beauty. His neighbors aren't that far away. If they were ships on the ocean, you might be able to see the top of a bridge breaking the horizon, but here, you have to get in the pickup and drive a few minutes to even see them. Looking at Jay, my mom's little brother, and giving him his first bear hug since she passed away, it was clear from the contented look on his face that he was living right in the middle of his happy place.
When Marie got home from work, she told us that a coworker had heard about our visit and pretty much insisted she take a long weekend. That allowed us all to have big fun in Big Sky Country, where a hundred miles on a dirt road is pretty much the standard for any outing that leaves the cabin.
My personal favorite of these was when we took two pickups towing two all-terrain vehicles, plus three dogs, to a big bowl in the mountains called Swimming Woman. It is pretty and all, but the real fun came when Maryanne and I were tasked with taking the dogs in the big ATV, which they call a side-by-side, with two dogs squeezed between us on the middle seat and one in the back.
Among the many fun outings, a trip to the Helena-Lewis & Clark National Forest and its great mountains
After fording a small stream, we stopped to snap a photo. Freyja, the dog in the back, decided we were "there" and bolted, tearing back and forth across the valley at full puppy speed with the wind blowing her fur back. She couldn't get lost - after all, it was a canyon - she just tore from one side to the other at three times our speed while following the sound of our motors.
When we thought she had worn herself out, we stopped to let her climb in and ride the rest of the way. That's when the other two decided it was their turn to join in and leapt out.
There was something immensely satisfying about seeing the three dogs express their true dogness, tearing through streams and into bushes in a full gallop with their tongues streaming behind. The only difference between Dog Heaven and their actual lives might have been a couple of rabbits to chase along the way. After what must've been ten miles of running, they slept for ten minutes and then were raring to run back.
Yeah, Jay and Marie really seem to have figured out the life for themselves!
It was tough to leave the warmth of Jay and Marie and Montana (not to mention their delicious cooking!). We departed just before a big snow fall was forecast.
Location >> On google maps
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