I don’t even know how to begin this just because where I’m writing this right now is crazy! I’m in Murdo, South Dakota with Chad and we are at a place called the Country Inn. We left Plainfield, Illinois at around 6:45am and we stopped driving at about 10:00pm or so and now we are at this extremely fancy hotel that is extremely cheap! It’s seriously the nicest place I have ever been in…although I’m not sure if that’s saying much since I haven’t been in too many hotels I suppose. It’s pretty sweet though so I hope you get a chance to see the pictures because both Chad and I had no idea this is where we would end up staying when we left this morning. Anyway, let me back up a little bit right now. Like I said we left early this morning and basically drove all the way to La Crosse, Wisconsin and then entered Minnesota. That’s when things sort of started to get fun since we’ve been in the northern part of Illinois and the southern/middle part of Wisconsin before. When we got to Minnesota we stopped at a rest area and I saw this old phone booth so I wanted to take a picture of it since you don’t really see a whole lot of those anymore. While I was doing that Chad went to go to the bathroom and so I was taking a picture, but then a guy drove up in a mini-van and asked me if I wanted to get in the picture. So I gave him my camera and I stood next to the phone acting like I was talking into it. He said that I could tell people I was talking to my girlfriend…little does he know I’m the most single guy on the planet! JOKES ON HIM!!! It was kind of funny how it all happened though and Chad saw me talking with the guy when he was coming out of the bathroom. That picture is up on the web site so hopefully you’ll see what I’m talking about. Then we drove through Minnesota for a while and it reminded us of Illinois quite a bit because most of it was very flat and farm land. So nothing too exciting happened for a while until we stumbled across the Spam Museum. It was closed on Monday though so that was sort of a drag, but the gift shop was open and there was plenty of crazy crap to look at for a little bit. Then we got back on the road again and made it to South Dakota and stopped at The Corn Palace. Chad really liked the place and it was cool to see all of the pictures they had there of this building. They change the look of it every year so the palace looks different all the time. Then after that we drove some more and ended up in Murdo at the Country Inn. Seriously, take a look at the pictures of the hotel we are in cause it’s insane! We have a tub in the room though which is kind of lame since we were both looking forward to having a shower after today. Oh well. This is still a funny place to stay for the night. Well, I think that’s all I’ll say for now. I’ll let the pictures do more of the talking I suppose. We drove quite a bit today so it wasn’t too much sight seeing but we had a few good stops still. As for now I’m going to get some sleep so I can be ready for the next adventures! Good night.
10/11/05
It’s now been another day on the adventure to Idaho and we are now in Livingston, Montana for the night at a place called the Country Motor Inn. The place isn’t as nice as the last place, but it’s fine for the both of us. We really lucked out yesterday with the Country Inn, but it was actually kind of creepy to sleep there at night. Chad and I heard a lot of noise through the walls (they were pretty thin and we didn’t notice until we got to bed) and the lock on the door wasn’t really the greatest either. So that got me thinking, “So is this why the place is so nice and so cheap? So someone can come in during the middle of the night and take our stuff and kill us?” But Chad and I made it through the night, even though we didn’t get a good night sleep from being paranoid, and we were on our way in the morning. It was really foggy in the morning but it just cleared up by the time we got to the Badlands in South Dakota. That was really sweet to see and I’m pretty sure I was there before with my family almost ten years ago, so it was cool to climb some of the mountains and then drive around to see everything. I took a ton of pictures and ended up using up one of my camera batteries rather quickly. We drove west a little bit more and then north to a place called Wall. They have a drug store there that was advertised for miles on all sorts of billboards called Wall Drug. So we stopped there since it was on the way and checked it out for a bit. I realized that this was also a place that I was at with my family years ago and I have a picture of me on a stuffed horse there in the back of the store, so I got a picture of me on the same horse doing the same pose…or at least I’m pretty sure it’s the same pose. We left soon after to get back on the road and headed up to Wyoming. It was a cool drive to go through and see the scenery but we didn’t really stop anywhere. The best part was going between these two hills on the highway and then right above and between them we saw some mountains for the first time on the trip. Chad has never seen the mountains before so that’s cool that we got to see them today. Then we made it into Montana and saw a lot more mountains and some that were a little bit closer. I kept taking pictures and rolling down the window and Chad was getting sick of the wind blowing in, but it’s so worth it to get some pictures! We also ran into more bugs in Montana…Wyoming was the cleanest so far without running into a whole lot of bugs. So it got really messy again when we crossed to the Montana border and there was this huge bug that slammed onto my side of the windshield and left a disgusting mess. It was kind of funny though because it made a pretty ridiculous sound when it smashed into the truck. We ended up talking to our friend Kyle on the phone before dinner so that was cool because he was interested in knowing where we were at right now. After that we ate at Hardee’s and then found another good deal for a decent room for the night. So that’s it. Chad’s watching O’ Brother Where Art Thou on the television and I got a few things I need to do before I get to bed. I’m going to sleep good tonight since these last two nights I didn’t really get too much sleep. Okay, enjoy today’s pictures! Tomorrow we’ll be reaching our main destination…Idaho!
10/12/05
Last night at the Motel in Montana was pretty funny later at night because you can hear all sorts of people and there was a train across the street that came to a complete stop and shook the building we were in so much. Chad was sleeping in the bed and I was on the floor in the sleeping bag and I said, “Man, this is so cheap.” We both laughed and that was pretty much all I remember until the next morning when we packed up and got back on the road once again. We continued to go on I-90 West (we’ve been on this road since Wisconsin) and drove through the mountains, so that was really cool and it was crazy in the morning to drive through patches of fog every now and then. One minute you’ll see everything around you while the sun shines down and then all of a sudden you’re in the enormous cloud that reduces your view about 95%. We could barely see some vehicles that were driving in front of us and once we get out of the fog they’re about twenty feet away or so. We drove quite a bit without any stops at all other than getting gas and bathroom breaks, but then when it was time for lunch we stumbled across a place called the OK Café. It was a neat place to be in because it just sort of seemed like your typical diner out in the country. I was looking out the window watching this guy at a ranch across the street. He was rounding up some cattle at the time and was trying to get one of them into a trailer on the back of a truck. He kept swinging this rope around with a lasso at the end and I totally thought he was going to get a hold of one of the cows but I think he was just trying to spook them. The cattle were just running around this very small ranch and the cowboy kept chasing them around. It was cool to watch at first but I really wanted to see him lasso something and he never did! Instead he kept chasing the cows around, stomping on the ground AND throwing rocks! I couldn’t believe he was doing that. He kept picking up rocks and would really whip it at these cows to get them running around again. Now I’m not an expert in the cowboy ways…but is that part of the cowboy way? I just thought it was kind of funny but mostly cruel. Eventually he got this black cow in the trailer and then they drove it off the ranch. After the across-the-street entertainment we ate lunch and then got back on the road once again. About thirty minutes later Chad and I finally reached our destination, the whole reason why we left Plainfield, Illinois in the first place. We finally made it to Idaho. We stopped at the sign and got a few pictures and then were on our way once again.
About an hour or so later we got off of I-90 West and headed up North to Bonners Ferry, Idaho. Our friend Aaron lives there on a horse ranch and we figured we would stay there for a few days and hang out with him since he’s in Idaho as well. The problem was that Aaron doesn’t have a very good way of communication. He doesn’t have a phone except for one in a shop that he works in, so we were calling that number quite a bit while driving all the way out here but he never answered. The other thing was that we didn’t know exactly where he lived because his address had a P.O. Box number in it. So Chad and I went over to the post office and after about twenty minutes we finally got a little bit of information on how to get to where he lives. It was off of a country road that was very far away from town and it took us well over an hour before we got to the ranch because of the road we were driving on. We made it to a few houses with the same address number so it became a little confusing and we decided to just check each house one by one. The first house looked like it had someone home at the moment and there were two big dogs that came over to us and they were barking. Chad got out and was walking towards the house to see if anyone was home, but then one of the dogs started to growl and show his teeth. The dog looked nice but apparently that was just a show because he started to attack Chad by running over to him a little bit. Chad ran back to the truck but didn’t think he could get into the door so he jumped up on the bed of the truck instead. The dog ran away shortly after and Chad got into the driver’s seat of the vehicle. We left that place since it just didn’t really seem like a good idea to check the place out anymore. The next house we checked was dog-free and had a lot of trucks in the driveway so we figured someone would be home. Chad got out again and knocked on the front door but no one answered. Then a guy in a trailer next to the house came over to see what was going on and Chad explained that we were looking for someone out here. He didn’t know anyone by the name of Aaron and neither did his friends so we check the last place where Aaron could possibly be at from the address that we have. It was a horse ranch so that was a good sign at the beginning. There was a fence blocking the way in and a sign that said No Trespassing. So I was a little worried about this because we walked around the fence to get in and I had the feeling that we were going to run into some mean old guy with a shotgun handy. On one side of the road was a large area where there were about 12 horses roaming around and then nearby on the other side of the road was a pen filled with sheep. Up ahead was a trailer and a truck next to it that Chad said Aaron owns that same truck. So this was actually looking good but I still felt like we were in a place that we shouldn’t be in at all. I just thought there was someone watching us and was getting ready to shoot us since we were on his ranch. No one answer in the trailer though so we didn’t know what to do next after that. We left a note on the door of the trailer and another one on the door of the truck in case this is where Aaron lives and he can read the note to know we are in the area and that he has the number to my cell phone. So we left shortly after and the sheep went crazy as we walked by them again, so I thought that was sort of funny to see. We drove up to town again and found a place to sleep for the night, which kind of sucked because we wanted to sleep at his trailer for the night so we can save some money but we had to change our plans. We’re in some kind of log cabin type of motel, which is kind of nice I guess but it’s a little pricey around here in this area to get a cheap place. Most likely there won’t be any funny stories in this place for the night, but that’s fine because both Chad and myself are very tired and probably should get a good nights sleep. After we got our stuff into the room I got a call on my cell phone and it turned out to be Aaron. So I thought that was good because he called fairly quickly after we left the ranch where he’s at, but it turned out he just called Chad’s house in Plainfield and his dad gave Aaron my cell phone number to get a hold of me. I gave Chad the phone and he talked with Aaron for a little while and it turns out that Aaron is in Wisconsin right now. He’s out there with his boss because they need to pick up a horse in Indiana or something. So that really sucks because we just missed him by a few days and now he’s all the way out where we sort of started. It’s kind of a drag because it would have been nice to hang out with Aaron but Chad and I are still going to do some things in Idaho since that’s the main reason why we came out here. I know this is a very long story but I figured I’d explain everything with Aaron and all. It’s unfortunate that he’s not around, but Chad and I are still going to have fun out here. So as for now we’re going to get some sleep so we can do just that! Actually, Chad’s sleeping right now so he’s got a head start on me so I better catch up, so there’s the summary of day 3 on the Idaho trip.
10/13/05
Tonight is sort of disappointing because we are staying in a Motel 6 and it doesn’t have a funny name at all. In fact, this is the first place that doesn’t have the word “Country” in it so that’s why it’s so disappointing for both Chad and I. We had a pretty cool day exploring in Idaho though. I forget the name of the State Park but it was sweet because it had an area to explore in the woods that you can hike around for a little bit and see a fairly big water fall. I wasn’t expecting to see any water falls in Idaho so that was a cool thing I wasn’t expecting at all on this trip. I have some cool pictures of it and a few with me in the shot so I’ll put that up on the site for you to see. A little over an hour later Chad and I got back in the truck and we ended up driving around a little bit on some road near the place where we parked. We really didn’t know where it was going and before we knew it we kind of just kept going up and around the mountains more and more. So eventually we were sort of wondering if this loops around somewhere or if it was just going to come to a dead end. We came to a fork in the road and Chad wanted to go up on a road that seemed to be sort of abandoned. So we drove on this really rough and narrow road that just kept going up and there was no way we could turn around so we just had to find out where it led. It got extremely steep and the edge of the road was so close to the truck so Chad was driving very carefully. We finally got to the end of the road and it was a little campsite you can set up a tent next to a fire pit. It was pretty lame how much we drove on this side road just to see this, but we were able to turn around and went back to the main road we were on and kept on going to see where it went to. We saw a moose up ahead that seemed to have an injured hind leg so it was hobbling away from the truck because it was really scared and probably thought we were hunters or something. It stopped and looked behind to see if we were still following it so that was kind of funny. We could only go forward though since we were on a pretty narrow road once again and were really high up in the mountains, but the moose eventually went into the woods on the right side of the road and we were on our way trying to get out. Long story short, we finally got out of the mountains in about three hours I think and we drove out of there for good! Both Chad and I were pretty nervous since we didn’t know where we were at all and Chad was also not sure if the truck was going to make it through such a beating. I got some pretty cool pictures though so that was awesome and I hope you enjoy them! We left and tried to go play disc golf at a nearby park but you had to pay four dollars to get in since it was a State Park and we weren’t too excited about that. It was also getting pretty dark at this point and we figured we would hold off on that until tomorrow since the sun was sort of going down and we didn’t want to be rushed. So after that we got the motel room and Chad watched Survivor on TV while I was on the wireless internet with my laptop. Then headed over to Pizza Hut for a late dinner and then came back to the motel to wind down for the day. So it was cool to actually get out and explore because we haven’t done a whole lot of that since we’ve been in the truck most of the time. Well, it’s late and I should get to sleep. Chad’s already beating me at that since he’s in bed getting some rest. Oh man, it’s hilarious where I’m sleeping tonight! It’s on a window ledge and I think I might fall off of it tonight but I’ll see if I can stay on it the whole time.
10/14/05
I’m so tired right now…I just want to write something quick and then get to bed. Tonight Chad and I are in a cabin at Farragut State Park in Athol, Idaho. It’s a pretty sweet place I suppose and it’s really warm inside so I like it a lot! We are right next to a fairly big lake and are surrounded by mountains and hills so it’s a cool sight. We basically left the Motel 6 in Sandpoint and headed down south to Farragut because there’s a disc golf course there and that was one of the things we wanted to do on the trip. So we played the course and it was really warm outside, which was something I don’t think we were prepared for since we wore a lot of layers of clothing and it sort of affected the way we threw the disc. It seemed like a long course to get through because we had to find the discs in the woods quite a bit but it was still cool to play an Idaho course. After that we went down the road and found a beach to walk around for a little while. It was cool and it reminded me a lot of Maine when I was out there a few summers ago with the lake and hills with trees in the background. About an hour or so later we got back in the truck and were leaving the park and Chad thought about seeing if there were any cabins that we could possibly stay in. It turned out that there were cabins available and they were open for tonight but reserved by others tomorrow, so we decided to stay here and sleep in the cabin since it will probably be are only chance. So we cooked some hotdogs and ate chips and stuff for dinner in the fire pit next to the cabin. After diner I wanted to walk around for a little bit and Chad decided to stay at the fire pit. It was nice to go on some trails and walk around in the woods next to this huge lake and with mountains and hills in the background. I got some really cool pictures of the scenery so I’m glad I went to look around. Oh man, Chad just reminded me to write about this piece of underwear that he found when we were looking for firewood. Also, Chad just reminded me again to mention that the name of the cabin we are staying in is called Honeysuckle. It’s such a manly name! So anyway, after my walk on a few trails I headed back to the Honeysuckle cabin and Chad and I just sat on the front porch talking for a little bit. I love hearing the sound of the waves crashing up on the shore and I think it’s even cooler when it’s dark outside and you can’t even really see the water at all. It got a little cold after a while and we headed inside and Chad busted out the cards to play Crazy 8’s. Most people think I hate playing card games but the real reason why I don’t play a whole lot is that I either can’t remember how to play a specific card game or I am just terrible at every game. So now we just got done playing War and of course Chad won and now we are really tired. I’m actually extremely tired because I didn’t get a whole lot of sleep last night. I guess it was sort of enough…but I haven’t gotten a really good night’s sleep at all on this whole trip and I think it’s finally caught up to me. So I think it’s time for bed so we can get ready for the next day of whatever we are going to do. We’re most likely going to head over to Washington and then check that out for a little bit. Then I’m not really sure what. Maybe we’ll be on our way back home…I’m still not sure what we’re going to do.
10/15/05
We’re heading back home today! We didn’t really know what the plan was for a little bit but we drove over to Washington and took a picture next to a river nearby. After that we basically turned around and headed back east on I-90. This morning was really nice because I got up early and walked around outside near the lake down the hill. I saw the sunrise over the mountains and tried to get a few pictures of it with the lake in the foreground, but it really isn’t the same through the camera lens. It was definitely a cool sight so I’m glad I got up and walked around. Chad and I stayed at the cabin for a little while in the morning and then got back on the road at around 9:30am and that’s when we headed over to Washington. It would have been cool to see a little bit more of that state but whatever. At least we can saw we were in Washington as well with a bunch of other states on this road trip. We drove for quite a while and stopped at an Arby’s along the way for lunch. I saw this bell on the way out and a sign above it saying to ring it if you were satisfied, so I rang it and it was a pretty wussy sound and only one worker saw me and I gave her a thumbs up as I walked out. Then we got back in the truck and went on our way for about six or seven hours I think until we came across a town called Columbus. There was a sign that looked pretty funny called Big Sky Motel so we figured we would stay here because of that. Then we headed over to a place in town called The Sports Hut for diner and it got busy really fast about five minutes we were there. It’s funny how there are so many mini casinos everywhere in Montana. Every gas station we stop at had one and the place where we ate had one as well…I think I forgot to mention that the first time we went through Montana. So after that we came back to the motel and Chad is watching The Natural on television and I’m just sitting around on the computer and charging up the cell phone and camera batteries once again. Man, I’m really glad I brought my computer along because that way I can store all the pictures I have on it otherwise I’d be very limited with which pictures I could have taken on this trip. I think this will be a good night to catch up on sleep since it’s only 9:35pm right now and there’s probably not going to be a whole lot that will go on for the rest of the night. I know there’s not a whole lot to tell this time around while we are heading back through Montana, but tomorrow we’ll be in South Dakota and there were a few places that we want to stop at that we didn’t go to before. SO LOOK OUT!
10/16/05
We drove quite a bit today and didn’t make too many stops at all so that was sort of disappointing. We drove through the rest of Montana and ate at A&W in Wyoming and then headed back on the road once again to South Dakota. On the way up to Idaho we saw a billboard saying something about a mystery spot so we figured we would stop by while we were going back home. The only problem was we couldn’t find it on the way back home so I guess it really is a mystery spot or it might just be impossible to find no matter where you are in South Dakota. We also stopped by in Deadwood but that town wasn’t really that great and we didn’t even get out of the truck to walk around. So we got back on the highway again and kept on heading east until it was nighttime. Chad and I are in Sioux Falls for the night and we found a place called Cloud 9 Motel and it looked like the funniest place to stay so that’s where we stopped at. I’m pretty sick of eating fast food at this point so I walked over to a gas station and picked up a few things to eat for dinner. It was nice to walk around for a little while too because Chad and I were in the truck all day long so it got old kind of fast. We’re taking it easy in the motel room right now and there’s a South Park marathon going on so that’s on the television. I think I’m going to go to bed kind of early tonight since the lack of sleep has kind of caught up to me I think. We’ll be back in Plainfield by tomorrow night some time so it will be good to be back home and not have to pay for another motel room and gasoline.
10/17/05
We made it back home! It’s been a few hours since I got home and I’ve just been doing laundry, checking email and phone messages. So now I have a chance to sit down and write a little bit about today…even though there wasn’t too much that happened today again. We woke up at the Cloud 9 Motel (Chad got up before me this time!) and we headed back on the road planning to be in Plainfield once again. We weren’t too far from the Minnesota border so that was good, but it was also kind of a bad thing because Minnesota isn’t all that great to drive through since the roads were really bumpy and there wasn’t too much to look at when we went out there one week ago. It reminds us of Illinois quite a bit so I think that’s mostly the reason why because we want to see something different, so it was sort of a long five hours or so to drive though but it’s over so whatever. We were actually thinking about going down to Iowa but ended up not doing that after all even though that would have been cool to go into another state on this trip. We got into Wisconsin and again it wasn’t all that great just because we’ve seen it before and just wanted to be home at this point. Although, I saw the Capital in Madison while we were driving on I-90 and that was cool to see because it brought back a lot of memories when I lived in Madison a few summers ago. I really liked that place a lot! Then we got into Illinois and then we had to pay tolls so that sucked and Chad actually missed the first pay toll machine. He lost three quarters that didn’t get thrown into the bin! Three quarters is a lot of money for change so it was a drag, but it’s a good thing I can do laundry at home right now I suppose. J We missed our exit to get back home too so we ended up taking another way home which was kind of nice with all of the fall colors and stuff. I really appreciate the fall season a lot more now after living in Chicago because you don’t see the color change as much. Even if you live in an area where there’s trees it’s still not the same when you actually get away from all the concrete and pollution. So then we drove past the gas station where Chad’s dad works so we stopped in there for a second to say hi to him and then headed back down the road for a little bit into our neighborhood. Over 4,000 miles later we finally made it back and we unloaded all of my stuff from the truck at my house and that was basically it. I took a few last pictures in the front yard and Chad was on his way back to his house for the evening. I’ve been looking at all of the pictures I took and deleting a lot of them that are not framed right or out of focus. I knew I’d be getting rid of a lot of them but I still have quite a few and I’m looking forward to putting some of them on my web site for everyone to see. It was a cool trip and I’m glad I went because who knows when I’ll be able to do something like that again, you know? Chad has been talking about going to Idaho for a long time now and it’s cool that he finally went out there and to be that far west because he’s never been passed South Dakota. So it was a great time and definitely something Chad and I will remember and I’m sure make plenty of inside jokes to each other that happened on the trip that no one else will know about. That sort of thing is always bound to happen I suppose. Well, I guess that’s really all there is to it now. I hope these stories are entertaining and that the pictures are enjoyable!
THE END!!!
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