The Trip - Day 13/14/15 - May 4th, 5th, and 6th
The Trip - Days 13, 14, and 15
I'M HOME! I'm also writing this as one big post because I wasn't able to do any posting on the road over the last few days.
Day 13 - Collinsville, MO to Chamberlain, SD
Giant storm, boring day. I was going to write this overly complex narrative about fighting the storm in this massive cross country battle of wills, but I can't figure out a good ending and it seems pointless anyway.
Yeah, I got nothing, the day was just that boring.
Day 14 - Chamberlain, SD to Rollings, MT
Today I lived through hell.
After last night's experience with the massive thunderstorm in South Dakota, I should've expected the worst. I didn't, and so was caught unprepared.
Leaving Chamberlain was easy. Driving on through the rest of South Dakota and Wyoming less so.
I left Chamberlain, set on hitting Deadwood sometime during the day. On my outbound trip I hadn't gotten a chance to see much of the town, so I'd made plans to amend that mistake. The driving was rough, but I made it in due time. My intentions were to eat a steak and gamble, and after getting drenched walking from the parking garage to the casino, that's exactly what I did.
By semi-random selection (einie, meeney, miney, mo, that's the billboard I'm going to choose) I decided to do my gambling at the Mineral Palace. They had a steakhouse, and that was my first stop. By random coincidence, the Mineral Palace's steakhouse was the Gem Steakhouse & Saloon, constructed atop the site of the original Gem Theater run by Al Swearengen. Go go ghost of Ian McShane.
The steak was overall a great meal, but once again the steak itself was under seasoned. I think I'm going to start requesting to see the chef when I get meat that hasn't been salted properly. Sticking a fork somewhere soft should fix the issue promptly.
After that I tried slots (boring and pointless), and some card games (fantastic!). I was introduced to three card poker, which I played for a good couple of hours. It was fun, easy to play without feeling like you were losing the bank, and in the end I was up twenty bucks. I decided to toss the twenty bucks in one hand, lost it, and cashed out with an overall loss of one dollar. Fun was had.
From there, I figured I'd jaunt my way to Billings, and then maybe onward from there to home. Nature had something else to say about it, as it rained down pretty much every molecule of H2O that it had available in the western hemisphere. It was by far the worst driving experience I've ever had, with both torrential downpours and massive wind gusts. My hands were cramped from having to steer so carefully while being so tense.
When I hit Wyoming, I even ran into a snowstorm.
Fortunately, the rain ceased sometime after I hit Montana, and I was joyed to see dry road ahead of me. I hit Billings only shortly off schedule, and after talking to a really nice employee at Barnes & Noble, I polished off half of a dinner at Cracker Barrel. The rest is in a bag, set to be my breakfast tomorrow. For now, I'm going to sleep.
Day 15 - Rollings, MT to Everett, WA
Getting out of Billings was the hard part, as for some reason they had a detour to I-90 that didn't have any posted detour signs. A bit foolish if you ask me.
Heading into the hills I saw a deer crossing sign for the first time in several days. I figured I wouldn't see any deer at all, but then not 50 feet past the sign a group of three deer started crossing the freeway. It was kinda cute.
I had my breakfast left over from Cracker Barrel. It wasn't bad food, but it wasn't particularly good either. The best part was the Stewart's root beer. It was awesome, and I'm pretty sure I'd never had it before.
The rest of the trip was just driving, more driving, and yet more driving after that. When I passed through Coeur D'Alene, ID, I remembered my earlier experience with comically named restaurants (Awful Arthur's), and so chose not to dine at Terrible Edith's.
I also discovered that there are indeed big huge gigantic travel plaza's on this side of the country. The difference was that the one I found was in Montana, and it was off an exit rather than at a rest area. That said, it was bigger than any of the biggest travel plazas I found on the way to the East Coast, and even had a small casino.
By the time I hit Spokane I knew I'd make it home in good time, but I figured something was wrong with me when the backs of all cars I was staring at started to look like comic automobile faces. I'm pretty sure I was going to snap when one of them opened it's trunk and started talking to me.
All in all, a successful trip, especially since I ended it with a trip to Ezell's. My conclusion post is coming soon.
Highlights:
- Huge lightning storms. Beautiful display.
- Getting to I-90 is like coming home without quite getting there yet.
- Seeing six different types of rain and the noises they create hitting my car from different directions.
- Dining in the Gem.
- Gambling, in a casino, for the first time ever.
- Wonderful dry weather once I got into Montana proper.
Statistics:
Day 13
Distance Covered: 755 miles
MPG: 41 mpg
Elapsed Time: 14 hours
Driving Time: 12 hours
Day 14
Distance Covered: 594 miles
MPG: 40 mpg
Elapsed Time: 12 hours
Driving Time: 9 hours 30 minutes
Day 15
Distance Covered: 837 miles
MPG: 40 mpg
Elapsed Time: 15 hours
Driving Time: 13 hours
I'M HOME! I'm also writing this as one big post because I wasn't able to do any posting on the road over the last few days.
Day 13 - Collinsville, MO to Chamberlain, SD
Giant storm, boring day. I was going to write this overly complex narrative about fighting the storm in this massive cross country battle of wills, but I can't figure out a good ending and it seems pointless anyway.
Yeah, I got nothing, the day was just that boring.
Day 14 - Chamberlain, SD to Rollings, MT
Today I lived through hell.
After last night's experience with the massive thunderstorm in South Dakota, I should've expected the worst. I didn't, and so was caught unprepared.
Leaving Chamberlain was easy. Driving on through the rest of South Dakota and Wyoming less so.
I left Chamberlain, set on hitting Deadwood sometime during the day. On my outbound trip I hadn't gotten a chance to see much of the town, so I'd made plans to amend that mistake. The driving was rough, but I made it in due time. My intentions were to eat a steak and gamble, and after getting drenched walking from the parking garage to the casino, that's exactly what I did.
By semi-random selection (einie, meeney, miney, mo, that's the billboard I'm going to choose) I decided to do my gambling at the Mineral Palace. They had a steakhouse, and that was my first stop. By random coincidence, the Mineral Palace's steakhouse was the Gem Steakhouse & Saloon, constructed atop the site of the original Gem Theater run by Al Swearengen. Go go ghost of Ian McShane.
The steak was overall a great meal, but once again the steak itself was under seasoned. I think I'm going to start requesting to see the chef when I get meat that hasn't been salted properly. Sticking a fork somewhere soft should fix the issue promptly.
After that I tried slots (boring and pointless), and some card games (fantastic!). I was introduced to three card poker, which I played for a good couple of hours. It was fun, easy to play without feeling like you were losing the bank, and in the end I was up twenty bucks. I decided to toss the twenty bucks in one hand, lost it, and cashed out with an overall loss of one dollar. Fun was had.
From there, I figured I'd jaunt my way to Billings, and then maybe onward from there to home. Nature had something else to say about it, as it rained down pretty much every molecule of H2O that it had available in the western hemisphere. It was by far the worst driving experience I've ever had, with both torrential downpours and massive wind gusts. My hands were cramped from having to steer so carefully while being so tense.
When I hit Wyoming, I even ran into a snowstorm.
Fortunately, the rain ceased sometime after I hit Montana, and I was joyed to see dry road ahead of me. I hit Billings only shortly off schedule, and after talking to a really nice employee at Barnes & Noble, I polished off half of a dinner at Cracker Barrel. The rest is in a bag, set to be my breakfast tomorrow. For now, I'm going to sleep.
Day 15 - Rollings, MT to Everett, WA
Getting out of Billings was the hard part, as for some reason they had a detour to I-90 that didn't have any posted detour signs. A bit foolish if you ask me.
Heading into the hills I saw a deer crossing sign for the first time in several days. I figured I wouldn't see any deer at all, but then not 50 feet past the sign a group of three deer started crossing the freeway. It was kinda cute.
I had my breakfast left over from Cracker Barrel. It wasn't bad food, but it wasn't particularly good either. The best part was the Stewart's root beer. It was awesome, and I'm pretty sure I'd never had it before.
The rest of the trip was just driving, more driving, and yet more driving after that. When I passed through Coeur D'Alene, ID, I remembered my earlier experience with comically named restaurants (Awful Arthur's), and so chose not to dine at Terrible Edith's.
I also discovered that there are indeed big huge gigantic travel plaza's on this side of the country. The difference was that the one I found was in Montana, and it was off an exit rather than at a rest area. That said, it was bigger than any of the biggest travel plazas I found on the way to the East Coast, and even had a small casino.
By the time I hit Spokane I knew I'd make it home in good time, but I figured something was wrong with me when the backs of all cars I was staring at started to look like comic automobile faces. I'm pretty sure I was going to snap when one of them opened it's trunk and started talking to me.
All in all, a successful trip, especially since I ended it with a trip to Ezell's. My conclusion post is coming soon.
Highlights:
- Huge lightning storms. Beautiful display.
- Getting to I-90 is like coming home without quite getting there yet.
- Seeing six different types of rain and the noises they create hitting my car from different directions.
- Dining in the Gem.
- Gambling, in a casino, for the first time ever.
- Wonderful dry weather once I got into Montana proper.
Statistics:
Day 13
Distance Covered: 755 miles
MPG: 41 mpg
Elapsed Time: 14 hours
Driving Time: 12 hours
Day 14
Distance Covered: 594 miles
MPG: 40 mpg
Elapsed Time: 12 hours
Driving Time: 9 hours 30 minutes
Day 15
Distance Covered: 837 miles
MPG: 40 mpg
Elapsed Time: 15 hours
Driving Time: 13 hours