Sunday 5 August 2012

August 5 third day on the road

We didn't start out until 8 am this morning.  The morning temperature was 18C.  The day warmed up quickly, however and at 6 pm it was still 36C.

Our plan for today was to revisit Wall Drug in Wall, South Dakota.  We first saw it in 1992 and it was a drug store and other vendors pretty much in the middle of nowhere.  Of course, that has changed and hotels and gas stations have sprung up around the drug store and around Wall.  Nostalgia - so much better when not revisited!!

There were lots of motorcycles in Wall and most were headed to Sturgis.  We passed by Sturgis on Interstate 90 and there were bikes and RVs everywhere. 


Our second stop for today was Devil's Tower in Wyoming.  Again, the motorcycles dominated.  There is a KOA just at the entrance to the National Monument and you couldn't park any more motorcycles there if you tried.



All of South Dakota was very dry, as is Wyoming.  We are stopped in Hardin, Montana for the night and will drive about 550 miles through the state.  So far, the only green we are seeing is the sugar beet fields because they are irrigated.

We have done this drive west (or east) a couple of time nows.  Especially when we drive west I can't help but think about the early settlers in their covered wagons and how they must have felt when they saw the mountains beginning to loom in the distance.  We saw the Bighorn Mountains today, always to the west of us (Interstate 90 curves north at that point).  The highest peak is about 11,000 feet.  Imagine trying to find a pass through those mountains.  Even with the extreme heat we have had there are still snow patches at some of the peaks!!

It will be another warm night.  Tomorrow we should be around Missoula Montana in the mountains and hopefully it will cool off a little there.

As of yet there are no extra pictures posted on my link above.  I am having problems downloading my pictures to Flickr.  I may take a couple of tries before something shows up there.  Sorry about that.

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