Day 2 - Big Timber, MT

This morning we woke up around 7:30 and showered and were on the road around 8:45, after driving the first few feet with the tail gate totally wide open. We bought ice and headed to Wyoming. We crossed into Mountain time zone about 10:30 so got an hour back. All day Saturday and today we saw tons of motorcycles coming east on I-90. Then annual rally in Sturgis was this past week so they were all headed home. We passed through Sturgis just before getting into Wyoming but it was pretty quiet by then.


All along I-90 there are signs for 1880 Town, but we decided we could see it well enough from the road and it wasn't worth a stop. We did stop at Wall Drug, and I bought a tiny buffalo. We also found a treasure trove of license plates, including Alaska. Just as we were driving through the Badlands, which only gets 16 inches of rain a year, we hit a monsoon. I think they got half their 16 inches today. It did wash the bugs off the car.


We (and luckily the rain) stopped for lunch at a rest stop in SD, where the temperature was pretty cool. After we got into Wyoming, more rain. At 3:00, we finally got our first glimpse of mountains, and at 4:45 we were into Montana, my 46th state. The Montana sign proved to be warmer than the Wyoming sign.




Today our ice cream was from Wendy's. It seemed to take forever to get to Billings. We finally stopped at KOA near Big Timber around 7:30. I cooked chicken noodle while Lisa put up the tent. The campground is nice enough, although very close to the highway. They offer ear plugs for the highway and train noise. I thought the water would take awhile to boil, but it was pretty quick. It's not too cool or warm here so should be a good night for tent sleeping. Today was a long driving day, almost 12 hours with a few stops, and I was ready to be out. Tomorrow we should (hopefully) get to Glacier around mid-afternoon.