Off the Road

                                                These days spent traveling from point to point can be tedious if we spend our time on the Interstates. You’ve all heard the old axiom, “If you want to see the country, get OFF the highway!”

                             Or something like that.

                             Easy to say, but harder to do when the goal is that Point-to-Point event.

                             But, what if one of the routes that you can take is a local road and it actually is a route that is somewhat direct? Somewhat being a relative word here. There was no doubt that we would need to be on local roads at some point as there are no Interstates that go to Seeley Lake, Montana, our final destination. But we did have a choice as to how far we would travel on the I-94, which stretches from somewhere in Michigan and connects up with I-90 in western Montana.

                   We chose to exit as soon as we could and book it westward across Montana, throwing caution, (and a few other things) to the wind. Which, being in the Northern Plains, was blowing nicely and only creating a few harrowing moments during the trip. We looked at the map and found a route that was a “Thin Red Line Road”. These are fairly safe for us as we know that they are paved and will most* of the time have a shoulder.

(* Hah!)

                    They are not as good as a “Thick Red Line” or a “Yellow Line with Red Outlines”, but they are definitely better than a “Thin Black Line” or the very questionable “Thin Gray Line” or even worse, “The Dotted Line” (Road from Hell).

                   The day started in North Dakota, in a Walmart parking lot in Jamestown, just off of I-94. The day was promising to be nice as that was what the weather report was saying, but we started out in a dreary fog/drizzle event that stuck with us almost all the way to the Montana border. So, we really cannot say if North Dakota has pretty scenery or not as there were times that visibility diminished to about a thousand feet or so.

                             And….. the speeds on the Interstate were posted at 70 mph, which all of the trucks wanted to do because they knew that road, and the visibility did not factor in for them. It did for us, so we kept a nice balance between traveling at a speed that was safe enough for the conditions and not being so slow that there was a danger of being rear-ended. That all fixed itself when we came to the Montana border, the skies cleared, and the highway speed increased to 80 mph!

                             Montana is called “Big Sky Country” and I don’t know how they did it, but as soon as we crossed that border, there seemed to be a difference. It’s probably just that we’re brain-washed, but it works!

                   This place certainly lives up to that moniker!

                   We soon came to that point where we needed to make a final decision as to when we would exit the Interstate. That chance came in Glendive which is the junction of I-94 and Montana 200. The 200 is the road that will eventually bring us most of the way across the state. Our destination for the day was about 200 miles west of here in the town of Lewistown.

                             Getting used to distances out here is quite the experience. Here for your viewing pleasure are some examples of what it’s like. Most of you are in Northern New Jersey so these examples will nestle nicely in your minds. For the rest of you, I’ve got some Visual Aids!

                             Now imagine driving 200 miles on a two-lane highway, with (most of the time) no shoulder and the speed is 65 and the wind is of course, a crosswind! Next picture 200 miles of absolutely nothing.

                             That is nothing, meaning not anything!

                   Every once in a while, we would come across small settlement with a ton of abandoned vehicles, buildings from the 1800’s and not one reason to stop. They did however supply an ample amount of “Local Color” and were an integral part of this journey. They had names like, Circle, Mosby, Grass Range, and Tiegan.

                   What they do have here is hay.

                   Thousands and thousands of giant round bales of hay.

                   It got really interesting when we came upon a Road Project. Apparently, the condition of a section of Montana 200 was in so bad a shape that the DOT had no choice but to rip it all up and start anew. This stretch was approximately 20 miles long and was all dirt and gravel. That’s like ripping up Route 15 down to Rockaway!

                   Thankfully, there was no one in front of us as the dust cloud generated by traveling on this was quite immense. The poor guys behind us finally pulled over and stopped for a while. (My guess is that their air filters got so clogged that their motors conked out!) Needless to say, my penchant for driving a nice, clean motorhome went out the window! (which definitely stayed shut!)

                   So, now we have achieved that Holy Grail of Travel, that of the non-highway road. There were times that it was gorgeous and sometimes just a tad too harrowing, mainly because of the travel requirements of the motorhome towing a car. But it never got to the point when we regretted going “Local!”  😊

                   When we finally reached our destination of Lewistown, we decided to add and additional 100 miles to the day and forge on to Great Falls where we pulled into the Walmart parking lot and spied the sign that proclaimed, “NO OVERNIGHT PARKING”.

                             Luckily, right behind the Wallymart is a KOA Campground! Which is just as well because we have full utilities and that means we did not have to run the generator to keep the AC going! It was 93 when we arrived so AC was definitely on the “Needs” list.

                             Now we only have about two hours left until we reach Seeley Lake. We will be meeting friends here, Steve and Phillis, my partners from the Chatterbox. They have a place at a little airport here, complete with a hanger and apartment attached. We have our own little spot with all the hook-ups right there, courtesy of them!

                             More soon!