Roadtrip 1 - Day 1 - Billings, Montana

There sure is a bunch of roadkill in Wyoming.  I mean who tells the farmer that his cow's been hit?

What? No heads up or long time talking about this trip?  Sorry, but I didn't really have anything cemented until I was practically walking out the door!  My journey this time is taking me out to visit Spokane, then dropping down to Eugene to visit my bro before heading home.  Unfortunately that is a dreadful drive to do one day at a time, so I'm making stops along the way!

I left this morning at 8:50am, well, at least that's when I tried to leave.  I ended up getting distracted and photographing the mama mule deer and her not quite spotted baby before I left instead.  Those photos are sitting on my computer at home, waiting to be paid attention to.

So really I left at 9, but who's counting?
I went with driving down Highway 34 from my home town, because it really is my favorite canyon.  I figured, if I'm going to be stuck going slowly, I might as well do it on my favorite road!  God, was I right though, it was SLOOOOW going! All of the RV's and trailers were out today.  Eventually I made it out to I-25...where traffic was still slow.  There were times we were only going 30mph!

Then it came to me, I've never driven out past the Owl Canyon exit on I-25....and really I can see why!
Wyoming boarder was full of billboards, Cheyenne Frontier Days is in I guess? Or maybe they just leave up all the stuff year round.  Still, I wasn't overly impressed while driving through it.  Perhaps because of the non-stop road construction that kept slowing us down, or because of the narrow 11ft wide bridge that made me pucker as I have no spacial awareness in my HHR.

Long roadtrips are fun, I passed someone hauling a horse trailer at one point, and then after stopping for my first fuel-up, passed them again while they were pulled over by a cop.  Had a few vehicles I did that with during my stops!

First fuel up was a little fishy.  I did it in Douglas, Wyoming.  I think it was a Sinclair? All the pumps looked like Diesel so I ended up parking and going inside to use the restroom, scouting out the pumps as I did.  All was good and I went to fuel up...and ripped my right hand, index finger, main knuckle open.  Yay.   First injury, first stop!  Bleh!  Didn't buy anything other than gas and hit the road again.  $34 to fuel up with premium.  Only lasted me 288 miles.  24MPG average.   I'm not too happy with that, yeouch!

My next stop was food, by now it was 2:30 and Wyoming's stops were few and far between.  So I stopped in Sheridan and made my way to Arby's, driving like a moron the entire way.  Sometimes signs aren't far enough in advance to actually react to.  Oops.   The woman at Arby's asked my name and I gave her a dumb look, "Oh, right, my name. I know my name" actually came out of my mouth.  She ended up not calling my name when my food came up, but brought it up to me.  I felt silly, but that was a kind gesture I think.
Decaf Brisk tea Peach mixed with Raspberry is actually pretty good.   I devoured my French Dip while watching a manager meeting go on.  I could swear there was my long haired highschool aged brother in the meeting.  Even his clothing style and expressions were on.  Staff seemed to have personality, which I immediately liked.

I considered pushing the gas tank to Billings, but figured I'd get lost or stuck in more construction, so made another gas stop in
Hardin, Montana.  There was a couple (male/female) sitting right by the pumps, smoking.  I didn't want to start a fight so kept my head down, but a older man told them that was dangerous and pointed out benches.  They moved, thankfully.  That's only after I realized I was paying $2.77 per gallon, stopping the fuel-up at $20, which only got me 2/3rds full ontop of what I already had.  Not a great choice, but I made it to Billings on that!

Arrived to my target destination with Niel and Emily at 5:15.  Got myself and my things sorted in the back of the HRR and made a call to my mother to receive good news on her transfer interview!

The couple arrived right about 5:45, when they estimated they would.  We freshened up our water and they took me out to Phipps Park where I got to talk with them more and learn about the two!  Very neat people, he spent seven years in China, and she's on her 4th month here in the states.

Unfortunately MOST of my photos from the drive are on my phone, and I left the charging cable in the car.  So you'll have to survive with just the Phipps Park pictures below the cut!  And the evening conclusion!

Phipps Park as we walk towards the paths!

 I really wish I could show the SCALE of this incline.  My legs were killing me about half way through.  So much more sweat than I thought I'd produce. Haha.  Neil ran once at the top, Emily and I just walked around and enjoyed watching the bunnies!

 Above: Neil forgot to lock the car, so this is him re-joining us. 
Right: A pupper ran off from her master and said hello. I didn't realize how derpy her face was until I looked back on the photos. AHAHAHA <3

This dude bike rode it!!!

So we drove back home (Neil drove, I spaced out sleepily) and Emily proceeded to make us dinner! It was "fancy" instant ramen. She added meat, green peas, cabbage and fried egg.  It was awesome of her to feed me, and it was way tastier than the crap I make at home.  She really inspired me to make it my own sometime, it's really good when you do!

Now the Obama speaking at the Democratic convention is on, and I'm blogging.  Probably will sleep soon though.  It's 11pm now, I only had dinner at 8:30!