Sunday August 10, 2014 Montana, Idaho and Wyoming

Left Great Falls heading down Interstate 15.  Part of this retraced my drive up from Alpine, but I kept going south into southern Idaho but took some other roads to avoid going into Utah (too far west).  I don't remember exactly where I took the pictures but I was obviously still in the Rockies.  I do remember that once I got off the Interstate I found a valley that looked almost perfect.  There were wheat fields on both sides of the road and a few houses here and there.  Further in it wasn't quite so perfect with at least one abandoned hotel and a somewhat cheesy water park before I found my hotel.

Saturday August 9, 2014 Great Falls, Montana

Today I went out to see several sites around Great Falls.  The first stop was a sculpture on the banks of the Missouri showing Lewis & Clark and Sacagawea looking upriver.  Up close the sculpture is abstract made up of metal pieces.

Next we went to the fishery and park around a river/spring that feeds into the Missouri.  It's right on the river and you can see various birds floating on or flying over the water.

After that we went down-river to Rainbow Falls, which wasn't much of a falls with the new construction.  A dam blocks off the river to feed it into a new generator plant.  The river picks up again around the bend but the falls themselves are pretty dry.  While we were at the lookout point there was a crowd of people who apparently just finished racing down the river.  There was a tent in the middle of the parking lot and a lot of people around it.  Other than overhearing some announcements, I didn't try to find out much more.

The last stop was the city visitors center which has a large traditional monument to Lewis and Clark near the parking lot and a life-size abstract Native American sculpture out front of the visitor center.  There is also a great view of the city.

All and all a nice relaxing day.

Wednesday August 6, 2014 through Idaho to Montana

Got on the road at 8:30 AM – earliest so far.  It turns out that Alpine is only a few miles from the border with Idaho.  Basically, I got gas at the edge of town, drove another mile or so and ran into a sign saying “Welcome to Idaho”.  The morning was overcast but not raining, at least to start.  The road ran next to the Snake River for some time.  I stopped and took some pictures of a dam across the river, but it was one of many dams from what a sign said.
I made it to Idaho Falls without much delay and immediately got on the I15.  I was expecting this to be the simplest leg of the journey.  Two things made this a bit of a challenge.  The first part was the rain.  It started again pretty much from when I got on the I15 and didn’t let up for about 70 miles.  It was heavier some times and lighter at other times, but it was pretty much constant until I got over the crest of the Rockies (there was a sign announcing the location of the Continental Divide).  Past that point the rain stopped almost immediately (at least that’s how I remember it).
The second thing that proved a bit of a challenge (at least in testing whether I can read directions) was the intersection of the I15 and I90.  It turns out there is about an 8 mile stretch where the two merge and to get back on the I15 requires that you go to surface streets (at least by my directions).  Getting on the I90 for a while wasn’t a problem.  Realizing that there was a turn while on the surface streets was.  I almost missed the turn mostly because I hadn’t read the directions carefully until just before the turn.
Back on the I15 I basically went over a series of mountains into different valleys – some developed, some not.  I also saw a second sign indicating I had crossed the continental divide.
Finally, after about 8 hours I sighted structures from the Great Falls Airport.  I keep forgetting that the airport is south and west of the city.  Total distance about 435 miles.

Tuesday August 5, 2014 Cheyenne to Alpine, Wyoming

Started the day in Cheyenne and made it up to Alpine, but it wasn’t easy.  No problem getting on the interstate.  It turns out the exit was at the intersection of I80 and I25.  However, not long after I got on I80 my side narrowed down to one lane due to construction.  In fact, about the first 50 miles was intermittent construction.  I was looking at the time and wondering if I was going to have to add some hours to my estimate.  That did clear up, as well as the clouds.  There were basically two parts to today’s travels.  The first part (about 250 miles) was straight down I80; the second part (about 200 miles total) on a two lane US highway.

I decided to get gas around lunchtime to make sure I had enough gas to make It to Alpine.  This was still on I80 a good 30 minutes or so before the move the two-lane road.  It turned out I didn’t need to worry.  The shift to the US highway occurs at a fairly significant town/city and there were plenty of services there.

After lunch I got back on the road.  Although there had been some hills, the scenery was mainly scrubland with some wonderful clouds stacking up toward the horizon.  There also seemed to be the threat of rain on the horizon.

I did see something rather unique as we headed into the hills.  Along the road at one point there seemed to be a pointless arch across the road.  However, as I got closer I realized that the upper surface of the arch as more grassland.  The arch was intended to allow cows to cross the road without getting hit.  I didn’t get a picture of the first arch, but had my camera ready when a second arch appeared.

As the road headed into the hills, the clouds got closer and closer.  Finally, it started to rain.  However, the first rain started has the road went over a hill, first as a light rain but climaxing with enough water that I had to turn on my lights and make sure I knew how far away the car in front of me really was.  However, the rain stopped immediately after hitting the summit.  The rain got much more intense as I got into the actual mountain pass.   The speed limit went down from 75 to 65 and even lower in some sections.  The rain varied in intensity and stopped at one point just as I crested the summit.  There were also several stretches with no way to pass anyone.  Fortunately, there wasn’t that much traffic.

The scenery by this point was lush pine forest.  A river was flowing right next to the road at several points.  The clouds were so thick that the headlights were necessary.  At one point I wasn’t sure I was going to see any sun at all until I hit Montana tomorrow.
Needless to say I did make it to my hotel without incident.  While it did rain once I got there, it was a very light rain that caused no problems.

Monday August 4, 2014 Amarillo to Cheyenne

Today’s travels would take me through four states.  I started out at Amarillo, Texas with a goal of reaching Denver, Colorado by the end of the day.  After having breakfast I headed out.  Even though I got up earlier, I only made it on the road at about 9:45 AM.  Most of the travel was on US highways and not the Interstates, although I ended up on I25 toward the end.
The scenery was still fairly green, but getting drier as the day progressed.  Although mostly flat, there was a mountain pass going through Trinidad, Colorado (I think).  Although many of the roads were divided highways, there was one state road that was just two lanes with just the yellow dotted line between them.  This being Texas, the speed limit was 75 mph.
Long story short, I did make it to Denver.  I was in good enough shape that I decided to press on to Cheyenne, Wyoming (about and additional 100 miles).  The I25 goes right through Denver and in late afternoon traffic was pretty bad.  Shortly after deciding to continue, traffic slowed to a crawl.  It turns out that a car had stalled in the middle of one of the lanes.  Shortly after that another stalled car was off the side of the road, again causing a slowdown.  It ate up about 30 miles to get clear of the Denver traffic.  The rest of the way was uneventful and I made it to the I25/I80 intersection and pulled off to look for a hotel.  Since I didn’t have any reservations this turned out to be harder than I expected.  The first was only taking reserved guests.  The second that I tried only had suites available.  Even though I tried for something different, I ended up with Motel 6 as usual.  After I was in a room, I heard in the news that bikers were all over the area because of the rally in Sturges, ND which started today.  Hilarious.

Sunday August 3, 2014 Dallas to Amarillo, Texas

I started my trip toward Montana at about 10 AM.  The goal for the day was Amarillo Texas, right on the panhandle.  I suspect the quickest route would be up the 35N to 40W, but I didn’t do that.  Instead I took a route headed generally to the northwest using state roads.  Generally, the route remained a divided highway with two lanes in each direction.  The difference was that these highways weren’t as limited access as the interstates.  Plus some of the route (part of the old Route 66) went straight through town, so you had to slow down to about 30 MPH from time to time.
The towns seemed typical with one or a few streets intersecting the road I was on.  Some towns looked rundown, others had new buildings.  I noted one town (I forget which) that had a visible mix of rundown buildings, renovated buildings and new buildings.
Along the way I saw a sign for a Muslim Cemetery.  Nothing really extraordinary about that, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a sign before and I certainly didn’t expect it in rural northern Texas.  I’d be interested to know if there was a group of families that emigrated from the Middle East (or elsewhere) at some time in the past and formed a community near where I saw the sign.
The other thing I saw were several flatbed trucks carrying long tapered and twisted tubes which I thing were blades from wind turbines.  I saw two groups of three flatbeds coming in from the other direction.  About a half hour after I saw the first group of flatbeds I then saw an actual wind farm (pretty much in the middle of one or more farms).  I have no idea whether the blades were new blades going to another site or bad blades going back for repair.  It seemed a little odd that they would be traveling on Sunday, but I’m sure there are deadlines that have to be met.
I saw several trains along the route as well.  Most were modern box transfer trains, some stacked two high.  One train appeared not to be moving, but when I saw some trees behind the train I realized that it was moving backward in reference to the direction the locomotive was facing.  Since we were traveling in the same direction and I was traveling relatively faster, it seemed to be standing still until I got up close.
The state highway fed right into the interstate (which caused some initial confusion) so I actually arrived at Amarillo about thirty to forty minutes sooner than I expected.  After getting a hotel (on the I40) I drove into the city to have a look around.  Unfortunately, I left my guide book in the hotel room and just navigating from a map I had printed found me nothing interesting.  The city center seemed nice and shiny but it quickly petered out to used car lots and depressed-looking buildings.
I had dinner at the Big Texas Steak Ranch which was a very kitschy place (all of the employees wore straw cowboy hats for instance).  The review guide made note that it operated like Walls Drugs in the Dakotas by having signs many miles (hundreds?) ahead of the actual place so that people were interested in it well before they got near the place.  The wait was a bit of a problem.  They gave you plenty to look at while you were waiting with a gift shop a bar and some games.  They also have a hotel painted in very bright colors and sort of looking like an 1800’s town (at least the Hollywood concept of one) and a horse hotel (i.e. horse stalls).  There was a giant cow on a trailer (not real obviously, but not surprising given that it was a steakhouse.  There was also a giant dinosaur (I think) with a cowboy hat and scarf climbing some poles for some reason.  Oh yes, and there was a limo service with horns on the front of the car.  It was all very cute.  The food was fine, but the people watching was more interesting.