Today marks Day 5 of the big western road trip. So far only a few minor annoyances from each other. Given that we have 4 adults in a minivan for hours on end, I think we are doing pretty well.
The trip started on Saturday with a drive up to Bemidji so I could actually see where I got a degree. We then crossed over the Mississippi near its origin. It was basically a small creek that we could have walked across. Very cool to see given our knowledge of how huge the Mississippi is further south. We ended the evening with a drive by where Steve vacationed with his family growing up. Very neat to see that! I guess we actually ended in Fargo for the night.
Sunday was a drive across North Dakota and eastern Montana. Who knew there would be so many cows on our trip. We saw lots of sunflower fields and even a few buffalo. We ended the day in Billings, MT.
Monday was the big reunion day for my Dad. That was the day he finally met his long-lost cousin whom he was named after. His cousin had moved out west 3 years before my dad was born and had never been back. It was fun to be involved in the reunion day. We went to lunch at a nearby resort with his cousin and his wife and the 3 of us. We then drove up into Beartooth Mountain. That night we had dinner with his cousin's daughter - my 2nd cousin and her family. It was a fun night of sharing pictures and stories. We hope to see them next summer in Illinois when his cousin finally returns to his roots. The day ended with the arrival of Steve for the road trip.
Tuesday we headed out to northern Montana. Many more cows in the fields and wide open spaces. It's amazing at how much land is out here. Supposedly the cows outnumber people in Montana. It wouldn't surprise me. We got to our hotel pretty early and decided to head up into Canada to use newly obtained passports of the parents. We ended up on a gravel road that has to be about the furthest north you can go in the continental United States. It then took us 55 minutes to get through the US/Canadian checkpoint. The border agent asked all sorts of questions. I think he just wanted to mess with us. We finally got the all clear at which point another border agent told us to "head north." We saw a lot of fields and cattle in Canada as well. We ended up in a small town for dinner at the local Dairy Queen. We then headed south through a different checkpoint which only took us about 2 minutes. At this point it was dark and the roads back to the hotel were pretty winding over a mountain. We saw a lot of cattle on the side of the road. Instead of watching for deer, we were on the lookout for black angus on the road. Very hard to see at night. We made it through though.
Today was the day to explore Glacier National Park. We drove back through the cattle mountain road that we were on last night. We were going to attempt to cross through Glacier at Logan Pass. Unfortunately the picture above shows the weather conditions of the day. It was cold and rainy. We got to the park to head up to the pass and found out the pass was closed today. Not sure if it was the 60 mph winds or possible snow in the mountains. Regardless, we couldn't go through. We ended up going back on the same road we'd been on twice already and headed around the southern end of Glacier National Park. The roads were much less treacherous - no steep drop offs which made many of the passengers feel better than what we would have encountered on Logan Pass. We stopped for lunch at West Glacier and now are at home for the night in Whitefish. We'll explore the area a bit, call it a night early, and head down to Idaho Falls tomorrow.
Great trip so far. Lots of great pictures and some fun conversations along the way.
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