After doing some work in the morning, I left Walla Walla around 10, and swung through Waitsburg to give Lisa and Jade one last hug. Originally I was going to take I-90 to Montana, but the weather forecast improved so I decided to take Highway 12 up Lolo Pass. But when leaving Lewiston, just over an hour after starting my five day road trip I got pulled over for speeding.

Once I got past Missoula the roads became dry, so I set the cruise control to 80 and headed to Bozeman. There I met Sarah and Trent for dinner and drinks. After I checked into my room at the very cool retro motel “The Sapphire Motel” and went to bed.

Day 2

I had concocted this plan to get up an hour earlier each day, so that by the time I get to New York I will have adjusted to the time change. This plan failed immediately as I slept in. But once I woke up I went into town to a breakfast place called “Jam!”. I had the granola, and a crabcake eggs benny.

Bozeman has a lot of young people and a really great energy. There is also a common fashion among the guys of Bozeman that consists of a medium beard, with a soft front baseball cap with a cord. At Jam! at least 6 patrons were sporting what I have decided to call “The BozeMan”.

The snow stopped falling, the sun came out, and I hit the road to Rapid City, SD. This selfie was taken outside Gillette, WY.

After checking into my hotel, I got back in the car and headed to Mount Rushmore. It’s really quite close to town, and I was one of the few cars on the highway, which made for some fun driving and cornering.

Once there I parked, got out of the car, and walked straight up to the viewing area. That’s when I realized that I was the only person at Mount Rushmore. It was dark, windy, and frigid — and I was completely alone. Just me and the presidents.

When I went to DC in middle school, we did a tour of the presidential monuments there at night via limousine. And by the time I got into Rapid City, it was dark. Apparently I’m destined to only ever see the presidents at night

It was challenging to get a decent selfie with the presidents, but I think I managed haha

I jumped the roped off areas and sat down on the amphitheater top row bench, and looked up at the monument for another five minutes. That South Dakota cold started to get to me so I decided to go back into town, I ran at the gym, and came back to the hotel to write this blog.