23 hours of driving to Montana...

To start off my trip a little early (my internship does not start til the beginning of April), I decided that after years and years of wanting to go to Montana to visit my Aunt, now is the time. I emailed her a couple weeks ago and said that on my way to Seattle I would love to visit. It just so happened that she has a wedding to attend in Guatemala and needed a cat sitter. So I packed my bags a little earlier than planned, filled my car up and hit the road. I decided that it was necessary to stop and sleep since the ride would take me 23 hours with no stops... When checking out the map I saw that Mt. Rushmore is in the middle and would be a great place to not only catch a little sleep but to check out an awesome monument that I had never before seen.
The first day's drive was easy and this is pretty much all I saw: (all these pictures were taken with my phone and are pretty poor quality, sorry!)

This was taken in South Dakota where I had the windows down because with the sun bearing down it was a steamy 90 degrees. It did however give me the opportunity to learn that my car either does not have air conditioning, or I do not know how to turn it on, really it could be either. Once I hit the Black Hills it cooled down luckily. And the views were amazing! I think it's all in the plan to make you hate driving on the flat prairie for hours and hours to make you really appreciate the hills and mountains. Plus they just pop up seemingly out of nowhere! Once I got checked into my hotel in Hill City around 5pm, I hopped back in the car to check out Mt. Rushmore. I wanted to make it there before the sun went down, since I knew I had to leave early the next day. I got there with perfect timing. Drove through the practically deserted Rapid City with its western style main street. Found a very deserted (almost creepy) parking lot and hiked to the monument.

It was neat to actually see the monument. I would like to go back some day to spend some time to explore the area more, not so much the touristy 'western' main street that is right outside of the monument, but the hiking and caves that surround the area. I drove by Crazy Horse which is not quite done yet, but it was fun to see signs for it, turn a curve and all of a sudden see the shape jutting out of the mountain side. It will be amazing once it is finished. 

I went back to my hotel, grabbed something at a near by grocery store for dinner and promptly crashed at 9:30. Woke up at 5am the next day for no apparent reason other than I wanted to get the long drive over with and arrive in Montana as soon as possible. I had to wait around for breakfast since it didn't start until 6:30. As soon as I ate I hit the road again. I decided to follow the route that my phone's GPS had laid out for me instead of following the route I had picked out before, because it was 'shorter,' and took me through more state parks- so hey, why not? I love the mountains and would like to see as much of them as I can, so I followed the phone. It took me on a couple of interesting roads up some of the mountains (ok, they might be hills for locals, but I am from IOWA!) with hairpin curves that had me gripping the steering wheel with my sweaty hands, but eventually I came to the end of the park in one piece. Then I was back on flat land. That was when I started to see some dark clouds gathering around the mountains that were starting to peak up in the distance.

Needless to say once I hit those clouds the rain started to pour. Conveniently enough, that is also when I arrived at the base of a mountain range so it was back to tightly gripping the steering wheel and sweaty palms. I did stop for a bit, because I am not so comfortable driving in that weather not knowing where I am going. The rain eventually subsided though, and I was all of a sudden in the mountains. Off and on I hit more weather, in the higher altitudes I hit some snow. It was crazy to go from 90 degree weather where I was complaining about my AC not working to turning my heat up in less than 24 hours. But then again, I am from Iowa and should be used to this by now... 

 This was probably the worst the roads ever got. Mostly just slushy highway, but not too slippery. Then again I was driving slow. It wasn't long before I was almost at my destination and started to see the beauty that Montana is. I ignored how tired I was of driving and pulled over to snap this:

I wish I wasn't driving so I could have oooh'ed and ahhh'ed the sights, but I was on the side of a mountain so I kept my eyes on the road. Like I mentioned before, that morning I had decided to take the route that my phone had set out for me instead of the one I looked up on my computer. This had worked for my trip so far, so I wasn't worried. That was until I started going over mountain ranges, and lost all cell phone signal... Basically growing up with a phone by your side at all times you get used to being able to find things by yourself without  having to pay attention. If you are lost just get on google maps, or call your parents. It's always been that easy. So it was a little unnerving when I lost all connection (for over an hour! can you imagine!?). Luckily as I was driving I was paying attention and had seen signs pointing towards Missoula. I knew that Kalispell was just north of that, so I followed the signs to Missoula until I was back in cell phone range. By that time I had added probably another hour onto my trip, but c'est la vie. I eventually made it to Kalispell where my Aunt greeted me with a hug and a warm bed. Where I crashed. The next day this is the view I woke up to outside Kim's house:

This is the best picture I have been able to get since I have been here because it has been raining and snowing. I am very excited to get out and explore more over the next week. I really hope the clouds go away and give me some sunshine and clear views, if even for a little bit. More to come later in the week!