On Halloween night after work I jumped into my car and began the 2300 mile drive back home to Michigan.With some vacation time to burn and a few furlough days yet to take I decided that I would head back home and help a dear friend out around her house.
I left Seattle at 6pm and headed east on I-90. Once in the mountains I hit some rain which offered up some good hydroplaning opportunities... The trip through Washington was mild if not boring with daylight fading and rain falling.
My goal for the night was to make Butte or Bozeman MT. Well I didn't make either as I was rather tired and made it just short of Missoula instead. After 4 restless hours in the backseat of the car in a rest area I got up and saw the beauty that is Montana all around me.
I talked with a couple of guys who were walking their dogs and they told me that I would pass by a Prairie Dog area a few hours down the road as I made my way to Devil's Tower in WY. At many point along the highway I stuck my camera out the window and snapped away. I end up taking over 200 shots, even though most did not turn out too good, but a few did pass the test.
I eventually made it to the Greycliff Prairie Dog Town State Park. These little guys are so darn cute, and small too.
I spent about 30 minutes watching and photographing the Prairie Dogs before I decided I should keep going so that I had some daylight left when I got to Devil's Tower. I drove into Wyoming and saw some storm clouds off to the south and hoped that it would be dry at the tower. As I neared the tower the clouds were not present, but neither was an abundance of daylight.
Having only seen this national monument in the movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" I was excited to finally see it in person. Of course it did impress me too!!
I hiked around the tower until it was dark and still had half of the trail left to hike, in the dark. I made it back to the parking lot and headed off back onto the dark highway.
I am a firm believer that South Dakota is best traveled through in the dark, and that's exactly what I did. I stopped for another 4 hour nap before heading into Minnesota where I stopped for another hour long nap.
I needed to make a brief stop in Minneapolis and took a smaller state highway diagonally through the state which offered some views of what Minnesota is really like. I also got the chance to sit in some construction traffic........
Upon completion of my 1.5 hour visit to Minneapolis I was off to Waseca MN to stay with an old friend and his family for the night. By 9am the next day I was off for my last section of the drive that would bring me back home to friends and family.
By 9pm I had already visited a dear friend of mine and was back home at my parents place ready for a good night's sleep after a great drive.
