Road Trip Day 4

Well its Saturday Aug 27, ala Day 4 of our road trip. Quick breakdown of the trip so far:

Day 1 (Wed. Aug 24): Woodhaven, MI to West Des Moines, Iowa- 614 Miles
Day 2 (Thur. Aug 25)- West Des Moines, Iowa to Rapid City, South Dakota- 618 Miles
Day 3 (Fri. Aug 26)- Rapid City, SD to Billings, Montanta- 389 Miles
Day 4 (Sat. Aug 27)- Billings, MT to Ellensburg, Washington- 710 Miles

Its been a real great journey so far. Dad and I both agreed that we wish we could have took photos of the landscapes but they were so vast and so expansive that photo would be useless as it wouldn't do the landscapes justice. Iowa after Des Moines is surprisingly hilly. South Dakota was beautiful.

We decided on Wednesday night in the hotel to drive farther then planned on Thursday, driving to Rapid City instead of Kadoka, SD so we could stop by Mount Rushmore real quick Friday morning before getting in on our journey west.

Wyoming was just amazing to see because there was hills and fields that went on as far as you could see. There was literally nothing but nature for miles and miles and miles.

Friday night we stopped in Billings, Montana. The Billings Mustangs, a minor league team for the Cincinnati Reds, are located there and when I was mapping out our trip plan I saw that they were home that night so we took a nice break that night and went to the game. It was really nice overall, park was small but great and the weather was nice besides a few rain minutes of rain to start off the game.

Saturday was drive day, as you can see from the millage above. We only planned to drive to Spokane, WA, about 540 miles. But we felt good and wanted the easier drive to Seattle on Sunday morning. Montana was by far the most beautiful state to drive through so far. The mountains, the hills, the lakes and everything was just stunning. Simply stunning. You can't make it up how nice those scenes are. Idaho was only a short segment of the drive but it was similar to Montana because Idaho's part of the trip and the western part of Montana both are part of the Rocky Mountains. Although there was some obvious white knuckle type driving through the mountains they were some stunning scenes. Eastern Washington (between the Rocky and Cascade Mountain ranges) is actually funny because it is flat and is the picture of what you think you would see in Nebraska and Kansas. It was pure fields. We stopped for the night about 110 miles from Seattle and we are now in the Cascades. 

The scenes from the journey have stuck out to me, it has just been amazing to see Mountains, fields, lakes, rivers and everything inbetween that stretch on for the horizon. Hopefully Sunday and Monday finish out the driving part of the trip in a great way.

Some photos from the journey so far.....

The photo above is dad on our drive through Wyoming on Friday, he had us stop a few times so he can get random railroad photos (big suprise.....) haha.

Dad and I at Mount Rushmore early Friday morning (as you can tell by us squinting as the sun is right in our eyes). It was really nice to see, and we were both happy that we were able to make it down there.

When walking up to the lookout post for Mount Rushmore (which is where the photo of Dad and I was taken above) you walk through these posts with all 50 states flags. The whole setup of the park was nice and well planned, put together and overall just clean.

Dad and I at Dehler Park, the ballpark for the Billings Mustangs. Yes Dad's eyes are open, he is just really bad at taking pictures haha.