Walla Walla, WA - Deer Lodge, MT: 398.4 miles, 11hrs drive time
Hey, there's a contest today! Check it out below.
I find that today nicely dovetails with the song It's All About The Ride by country artist Marc McGuinn.
So we left out in the pouring rain
And headed down that interstate
Tryin' to leave the clouds behind
Not knowing if we'd ever find
the sun that day
It wasn't raining as we left Walla Walla, but it certainly felt sort of bleak and eerie as the smoke from the Columbia Complex wildfire turned the sky gray all the way through to the Idaho border. As we stopped for gas in Waitsburg, I got out of the car and was immediately overwhelmed by the smell of smoke. I stood looking east as the car refueled, looking straight into the smoke from the fire, then turned around and looked west to see clouds and a bit of sun in the distance.
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Waitsburg is a firefighting staging area, evidenced by the orange base signs that popped up around the town as we drove though and the fire equipment that drove by occasionally.
 My parents would like this place. It's all Sweet & Low. |
Stopping in Pomeroy for breakfast at Donna's Cafe, the place was about half full of elderly residents, and the smoke still shrouded our view a little.
Amanda and I were both quite happy to cross the Washington/Idaho border between Clarkston and Lewiston (whoever named those towns had a sense of humor). This started our foray across the state, which changed our scenery from yellow hills to green trees, canyons, and twisting, winding roads. Highway 12 is a very beautiful drive, but can become somewhat exasperating - turns require you to drop to speeds anywhere between 50 miles an hour and 35 miles an hour depending on severity, and my aunt was right, you really should slow down for it. Within 3 miles/hour of the posted speed seemed to work well, but the repetition of the pattern of speeding up, slowing down, taking the turn, speeding up, slowing down, taking the turn got to me a couple times and made me target a couple helpless road signs with a few choice expletives.
 @#$%@#*$@#$^! |
We stopped in at a cafe along Highway 12 for a light lunch (not much to say about it - passable, but not great). This gave us a welcome break from suffering curve-after-curve-itis, and gave me the chance to get a not-so-good mocha into the car for future consumption. Coffee! It also gave us time to contemplate the sign that was up the highway about a half mile:
Closest I can tell, this is the recipe for a really good mile-long hot dog. Ingredients conveniently omitted.
Montana brought moose crossings! No moose! We felt cheated. Amanda is demanding that Montana shows us a moose (it is my opinion that we'll probably see one in Wyoming, but there's no assurance of that either).
Driving down I-90, we passed numerous signs for the Testicle Festival, where you can apparently have a ball. 2camels.com explains:
"From it's humble beginnings a little over two decades ago, the Montana Testicle Festival now attracts in the region of 10,000 revellers from all walks of life for the five days of festivities.
"There's live music, the Testy Festy Awards, bullshit bingo, body painting, a wet t-shirt competition, a hairy chest contest, loads to drink and of course - more testys than you can poke a stick at."
O...kay. I'll keep my balls to myself, if you know what I mean, though I do understand that testicles are a delicacy in some parts of the world.
Also imperative to Montana is learning the difference between a parking area, which is just a parking lot with a crappy restroom, and a rest area, which is just a parking lot with a less crappy restroom. If I had known that the parking areas were the crappier version, I might not have stopped in one, despite that we were the only ones there.
 Hey, it's.. hay. |
Our arrival in Deer Lodge was heralded by two very big signs, one announcing a car museum and one announcing a very old prison. The prison, in some weird, warped way, actually sounds sort of interesting. I'm not sure we can shoehorn it in, but we might have to at least drive by.
She said it ain't about an exit past
A dot on the map no, that ain't where we're goin'
It ain't about the road we're on
How far we've gone as long as we keep rollin'
It's not about the path we take
Or the end of the line
It's not about us getting somewhere
As fast as we can drive
She said Baby
It's all about the ride
It's been a great ride so far!
We never did get away from wildfires today. Smoke from a Montana wildfire just north of Yellowstone and the Wyoming state line contributed to the ongoing haze as we drove.
Contest 1: Photo Caption Contest!
Yup, I'm ripping off Whizmo and Gizmo big time here (hey, it's a good idea). I'm giving everyone that reads this the chance to submit their own wacky caption for the photo below. This will run for a couple days at least, so take your time.
Submit your caption to me!