Chi 2 MT

It might be that I've trodden the east coast path so many times it becomes a quicker and easier journey by comparison to the westward one, because this trip is a long one. I always pick the worst times to leave Chi and end up spending an hour fighting commuters, then its fairly steady up to the dells, and onto minneapolis. The kick of it however is that around the time youre seeing signs telling of your close proximity to St. Paul, you start seeing 200+ numbered mile signs for Fargo, which is the halfway point. The idea of not even being halfway after 8 hours in a car is something to seriously ignore because it can drive you insane otherwise. Also if you left in the morning like I did, you would be noticing the oncoming darkness.

This is seriously the door to the west point of the trip- the dark and unknown part where gas signs are something to be noted because exits begin to consistently offer "NO SERVICES". For someone who has never done this I recommend getting a hotel for the night and proceeding on during the day, because it can get a tad freaky- especially that only two weekends ago i was in New York City, the weekend before in Chi, I wasn't accustom to everything being so empty. These are all side thoughts when you're just driving around, but when problems arise like getting gas, or going to the bathroom, or picking rest areas to sleep at, the madness seeps in. So in short North Dakota is no joke on the desolate factor, gas station attendants will be suprised to see you and there will be awkward moments. Rest area bathrooms will be totally empty, and the thought of a band of truckers jumping you for no reason will occur. I was lucky and hit up a rest area called "Bad Route Rd." which was a rest area with a dark parking lot great for sleeping in. I caught a couple hours there. I match "great" with "dark" here because theres nothing freakier than waking up to someone looking in at you, especially when dude is wearing an FBI jacket ! (happened once, scared the hell out of me)

The drive this time made me realize that the trip only gets really cool an hour or so out of Bozeman. I mean if you've never seen hills then i guess its better, but the real mountains come in sight on a clear day outside billings, but moreso closer- i think the absarokas.....

These are all driving photos from the trip. Yes theres snow in Montana now! The last ones of are my shady motel I stay in every year for some reason.....