I left Lusk at 5:00 this morning on what I'm calling a "self-discovery trip". My cousin, Kirby, is getting married on Saturday in Portland, Oregon. I decided I wanted attend the wedding, but I didn't want to fly, so I planned a big road trip! I'm not going to tell you all about the road trip just yet...I want to do it on a day-to-day basis (if I have time), so here is day 1:
Like I mentioned above, I left at 5:00 a.m. For those of you that know me, that is extremely early for me. I am not a morning person...at all. I did really well until about two hours into the trip when I was between Casper and Buffalo (very boring stretch of highway) and then I started getting very drowsy. When I got to Buffalo I stopped to grab a coffee and after that I was fine.
Last night my dad told me not to treat this trip like a "mission". He told me to take time to stop and see the sights and enjoy the scenery. My parents took across country bike trip before I was born. They were gone for two months and only took two rolls of pictures! They even rode right by the Grand Ol' Opry and didn't stop! So, I took my dad's advice and I stopped at the Little Bighorn Battlefield...and I took lots of pictures. :)
After that stop I didn't really see anything of interest except the Louis and Clark Caverns. That sounded neat, but it was a ways off the Interstate so I didn't check it out (I still had four hours to drive and it was 3:00). I did stop and take some pictures of the mountains though. Montana has so many gorgeous mountain ranges.
My goal for today was to make it to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. I had just passed St. Regis, Montana (about 80 miles from Coeur d'Alene) when I blew a tire. Seriously, the whole middle section of tire came off and flew across the Interstate. I did what any independent semi-young woman would do in such a situation...I pulled to the side of the road and changed my tire. While changing my tire dangerously close to the lanes of traffic I discovered something. 98% of people driving through Montana don't care that a semi-young woman is trying to change a tire...they stay in the right lane instead of moving to the left lane. Even semi's stayed in the right lane, which was very scary. So after 10 minutes or so my "doughnut" was successfully put on the car and I'm thinking I'm ready to roll to the next exit to get help, but fate had other plans for me. While I was changing my tire the battery died. Seriously! Well crap, a dead battery is definitely something I can't fix on my own with just one vehicle, so I called 911. The lady who answered (after 6 rings or so) informed me that I was in such-and-such county and she was dispatch for a different county. She told me she'd have the correct county call me. After waiting 15 minutes and not hearing a word from dispatch I decided to take care of business myself. I popped the hood, got my jumper cables, put a "helpless puppy look" on my face, and stood in front of my car. It worked! A very nice man pulled over and jumped my car. He even offered to let me stay at his house (he made sure to inform me that he is married and has a child so he was harmless). About that time a cop finally shows up. Wow! What if this had been a huge emergency?! Anyway, the cop was zero help so I drove away with my "doughnut" to the next exit with a business (10-12 miles away, over a mountain pass). I stopped at a cute bar/restaurant called "The Oasis" and the very nice bartender called the "local" mechanic who happened to have a tired that would work. Yay!!!! Well, I was excited until I saw the shop. I actually had to follow one of the mechanics to the shop because it was a couple miles back in the mountains. When I pulled off the main "street" and onto the dirt road leading to the shop, "dueling banjos" started playing in my head. This place looked like it came straight out of a hillbilly horror movie! There were even Rottweilers running around. To top it off, when I pulled my car into the shop one of the mechanics was sitting in a chair fixing his fake leg! The third mechanic was very old, and I didn't look too close, but I wouldn't be surprised if he was missing most of his teeth. When it came time to pay I asked Mr. Fake Leg if they would accept a credit card. He hem hawed around and finally said they could and then he asked me if I had any cash. I told him I did so he said he'd charge me $60, which was supposedly half-price. I gave him $80 and then I got out of there. They were nice people, but it felt weird there.
My original plan was to camp at Coeur d'Alene at a very nice campground, but when I got here it was raining and I decided I'd had enough excitement for one day...I didn't want to mess with a wet tent, so I found a hotel. Whew! Now I'm going to take a nice hot shower and hit the hay.
I have many pictures, but I will have to post them later...I'm exhausted! G'night!
"People often say that this or that person has not yet found himself. But the self is not something one finds, it is something one creates." ~ Thomas Szasz
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