And We're Off!

Barb, the ultimate planner, has our entire summer adventure planned out. Every day, every activity, how many miles we are driving, where we are staying. Her plan had us leaving Wednesday, May 22nd, so when I asked her if she wanted to leave a couple days early, her response was; "We can't, I have everything planned for us to leave on the 22nd". "How about if we go someplace really close for the first two days, then we will be on your schedule again?", I say. 

We talked it over a little bit and decided to head to Devil's Tower, Wyoming for a two-night stay. So, Sunday we packed everything up for a Monday morning departure. The girls knew something was up. Whenever we start packing up the truck, they get antsy, they just seem to know and do not want to be left behind. 

This is where they were for the last hour before we left. There was no way they were going to be left behind!

The weather called for rain both days, but away we went! It was drizzly and overcast the entire drive, but 176 miles later we pulled into the campground at the base of Devil's Tower. Did I say a campground? Why, yes I did! As many of you know, we take it as a challenge to travel and stay as cheaply as possible. This allows us more money for other things like breweries, distilleries, donuts and eating out. You know, the important things in life. 

Just before the park entrance we saw these longhorns and buffalo grazing in a pasture, it was too good of a picture to pass up, so I pulled over, jumped out, ran across the road and played tourist. 

That night I was chatting online with my BFF Dino, and he asked where we were. When I said Devil's Tower, he said "I did not know Devil's Tower had a Walmart". He thinks he is pretty funny, and it is comments like that that are going to change the middle "F" in BFF! But at $10 with the Senior Pass, I thought we could splurge a little. 

Our campsite

We were here in '21, just a couple weeks after we got Ms. Zoey. You may remember some of the pictures we took of her while we were here. Well, we decided to recreate two of them. The challenge was we had to invade someone else's campsite to take one of them. 

So we quietly snuck into their campsite early the next morning, I shoved Zoey into the hole in the tree, snapped a few pictures and got the heck out of there! 2021 on the left, 2024 on the right. 

Three years and 20lbs later, she still fit in the hole! I can only imagine what the people camping there thought if they happened to be looking out their window. We then took the girls to the prairie dog town. I swear, if Zoey was not on a leash, she would have crawled right down one of those holes. 

Last time we were here the weather was not the greatest either, so we did not do any hiking. This time we were determined to at least hike the base. It was chilly and drizzly, but worth it.

It is only a little over a mile around the base and it is all paved, so it is a pretty easy walk. If you look very carefully at the picture on the left below, you will see a tiny red speck about dead center. The picture on the right is a close up of that speck. 

Now, that would be fun! With heavier rain forecasted for the next day, we decided one night was enough and we hit the road and headed northwest to Sheridan, Wyoming. It rained the entire trip, so it was a good day to travel. 

It was still raining when we got there so we took refuge in one place we knew would welcome wet and wary travelers: The Blacktooth Brewing Company. Isn't that what travelers did in the Old Country? Traveled from tavern to tavern for a pint by the fire?

Once we were rested and hydrated, we headed off to our host for the evening. Walmart of course! There were about a dozen rigs there. It got down to a chilly 34 that night, but the heater kept us plenty warm. 

The rain finally broke the next morning as we carried on to Billings, Montana. We were a day ahead of schedule, so we stayed two nights in Billings to get back on Barb's schedule. 

Our first stop was Pictograph Cave State Park in Billings. I would not really call them caves, and the pictographs were very, very faded, but it was a nice place to take the girls for a walk and have lunch. 

A few miles away from there was Four Dances BLM area, which also has several trails. It was typical BLM area with grasses, sage and yucca, but it did overlook the Yellowstone River in spots. About a mile into our hike Zoey started getting overheated and would not take water, so we had to take turns carrying her on the way back. I personally think she was faking it, but it worked, and she got free rides all the way back to the camper. 

Of course, she was fine when we got back to the camper. By then we were overheated as well so we headed to one of the local watering holes. The Asylum Distillery, weird name, cool distillery. It was decorated with all things asylum. Lots of pictures of people getting lobotomies. I thought about leaving Barb there for a procedure, but she would probably end up looking like this... Or, should I say more like this....

Kinda macabre, but interesting. And the drinks were delicious! I got a smoked Old Fashion and Barb got a White Chocolate Huckleberry Espresso.

From there we walked to The Montana Brewing Company for supper. Very good food and a really cool atmosphere in what looked like old town Billings.  We spent the night in the Cabela's parking lot, waking up to rain about midnight. It then proceeded to rain for about 18 hours straight. We spent most of the day in the camper reading and just chilling. 

Our overnight the next night was a Harvest Host at Canyon Creek Brewing. If you are ever in Billings, this is a "must stop". Beers were reasonable and there were several varieties that looked very good. 

The next morning, we were supposed to meet up with some blogger friends (Mike and Janna) that we have yet to meet in person, they live between Billing and Great Falls. But the precipitation we got in the form of rain, they got in snow. The snow not only made the driving a mess, but it also knocked out power in the area as well. We are going to try and meet up with them on the way back home. Hopefully it works out!

So off we went to Great Falls. We took back roads through a long valley and over a mountain pass. We even became part of a cattle drive! These are all bulls, probably being moved to their summer range.

The north side of the Kings Hill Summit was a mess. They must have gotten a wet and heavy snow. Thousands of trees down everywhere. They had cleared the roads, (just cutting and pushing them to the side) but the National Forest had trees down the entire way down and residents were out in their yards cleaning up the trees in their yards. 

We are now in Great Falls, Barb is doing laundry, I am working on the blog. Exciting times I know. But tomorrow will start the excitement again as we cross over into Alberta. That is if they will accept us!