I made it to Glendive Montana by 8:30!! My first big milestone has been met!! Driving to Montana is a long way from Chicago and I was really feeling it. The sun was setting and the landscape was still amazing. I stopped off at a welcome center about 10 miles up the road and couldn't find any info on Montana! I realized that I was still in North Dakota! I hadn't fully made it over the border. So, I was tired.
But happy, this is really an amazing opportunity. To see this great country and experience the vastness and the beauty. I am now becoming a proud American again. I am going to dedicate a lot of time in trying to make this place better. I already do things in my classes to try to open the minds of my students. But this trip has given me more insight into what is really important and how to get that importance across to people.
So, getting into Glendive was another 45 minutes or so and it is a small town. But the small towns are normal size towns in montana. I thought I read that the capital has 100,000 people living in it? Or was it a million? Still..
I luckily found a cheap campground right off the Highway. It was a whopping $13!! When I stopped for gas, the pumps were from like the 80's or something. Not credit card slot, old digital gauges. Cool, retro pumps!! I was reassured that they even had a service station. But the Fit is running strong. Accept for a piece of gravel getting stuck in the rotor at 3rd Lair. Nasty grinding sound until I got out and kicked the wheel and hit some train tracks to knock it out...
Anyway, I drove around for a bit and checked out the area. Apparently their are a bunch of Dinosaurs still living here... Cool stuff! I stopped at a few historic view points and read about Lewis and Clark. Lots of history here.
I actually got to take a shower and felt almost normal. But after this trip, I am not going to know what normal is anymore. I never want to go back to normal. Heading out in the morning with granola bar breakfast and good ole' gas station coffee I moved on down the road for more driving. I figured I would arrive to the capital city around 1 or 2pm.
You see, once you get to Montana, You still have to drive for a day to get to the Western part. But the land scape does not disappoint. I had a few friends tell me that it was all desert until you get to Butte. Which is true, but to me desert is equally as amazing. I never get tired of this American landscape.
I was able to stop in the capital city (I forgot) around 1pm. I luckily found some Wi-Fi and got to grade my final exam in the Online class. I am glad to be done with that!! I just have to wait a few days to see who has issues and who is turning something at the last minute and I am free!!
Getting back on the road around 3-4pm I drove the rest of the way to Butte, MT. My first skatepark destination out in the big MT!! The town is an old mining town. They still have an active zinc or copper mine called the pit or something... I was not really hungry so I drove around the down town area for a while and soaked it up. I found the skatepark soon after and got some sesh in.
This park was built by Grindline and is gnar! There is a really cool street course and two bowls. One is more like a real pool with super tight transitions, 4' shallow 9'deep. However the shallow is not so tight that you can't drop in, I was grinding it on my second run. Good stuff!!
The only issue I noticed was the surface though perfectly smooth was slick as hell. This was not anything to do with the construction. It was the big as mine next to the park. The rock dust probably covers the whole town and the fine slick dust makes the park a bit tricky at times.
The other bowl was amazing but had some seepage coming in from the banked wall. It was enough to be annoying but the gnar gnars would just ride through it and do a back crail up there regardless...
There was a bit of intermitent rain happening and I got what I needed so I decided to head out. I made an adult decision not to hit Polson which is an hour or so south of Butte. I did not trust the rain clouds that had followed me all the way form North Dakota and was not into driving back into that shit.
So, I headed north to Helena, MT. This is the town they mention in that movie Legends of the Fall and the other good one, A River Runs Through It.. Both of those films take place where I am going. As I headed north towards Helena the landscape continued to get better and better!! I was winding through canyons and streams. There were fly fishermen pulled off to the side of the road fishing for trout. It was soooo cool!!.. The sun was going down and I was Not too worried at this point. I had faith that a campground would come up.
The only problem was that none came up!! I got through Helena, and did not have much luck finding a campsite and the town as kinda spread out and not too inviting. I am sure it is a sweat town but I had the drive to move on. SO I figured I could keep going outside of town and maybe find a place like Glendive.
All I could see at that point were more winding canyons, mountain streams and fly fishermen. I began to see camping signs and would pull off several times trying to get this campground. I never revealed it self and I was getting worried!! I am not sure what the heck was going on with this. I would see fishermen pulled over, and picnic signs with benches and stuff but no farkin' campground??
SO, I kept going, all the way to Great Falls, MT! This was not supposed to happen, I planned to hit up Great Falls the next day. I even pulled off in this fly fishing town and all they had was RV parks. They deny tent people!! I was freaking out at this point because it was 10pm and the sun was going down. I made it to the KOA in Great Falls but they wanted $40 to pitch a tent in that shitty mud hole.
As soon as I pulled in, all I saw were kids running around with beach towels and fat parents waddling behind them. I pulled out of there quick. Headed back towards the hotel area and was just totally in shock. It was a big busy town, Friday night, 4WDs and cameros screeching tires and driving crazy. Every hotel was sold out in town. Even the nasty trucker roach hotels... I was beyond all at this point.
I was so pissed because I did find one room but they wanted $150 for smoking. Being in Great Falls, MT is not like being in Chicago on a Friday. You can't just drive a half hour out of the city to get another hotel. You go north, it is the Front and then mountains and then Canada! If you go south it is an hour and a half back to Helena. The small towns really don't have much for sleeping and I was unsure what to do at this point.
So I call Calabro as a last resort. Calling Calabro late at night to find a place to sleep usually means something immoral, dishonest or illegal! Not that he is a criminal but Calabro is a seasoned road worthy lad who knows the way... SO, I called him, I was not going into a small town bar and pick up a chick for the night. That is just not my style. So my only option was to drive way out of town. I went for about half an hour and found an exit with not services.
I found a gravel road and took it about 5 miles out. I found a place to pull off the road without getting stuck and to be safe from some drunk rancher's F350. This was my camping spot for the night. I was in the plains, where there are no trees for miles around. there are hills and bluffs and free-range cattle that people eat at organic restraunts in Chicago... So I went to sleep with the moon, the hills, the grass and the cows. It was awesome!!
I was worried that I would be so freaked out that I would not sleep and end up driving around Miles City all night. Or staying up in a truck stop somewhere and get nagged by the lady who keeps bringing me coffee only. But, it was not problem, I got my sleeping bag out, reclined and went out. I woke up the next morning relieved for one thing, because I got a good nights sleep. I was also happy that a drunk rancher did not try to run me over me or a buffalo hunter would mistaken the Fit for his prey.
This is where I woke up:
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