Saturday, September 23rd
~9:30am. Moderately early start today. Let's see how far I get.
~9:45am. Couldn't resist taking a picture of these cows. I'm can almost hear the soundtrack for Open Range.
1:45pm. Mitchell, SD. $2.51/gallon for 92. 18.27mpg.
Takin' Care of Business - BTO (radio)
6:38pm. Oacoma Outlook, SD. Beautiful views from a supposedly famous Lewis & Clark trail spot. Stopped here for an hour.
Wish I'd brought a tripod along for these shots.
This is the poisonous snakes path. Didn't see any.
"The Chamberlain-Oacoma Bridge, completed in September 1925, was built and fabricated by the Missouri Valley Bridge & Iron Works of Leavenworth, Kansas. At the time State Bridge Engineer Kirkham estimated the cost of the Chamberlain Bridge to be $303,623." source
6:50pm. Entering the West South Dakota mountain range. My spirits are instantly lifted up. I guess I wasn't meant for the prairie.
A Prairie Home Companion (radio).
8:30pm. Wall, SD. 15.89mpg, ouch! 92 is $2.71/gallon. Boy, the Badlands are pretty cold at night.
Shangri-La - Mark Knopfler
10:50pm. Spearfish, SD. 16.9mpg.
Venus in Furs - The Velvet Underground
11:17pm. Bell Fourche, SD - A "shortcut" (Highway 212) turns out to be worse than any gravel I'd seen during my years in Iowa. Potholes, mud, one-lane with a cliff for a shoulder - and now there's 5 trailers ahead of me and we're not moving. There's a reason why the Interstate is the preferred route for most drivers. Sigh.
6:22am. Sunday, somewhere in Montana. 18.47mpg, 91 is $2.80/gallon. Highway 212 turned out to be quite an adventure. Besides being mountainous (and thus slow) I saw an average of one deer every 7 seconds, and one big male deer with antlers every minute. All of them on the shoulder/road every time. I almost killed one, but instead shaved his tail. And a rabbit decided to test the pattern on my tires, only to end up adding a thud to the otherwise silent night. And I saw a 4/5 ft wingspan bird (eagle?).
The reward for this mad Montana road, in what has to be the most remote place in the US: an intense starry night, complete with aurora.
8 comments:
wow that last one is amazing
those pictures are great. all of them.
i didn't find 212 to be so unpleasing this summer, but i wasn't on it at night. and i had a moose catcher on the front of the volvo so that took care of all those blasted rodents and wildlife.
looks beautiful! I love snakes. too bad you didn't see any. you coulda taken a sweet photo!
ps. I like the chin stripe.
thanks guys!
i'm glad i didn't find any snakes. i'm not too keen on them, to be honest.
i can't see the pictures! (sigh...whimper).
damn computers. they hate me.
i'm not a fan of the snakes either gabe, but the pictures were truly awesome. when you get out of nwiowa (and even sometimes there) you can see the true beauty of things. sometimes you have to look deeper, you seem to have found a few really good places, plus sometimes the unbeaten path is nice. b-t-w: taede is such a cute baby... i can see why he was the focus of the visit. :)
Gabriel: I love you =|
Yes, even nearly eroticly.
EWWWWW SPEWWWW
Your life is so exciting! =D Now make it even better and move in with me already.
My advice for 212: drive it during the day (if the pervasive wildlife doesn't convince you, perhaps the shot gun holes in the speed limit signs will.) Don't drive it during the winter (Alan and Joshua can tell you about that.) And try not to get stuck behind large vehicles. Other than that, it's my favourite part of the drive between Iowa and B.C.
And if the stars align, it can save you about an hour.
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