The Journey, Part II

On Tuesday we looked at the map and figured out how long it was going to take us to get to Fresno. We knew that our travel days would have to be longer if we were to make it in time for the 27th. Our trailer unfortunately had a weird wobble once we reached 101 km/h, so we couldn't go very fast. I was embarrassed as even old men driving their campers flew past us on the interstate.

Our goal for the day was to reach Billings, Montana. The last two hours were a bit trying as Asha was definitely done in her car seat and Joel and Kezia started to get really silly. The last 15 miles were the longest miles of the day. I kept muttering, "Only 15 miles, 15 minutes....only 14 miles, 14 minutes... We got to a very nice Comfort Inn and though it had a pool, we decided to skip swimming, have supper and head straight to bed. Well, straight to bed wasn't really straight to bed in the kids' minds. Maybe we should have hit the water to burn off some of the sillies.

The third day, Wednesday was a better travel day. We debated whether to drive through Yellowstone National Park, but decided that pulling a trailer through mountains probably wasn't a smart idea. So we instead stopped in Bozeman at the travel station to ask which highway to take. Apparently not a lot of people stop and talk to the lady at the travel desk. She was very chatty and wanted to share all of her travel experiences with us. Well, we finally got out of there and headed down the 187.

Around 2:00 we decided to stop in Norris, Montana for lunch. Now Norris is a very small town, smaller than Vita, Manitoba with what appeared to be only one restaurant. We walked into a dimly lit room with tacky Mexican garb strewn along the walls. A nice waitress seated us and then wandered around the large room, since we were the only customers. The food was okay; I could only have a half Chimmi because they didn't have enough beef, "Is that okay, sweetie?". After lunch, the kids picked a few flowers while I changed Asha's diaper and we headed off.

That night we stayed in Pocatello, Idaho at a mediocre Super 8. Unfortunately it didn't have a pool, and the kids were pretty upset about that. Well, actually only Joel was, Kezia was distracted by the plastic chair in the bathroom. We walked to a Jack in the Box, chatted with some Americans, and then hiked it to the park up the road. That night Joel and Kezia slept pretty well. Asha on the other hand grunted and thrashed all night.