Skip to main content

Day 3 - To Montana

Today was another long day, even though it was only a 7 hour drive.  We started the day at 0700 with breakfast at Taco John’s. I did not have a taco, I just ate the potatoes ole, which were basically tater tot crowns with some flavoring while Jim had the beef and potato burrito.  After breakfast we started the drive around 0730 to our first destination, the Painted Canyon Visitor Center of Theodore Rosevelt NP,  which was about 30-minutes down the road. This area is basically the badlands of North Dakota, the less famous sibling of the Badlands NP in South Dakota.  We stopped here for about a half hour or so taking pictures and so I could get a stamp in my park passport. What is interesting about this first visitor center is it is also a rest stop, so it was easy for Jim to drive the CrossTrek around the parking lot to get a picture with the national park sign. From there we went down the road a little bit to the Theodore  Rosevelt NP Southern Unit Visitor Center just so I could get a stamp from there.  (Each visitor center has their own stamp.)  After those two little excursions we started the long straight drive to Great Falls,  Montana where we would be spending the night.   (Note: I switch over to my DSLR for photos as to my phone which I used for past on the road photos)

There isn’t much to see we exited the badlands about the same time we exited North Dakota, which is about 40 miles, then you enter the grasslands and Montana.  As a fun side note exit 7 on I-94 in Montana is the exit to “Home on the Range” but there are no services at this exit.  There are a lot of no services exits once you really get in plains and grasslands.   There also isn’t a lot of cell service with data, so I made sure I had an old fashioned map, which was helpful to find rest stops and towns.  We ate in the small town of Jordan at really the only restaurant in town, The Summit Corral.  The food was ok, but I never had a grilled chicken salad that seemed greasy.  It upset my tummy slightly, which is never good on a long road trip nor on a road with few rest stops.  Overall I was ok.    Other than a couple potty breaks and a gas stop we rolled right on through, which got us to Great Falls by 1800.  
Now tomorrow we only have about a 4 hour drive to Belton Chalet, which is right outside of the west entrance of Glacier NP.  This means we will cross the mountains tomorrow. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cobwebs Everywhere

On October 7 th , I did a studio spooky session with Coralinx Cosplay .   The central theme of this shoot was a pretty goth girl who had a fondness for spiders and decorating with cobwebs, making it a perfect Halloween session.   Note: Cobwebs are defined as abandoned or old spiderwebs that have collected dust.   Many cobwebs are the result of comb-footed spider (i.e., black widows) that make irregularly shaped webs.   Spiderwebs are active structures built to catch prey.   (Source: Western Exterminator Company) For these sessions, I used: Photography Equipment Other Equipment Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 2 Westcott FJ400 2 Phottix Strobes 2 strip boxes 2 rectangular soft boxes 2 c-stands 3 light stands Backdrop stand Black seamless 2 Westcott silicon gels Tether cable Laptop Laptop holder Sandbags A-clamps Spyder Color checker Fake cobwebs Table ...
Post a Comment
Read more

2025 Year in Review and Looking Forward to 2026

This year was a bit interesting especially since during the day, I’m a government employee, which resulted in a lot of stress and a 42-day furlough.  I didn’t attend as many cosplay events with the D.C Cosplay group, now Costume and Camera, as I normally would have, due to schedule conflicts.  However, I traveled up to Poughkeepsie, New York for two photo events, one of which I was a featured photographer.  I attended two conventions, one of which didn’t turn out as expected and the other just confirmed my decision to take a break from it.  Though happily I did a lot of studio work this year, which I enjoyed.  But on the other hand, I lost my dear “studio supervisor”, my dog Teddy.  He liked to great clients and then “supervise” while lying/sleeping in his bed. I also started to work on the business side of my photography work, by investing in a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) site to manage bookings, schedules, and payments. No more trying to juggle...
Post a Comment
Read more

Attempted Camping

  This past weekend, my husband and I tried to spend the weekend at Post Card Cabins in Shenandoah for our anniversary.  I say tried, because I got sick halfway through our trip, and we had to go home early.    But the first part was nice. Post Card Cabins are owned by Marriott and located about 2 hours from D.C. in the Shenandoah region of Virginia, off I-81.   There is also another set of cabins located off I-15, but we stayed at the ones off I-81.  The property features several of these, in what I call a cabin development, which are spaced a decent distance apart, creating the illusion of privacy.  The cabins are essentially tiny homes featuring a large picture window at one end, a small bathroom, a mini-fridge, a compact kitchenette with plates, silverware, a pot, and a pan, and a queen bed.  They also come with two Adirondack chairs, a picnic table, a fire pit with wood, and a s'mores kit minus the sticks.    ...
Post a Comment
Read more