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.