Montana: It's Really, Really Big

If' you've ever spent 12.5 hours traveling in one day, you know the special place your mind goes to protect you from a world where the clown from "It" comes alive and terrorizes you forever. "We all FLOAT down here."

EEP.

To start, here is a breakdown of Wednesday's stats:
* Average MPG: 12.7 (We're practically going green after Tuesday's windy fiasco.)
* Miles driven: 479.6
* Times stopped for gas: Several

The largest part of the past two days has been Montana, and there is just not a whole lot going for it besides its size. Size matters, but we prefer our states proportioned to less than a day's ride. Any more than that is overkill, and frankly, is really not enjoyable for anyone. Dr. J and I ended up whistling, checking our watches, imagining Montana to be something more manageable like the tip of Idaho, and when we finally pulled out of it early this afternoon, decided to chalk it up to experience and NEVER do that again.

We haven't checked Jeepy for miles today, but I believe it was over 600. They weren't terribly easy miles, either, since it was raining and we had to push through several mountain passes. The worst/coolest was the Continental Divide. Dr. J tells me this is the point where precipitation decides whether to flow to the Pacific or the Atlantic, depending on which side of the divide it falls on. (He's chock-full of factoids, that one is.) We crested the Divide at 6,393 feet elevation and 38-degree temps. Being Midwesterners unused to magestic vistas, we were actually glad that it was raining so we couldn't see just how far up we were. Our stock of clean pants runs low.

Next, we had to get through the Bitteroots. The elevation at the Idaho state line was 4,860. The skies were clearing, so it felt higher.

The last leg was about 45 minutes before we got to Ellensburg, WA. The Columbia River Gorge did not have any dreaded signs for Chain Removal, nor did it have Runaway Truck Ramps. Easy peasy.

Today's states:
1. Hawaii
Can you believe we got Hawaii? We have tomorrow left to get Delaware, North Carolina, Vermont, and Arkansas.

Stuff we wished we had stopped to do:
Nothing. JUST. GET. US. OUT. OF. THE. CAR.

Tomorrow will be the end of the travel portion of this journey, with about two hours left to drive to Tacoma and have Dr J finally see the house we rented. I'll keep posting news of our adventures and adjustment to life in the Pacific Northwest.