What.A.Long.Day.

This post will start out a little down but it finishes on the up side.

A while back, before world travels, I heard from somewhere (or somebody told me) that "it can't be considered an adventure unless at some point you really wish you were home". By that standard I'm on an adventure.

Boulder was awesome as it always is, thanks to Dave and Sky's hospitality. This morning we woke up reasonably early and made plans to head to the Sierra Trading Post outlet. We had plans to go to Lucille's for breakfast, but changed it to Johnson's Corner. Johnson's Corner is a truckstop/bakery/diner along I25 in northern Colorado. The bakery part threw me until I found out about their world famous cinnamon buns. The place was packed but we got seated in short order whereupon Polly threw down the gauntlet and we all ordered cinnamon buns as an appetizer for our breakfast. These cinnamon buns are ridiculously good and huge. I have some pics in my camera but it's out in the truck, I'll post them tomorrow. For now imagine a cinnamon bun that is six inches in diameter and four inches high. It was freakin' huge! It was also quite good and I still have a leftover portion to finish off. Weighed down by our huge breakfasts, we barely survived food coma to make it to the Sierra Trading post outlet on the east side of Cheyenne. Dave laid out the ground rules and we went off on a hunt for bargains. I did well and only picked up some socks and a sport towel. All of the other stuff I looked at wasn't in my size. (I may be able to redeem myself as I've found that there is another outlet here in Montana!) I left early, but I'm fairly sure Polly may have had to get two shopping carts!

After the outlet, I headed north on I25 from Cheyenne towards Caspar. This was about the time that I really wished I was home. They call Wyoming the Big Empty for good reason. While the plains of Kansas were physically challenging to cross by myself, the Big Empty was mentally challenging. Adding to the challenge was the steady downpours all the way from Cheyenne to Caspar. I really could have used at least Jackson to talk to. It was pretty scenery but there was little evidence of human presence other than the interstate. And hardly any trees, just rolling grassy hills. Caspar came and went in a blur of oil drilling equipment yards and sweet haysus there was more Big Empty to go. Finally I reached the Montana border and almost instantly the scenery changed. There were more trees and the snow melt swollen Little Bighorn River to look at. I passed by the battlefield were Custer fell, then on to Billings.

Billings was a surprise. It is a humongous town, full of refineries, factories and even high rise buildings downtown. On the bright side there are also a lot of really nice Montana houses on the outskirts, any one of which would be awesome to live in.

I'd been playing a game with the GPS to see how far I could get the Estimated Time of Arrival down. When I started in Cheyenne it said I would be arriving in Livingston at 10pm, so it was hammer down time!

As I got closer to Livingston, the scenery got even better. I90 parallels a BNSF (Burlington Northern and Santa Fe) main line and the Yellowstone River. The rail line was active (I got some pics for you railfans out there) and the river was flooding. About a half hour away from Livingston, the sun started to set, leading to a beautiful sunset. You'll have to take my word for it because I was trying to beat the GPS and the bug splatters on my windshield precluded picture taking. The clouds around the Crazy Mountains were afire and there was this reddish tinged fog or mist around the Absoraka range. Cool stuff.

I came in hot arriving in to Livingston at 9:30. Take that GPS! I even took a picture to prove it. I found the condo and met up with Mike. He has to work tomorrow so he took me out to find some food and show me the highlights of the town. In summary, I will be stopping back by here. If the brief tour of the town tonight is any indication, it's going to be fantastic tomorrow. We started off with drinks at the Hotel Murray bar. It's an old hotel with a cool bar attached to it. I hope to have more about the Murray and the town for you tomorrow. I "only" have to drive four hours tomorrow so I plan on a reasonable morning exploring the town of Livingston followed by a hopefully successful hunt for shocks for the Rover in Bozeman. Wish me luck!