~Tuesday, June 7, 2022~
Day 723 (Travel Day)
It’s amazing when full-time RV’ing, how one anticipated delivery can stress us out this much. Ha, what do you know? The Fed Ex truck showed up about 15 minutes before our departure. Yes!! Receiving everything in the end, we could now relax until…….we discovered the tire pressure was low again on the right front truck tire. It didn’t take much for me to discover the culprit. Brushing my hand over the tire, I felt the head of a nail embedded in the center of it. Who knows how long we have driven with it like that? Originally Jeff was thinking we would take care of it in the large city of Billings (where we’re headed today), but I was pushing to get it fixed right where we were, in Custer, though pickings might be slimmer. With the 350+ miles we had today, it just wouldn’t be worth taking a chance. The first shop I called was awesome. Really nice guy who even offered to move a few vehicles around so we could fit both Hank and Billie Jean. $40 later, we were back in business. Thank you Leo’s Auto for helping us get to our next destination safely. We enjoyed learning about your grandpa’s shop too!
The weather decided not to cooperate with our travels today. We don’t think we’ve ever seen a sky quite that dark as we drove through Newcastle, WY; severe thunderstorms and heavy rains at times, but thankfully no hail, and only a little wind. We’ve been extremely fortunate to have had good weather for the most part, but it certainly doesn’t come by accident as we really keep an eye on things, especially this time of year. Weather radio, satellite images on cell phones…..we keep it all at the ready.
At one point, early on in the drive, we saw the exit for the Little Bighorn National Monument Battlefield, so tempting to check out. It really killed Jeff not to be able to see this. But we had to keep on moving. Again, another place to add to the list for next time.
As many of you know, to get across this amazing country of ours, we have several choices……Hwy. 90, Hwy. 80, Hwy. 40, or Hwy. 10. Hwy. 90 takes the cake by far!! And its 3,102 miles of asphalt, makes Hwy. 90 THE longest highway in the nation.
Never having traveled this route before our trip, it is now our favorite highway of all time, at least in this portion of the U.S., particularly from South Dakota to Montana.
It is absolutely stunning. We were in complete awe of our utopia-like surroundings with the dramatic cloud formations against the green prairie grasses, and I mean GREEN!! and the breathtaking backdrop of the white-capped Gallatin Mountains. And though we’ve been several times before, it was still brutal to see the exits for Yellowstone and not be able to stop.
Jeff and I split the drive today since it was quite lengthy and must say it felt good to be in charge of Billie Jean again. Not only had it been a while since my last tow, but it had been weeks since my last back-in, which proved to be a bit of a challenge today. We finally arrived at our Harvest Host location in Billings, MT by 5:00…….Canyon Creek Brewing. The parking lot was huge, allowing about 5 other rigs, with room to spare, to hunker down for the night. And how convenient it was to just walk over from our “campsite” to get an ice-cold brewsky, especially after such a long drive. Dog friendly, Canyon Creek offered a great outdoor seating area with grass, perfect for our Sadie to mingle with other dogs and receive boat loads of attention. The beer….a 9 out of 10. Wow!! Mine was good too, but I’m not one to offer critiques on beer since I seem to stick with the good ol’ pilsners. They offered a food truck but Jeff and I were craving Mexican food, with one just 1 mile away. To get there, we had to unhitch the trailer, which isn’t a big deal. Fiesta Mexicana fit the bill, as we closed the place down arriving 20 minutes before closing. With tummies full and both of us exhausted, we hit the hay around 10:30.