The 39th State and the Big Sky

Today was long. We drove 14 hours and it was a solid day of driving through nothingness in North Dakota until we hit Eastern Montana. It is so good to be back here but we have had strange weather. The plan was to drive 982 miles from  Minnesota to Bozeman, MT. We decided to get off the interstate early and book a night at Chico Hot Springs in A small town called Pray.

Oh and every time that Jenni drives, it rains. 

Here's a panoramic on the last leg of ND. We ended up at Roosevelt National Park. Pretty awesome. 

Selfie

I appreciated this sign. 

Stewie hoped to take over & get us to CA faster. 

One of the first gorgeous sights when we hit Montana. I took this from the front seat and out the back window but its a stunner. 

So then we pass Billings and we are getting closer to our exit and more delirious. A huge rain storm begins as soon as Jenni starts driving. Thank you Matt Matter for the rainex yesterday. It saved us. But Montana put on a beautiful show for Jenni's first visit. It was complete with pink skies. Purple reflections on the clouds. Lightning that lit up the area for miles and dark puffy grey clouds. 

We hit the Livingston exit and we had 23 miles to go. It seemed like we were driving right into the bad weather.  We arrive at Chico in a downpour. Jenni drives me to the registration desk and a crazy hail storm slams the resort. We couldn't move. It was loud, intense  and about 4 minutes long. Here's what we were left with. 

We ventured to the saloon. It sure felt like Montana in there. We had some dinner and a couple old fashioneds and headed out to Chico's hot spring pool. Here is where we ended a very long day. 

Touring Bozeman tomorrow's we are getting awfully close to CA. 

We FaceTimed with Ava and my mom. We talked to Mark Ferrandini. Anyone can call at anytime. I'm pretty sure we will be up for talking. 

Goodnight from Pray, MT.