A new state for the books

Today we drove 660 miles. Much of the drive was fairly boring with not a whole lot to look at, but there were some hay bales, a bunch of sign series that had messages on them, and several mountain passes.



Montana is a big state, and the bugs also seem to be proportionally bigger. The increasingly larger pinging noises of bugs culminated with a large bird of some sort (perhaps a grouse?) slamming into the front of the truck and scaring Nate and I. We're glad it didn't hit the windshield, because we likely would have needed a windshield replacement.



We were far too excited to find diesel under $4 per gallon for the first time since I joined the tour. We've paid as high as $5.50, so perhaps prices are going down, or perhaps the northern part of the country just has cheaper prices, or most likely some of both.



Towards the end of the drive, we came upon a section where the scenery reminded me a lot of the painted hills area in South Dakota. We also chased a large orange moon sitting just over the horizon.



The hotel we're staying at in Dickinson, North Dakota is rather eccentric. The decor clashes quite wonderfully, and there's this awkward mezzanine area styled like it's outside, only it's not. Our room window overlooks it, so we won't be waking up to sunlight in the morning.