Day Nine: Where Shar takes 150 pictures of the road going by

On Day Nine, we woke up at five, climbed into the car before the UW ticket-happy parking enforcers could get another swipe at us, and got on the road, setting our sights on Bozeman, MT. That is, we set our sights on driving from Seattle to Bozeman. In one day.

Yes, we know that's a really long drive. Don't you think we know that? What we did not in fact know until right before we went to bed last night was how nerve-wracking that long drive was going to be. Evidently, there are parts of the country that didn't get the notice that Spring Has Sprung. These parts of the country believe that it is, in fact, time to pose for their Christmas postcards. They believed that, in April, which is, in fact, objectively springtime, it was time to snow. Unfortunately several of these parts of the country lie in the 800 miles we meant to cover. There were, of course, fantastically breathtaking views, not all of which were snow-covered. Here are some of the ones that were. Also, a picture of an error in judgment on my part, specifically regarding my toes.


Here again is a thing that will make this trip an obvious Mike & Shar experience. Besides the census taken of the inside of the car. We did not make it to the KOA kabin we'd reserved in Bozeman. Instead, we decided that 11 hours of driving, stopping only (twice) for gas was not enough. We added another 90 minutes to the end of that drive and are currently blarging from Billings, tummies full of good Montana steak. Also, there's a water slide in our hotel. Also, it is freaking awesome. I went down it, like, four times and I wasn't even scared.

And we have another ungodly drive tomorrow, so I'm calling it quits early again. As a consolation treat, please enjoy this video, which is the music video for Old Crow Medicine Show's "Wagon Wheel." It's one of my very favorite songs of all time and, though it's about hitching down the Atlantic coast rather than driving America, it's become somewhat of a theme song for Mike & Shar tours.

Listened to: "Wagon Wheel" by Old Crow Medicine Show, Lagniappe (Slimpickins), Food & Liquor (Lupe Fiasco), College Dropout (Kanye West), Shut Up You F*cking Babies (David Cross), Omnibus (Tarkio), an assortment of Lucy Kaplansky songs including "Scorpion," and the sizzle of two-inch-thick steaks at Gusick's Restaurant.

Mystery words: "BEARS EXIT NOW!!"

Mike's side of the story (with more pix!): astoriedyear.blogspot.com