20240927 Western National Parks Tour Day 16/20 - Driving across Montana

American West Bus Tour Day 16/20 - A long haul across the Big Sky State

It is 8:15 PM and I'm writing this from the Glendive Lodge in Glendive, Montana - 568 miles from the Holiday Inn Express in Kalispell where we spent the last two nights. How did we get here?  Read on!

We awoke and went to grab breakfast. We saw a few of our fellow travelers along with Tour Director, Geoff and Bus Captain, Robin. She was in civilian clothes as she was now off duty and would ferry the bus back to Las Vegas, her home base, over the next two days. Geoff coordinated transfers for the group to the airport. He set up four separate departures from the hotel based on flights and other timings.

After breakfast, we finished packing up and met Geoff in the lobby at 9:20 for our airport transfer. Unlike the other travelers, we weren't heading there for a flight. We were picking up a rental car for the next four days of our continuing adventure.

Here I am, looking a little confused about why Arlona was taking photos of the car rental desk

We picked up an essentially new GMC Terrain with only 6,770 miles. We filled the cargo area with our bags, connected my phone to Android Auto, and plugged in the Glendive Lodge. It was still chilly outside so we kicked on the heat, and headed out around 10:00. 

We headed east on US-2, the same highway that cuts across the south side of Michigan's Upper Peninsula

The route retraced a good part of yesterday's tour

We stopped again at the Goat Lick Overlook - still no goats

We cut the corner of Glacier National Park and enjoyed the views for as long as we could

Once we passed through Glacier, the plains opened up as far as we could see

Nothing as far as the eye could see

As the day progressed, the temperature rose, passing into the 80s. We flipped the climate control from heat to air conditioning. We continued getting warmer. Hmm... Fiddle with knobs - nothing. Turn the air off/on multiple times - nothing. We had a nearly new vehicle with malfunctioning air conditioning. About this time, the "Change Oil" warning popped up. It turned out that the Terrain was due for an oil change. We have a vehicle yelling at us to change the oil, and the air conditioning is dead. Nice job, Enterprise. 

Browning, Montana, and the elusive Espresso Tribe

In reality, this area is in the Blackfeet reservation

Bear Paw Mountains

Near Cut Bank, Montana

Harvest time in Cut Bank

We saw tons of trains, really long trains - this was near Shelby, Montana, coming around a bend

A wind farm outside Shelby

A whole lot of nothing

Sweet Grass Hills

Over the day, we passed by/through towns like West Glacier, Browning, Cut Bank, Shelby, Chester, Joplin, Rudyard, Gildford, Kremlin, Chinook, Zurich, Harlem, Dodson, Malta, Saco, Hinsdale, Glasgow, Nashua, Frazer, Wolf Point, Vida, Circle, and Lindsay. It all sounded very exotic.

Since it continued getting hotter outside as well as inside the vehicle, we decided to call Enterprise and get a plan for replacing the vehicle with one that works. After much back and forth with the Kalispell Airport counter, they determined that Shelby would be an option to swap the vehicle. Unfortunately, Shelby was in the rearview mirror and had been for more than 30 miles. The next option was Great Falls, more than an hour out of the way. The final option was to wait until tomorrow afternoon when we will arrive in Rapid City, South Dakota. Tomorrow, we will make an unplanned trip to the airport to swap out vehicles with Enterprise. Woo.

We needed a comfort stop and some sustenance when we hit Havre, so we stopped at a local gourmet diner - McDonald's. We wanted to make it a quick stop, so that fit the bill.

We also topped off the Terrain as gas stations were a long way apart.

An abandoned grain elevator near the railroad tracks in Havre

Interesting terrain near Harlem, Montana

An interesting church on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation near Harlem, Montana 

More unusual terrain near Saco

Two trains passing each other near Saco

An automated construction traffic signal near Glasgow

We were ready for another comfort stop and to change drivers when we got to Glasgow - so we found a really convenient stop and as luck would have it, they had ice cream

Wildlife spotting - a few Deere in Glasgow

These all-wood power stands were outside Nashua, Montana

The sun bid us farewell around 6:30 and we still have about an hour to go

As the sun went down, the mule deer came out. We blasted by two of them standing on the side of the road. We saw two more off the road a couple of miles later. Thankfully, those were the only ones we saw and we arrived at the Glendive Lodge around 7:40. That made for a 9:40 driving day covering 568 miles. Today was the longest driving day we will have on this four-day independent extension.

Tomorrow, we will make a quick trip into North Dakota and then swing into Wyoming for a stop and Devil's Tower. Then, we'll head to Rapid City, South Dakota. Between tomorrow and the next day, we'll visit Crazy Horse and Mt. Rushmore - oh, and the airport for a new vehicle.