Manifest Destiny: A Road Trip

Back in early September Nick and I drove out to Seattle to move him and his car across the country. It took us about a week to get to there. I met him in Albany, NY where he picked me up at one of the most depressing bus stations known to man. Then we were off on 90 West.

We wanted to spend most of our time in South Dakota and Montana, so we planned to bulk up on driving the first few days. Our goal for the first day was to get to Toledo, OH. We were making great time until we hit Erie, PA when... break down. Looks like we were spending the night.

Nick concerned.

The next day we bowled away our worries as the shop worked on the car (broken distributor).

Eventually we were back on the road where we made it to Bryan, OH. We sped through the Midwest the next day making it to Sioux Falls, SD late in the evening. I had the BEST flautas in Elgin, IL. (No picture. Was too occupied with stuffing my face.)

Crossing the Mississippi at the Wisconsin/Minnesota border

We finally reached the Badlands, which is what Nick was looking forward to most. I've never seen a place like it. I felt like we were on the moon. We spent the day exploring, visiting the epic tourist trap that is Wall drug and camping.

After waking up to a gorgeous sunrise, we were back on the road (surprise! lots of driving on this trip). I requested a detour to Mt. Rushmore because when will I ever return to South Dakota? Nick kindly obliged.

It was a weird sight to behold as you can tell by Nick's face. (This is my favorite picture from the trip.)


Collateral damage. Road kill. It was my duty to clean the windshield every time we filled up for gas.

I didn't take many pictures the rest of the trip, but we stopped in Montana where we enjoyed a wonderful evening in Livingston, a bison burger in Bozeman and took a lovely morning walk in Missoula. We spent an evening in Coeur d'Alene, ID before finally getting to Seattle. Montana was awesome, but it was a relief to finally make it to our destination where we threw ourselves into a rushed housing search (more on that later).

Here are some random scenes from the road.

We made it!