I arrived in Missoula, safe and sound, on Thursday night after two very long days of driving.  I left Chippewa Falls at around 11:30am CDT on Wednesday morning and arrived in Rapid City, SD at 9:30pm MDT for a total of 11 1/2 hours (with the time zone change) behind the wheel.  After spending the night, I left Rapid City Thursday morning at 7:30am and arrived in Missoula at 7pm, completing my second 11 1/2 hour day behind the wheel.  I believe that’s about my limit.  I was pretty exhausted.

The drive from Wisconsin to Western South Dakota is one of the most boring drives ever.  There really is nothing to see until you reach the Badlands (and it was dark by the time I got there).  I’ve done this drive several times when visiting my brother and his family in Rapid City, which makes it all the more boring.  What little there is to see, I’ve already seen before.

The drive from Rapid City to Missoula, on the other hand, is incredible.  It starts in the Black Hills, briefly degenerates to open grasslands, but then jumps into one mountain range after another.  It just keeps getting better.  Even though I was tired from the previous day, I still really enjoyed it.  I tried to take pictures while I drove (not that safe, I know, but there was very little traffic and I shot everything one-handed without looking through the viewfinder) and I ended up with a few really nice ones.  This is my favorite:

You can view the rest in my Flickr stream starting here.