Good morning from Spearfish.

I think of Willie Nelson every morning. On the road again, just can’t wait to get on the road again, the life I love is making music with my friends… My friends are on Apple Music, and we are makin’ some music! Good that I’m traveling alone.

The journey home, day 4. Now I know how my pony feels when we turn back to the barn. It’s been fun, but let’s go home now! As I’m getting closer I really want to sleep in my own bed. I drove 500 miles today! That is a lot for me, I’m not a driver with a lot of stamina. It was a sunny 80 degrees, the highway was wide open and off I went. I stopped every couple of hours and stretched my legs in this or that town.

I was worried about getting back over the Rockies, after I had an issue with altitude sickness going I80 through Wyoming. After some research I settled on I90 through Montana. Wow, it’s so much better! 80 is packed with big trucks, windy, and boring. 90 is beautiful and lightly trafficked. And the passes on 90 are much lower, I didn’t know I’d summited until I was heading downhill.

I made it to Butte, Montana. I didn’t think I’d get this far, but I kept pushing forward to the next town until I had to quit driving. Butte is beautiful. This was really a booming town in the late 1800s. Every town has a main street with stately brick and stone buildings from that era. Maybe just a couple, maybe several blocks. But Butte has many square blocks of one beautiful building after another. I settled in at a “motor inn” at the edge of the historic area, and I think despite its charm this isn’t a great part of town. I was planning to take a walk through downtown after dinner, but I got a few blocks away and realized the only people around looked pretty scruffy and the only business open was a seedy looking bar. The street behind my room seems to be a drag strip for trucks without mufflers. I’ve seen my motel neighbors and they seem ok so I think it’s fine here. But it makes me miss camping!

When’s the last time you got one of these?

I think I have two more days, covering the remaining distance in one day is probably not possible for me. So I’ll have to find someplace nice tomorrow for my last night!