Minnesota Bound

Day 1:  Seattle to Moses Lake, WA

We pulled away from my parents' house on a slightly rainy, slightly chilly, slightly muggy May 31st.  We bequeathed some items to my brother:

Brake cleaner and Polish vodka.  Amazing how it all matched his shirt.  Don't get them mixed up, Joe!

Washington sure is a beautiful state.  Here's the mighty Columbia:

We were late getting started (really hard to believe) - so instead of making it all the way to Spokane, we stayed at the lovely "Oasis Motel" in Moses Lake.  Ha ha.

Actually, I do recommend it.  It was amazingly clean and decent for the price, and they even served eggs at breakfast.  You can pay a lot more and get a lot less.

Day 2:  Moses Lake to Butte, MT

We stopped by the Spokane Cathedral.  They have to keep it locked because they had an arson  – sad – but we spotted the priest and he was nice enough to let us in.

A Masonic Temple is right across the street.  Interesting... 

After passing by Couer d'Alene, Idaho, we saw a sign on the highway for a historic Catholic mission.  We decided to check it out.  It was well worth it.  They had tipis...

and mysterious graves...

Here's Tim approaching the mission church:

The little church was obviously made with much love and hard work.  The recording that was going was a nice touch – with both prayers in Latin and a prayer by a Coeur d’Alene tribeswoman in her native language.

Down the hill was a museum with a very well-done exhibit.  The story, of course, was a mix of inspiring and sorrowful.  If you're extremely interested in Pacific Northwest and/or tribal history, you can read a little bit here:  http://parksandrecreation.idaho.gov/parks/oldmission.aspx .
It was inspiring to read about the prophecy that the tribe had about someone in a black robe and black hat who would come and teach them about the Great Spirit. (Fr. De Smet.)

On to Montana....it was dark by the time we got into Big Sky Country, and we stopped at a rest area for the night.  The VW is great for that.

Day 3:  Butte, MT to Sheridan, WY


Unfortunately, it was freezing cold and I barely slept a wink.  So sad.  Oh well, off to Sunday Mass in Butte!    Just kidding....

We ran out of gas on the highway a few minutes after starting off.  I won't mention who was driving.  But I think Tim looks a bit sheepish in this photo, don't you?

Thank goodness for AAA.   This man was quite fast getting to us.  We were too late for that Mass, but we found another one later on.  I've never been so close to falling asleep standing up before!

People always complain about driving through east Montana – maybe just because it goes on for so long.  But we liked it.  Jet-black cattle on golden hillsides, extremely picturesque barns, and more mountain ranges than you can keep track of.

Those pictures really aren't very good ones.  But it was pretty!

Our last stop for the evening was the site of Custer’s Last Stand.  Custer's troops fought the Sioux and Cheyenne Indians and were schooled.  That situation didn’t last long, but it must have been a sweet victory for the Indians.  Here's a photo of the battle area.

The Native Americans were able to make their own memorial not too long ago – it was really cool.

They listed a lot of the warriors’ names.  They had fascinating names, everything from “Bear Running through Timber,”  “Goes Ahead” and “Limber Bones” to “Bad Light Hair” and even “Plenty Lice”!  I really wonder if all of these names were received at birth, or if people developed nicknames as they went through life.  Some of the names make me think it was the latter.

Day 4: Sheridan, WY to Wall, SD

We rolled into Wyoming, and everything seemed to magically become green and gorgeous, and all the cars disappeared from the roads.

But no time to tarry!  On to South Dakota!  We stopped at Mount Rushmore.

Nice faces all around.  In fact, South Dakota's motto is "Great Faces, Great Places."  No offense, but I think the motto should be, "We Love Advertisting."  The multitudinous billboards got a little overwhelming after a while.  I bet Wall Drug started it.

Day 5: Wall, SD to St. Paul, MN!

Speaking of Wall Drug.....after stopping there nine years ago with my NET Team, I was bound and determined never to stop there again, because it's such a tourist trap.  Well, ironically, the town of Wall was exactly how far we were able to go by that night.  And guess what?  I needed to buy more sunscreen the next morning.  Is there another drug store in town?  No.  Does the grocery store carry good sunscreen?  No.  So we ended up at...you guessed it....Wall Drug.  Tim looking appropriately scared:

I noticed a chapel this time.  (Apparently, some people love Wall Drug so much they get married there.)  The front of the chapel was Protestant..

And the back of the chapel was Catholic.

Pretty funny!  And kind of cool, in a disturbing, who would come to Wall Drug to use this chapel kind of way.

 Next we drove through the Badlands National Park.

Oooo...

Aaaaah....

Cute!

The prairie dogs looked really cute when they barked.  They threw their heads back in a very fast, unexpected way.  More coolness....

Goodbye, Badlands.

Hello, Minnesota!  We finally made it home....

Nope.  Still in South Dakota.  We stopped at an old homestead dug-out.  It was neat to get a glimpse of what life here would have been like.  At first I thought it would be awful and dark.  But then we decided it was cozy, and refreshingly cooler than the hot summer day outside.  

While we were there, I cooked us up a little something.

The man in the outhouse startled me.  Sorry, bud!  Didn't know you were in there.

By the time we crossed the Minnesota state line, it was dark, so not much to see.  We had to book it to be there for the movers on Wednesday.  Rolled in at 2:30AM, Wednesday morning.  Kowalewski style.  Here's our house!  Isn't it beautiful?

Okay, okay - here's a daytime photo.

It's a duplex and we have the first floor.  We were tired out by the time we arrived in St. Paul, but very happy to be in our new home.  We like it a lot and are looking forward to many adventures in our new city!