Spaghetti Western: Part I

When we found out a few months ago that T’s job offer had been pushed out several months, we mulled over some options and quickly decided that we should take the time to do something adventurous. We considered going to Europe for a month or two, but that seemed both too expensive for the semi-employed and too fraught with challenges particular to traveling with a small child. T tried to sell me on a trip to South America, which sounded good until he showed me a photo of what I thought was the moon and turned out to be the area he most wanted to visit. In the end, we decided on the classic American adventure: a road trip.

With a selection of places to stay out west, we opted to plot our course in that direction. We took time this summer to plan and prepare, and targeted a departure date in early September. We didn’t want to miss Papa & Gigi’s anniversary party over Labor Day weekend, a decision which turned out to be wise. The whole weekend was filled with friends and family and one-of-a-kind occasions – like shopping for Nic’s wedding dress – and the culminating party was one of the best we can recall. We’re so happy for them.

Come Tuesday morning, we packed the necessities into the Subaru, bid farewell to our friends and our house (left clean enough for showings - since we decided to put it on the market recently) and headed toward North Dakota via 94. After stopping for dinner and new running shoes for T in Fargo, we drove through a thunderstorm on to Jamestown where we saw front, back and undercarriage of the world’s largest buffalo.

This morning we hit the road again, and after stopping at the Theodore Roosevelt National Park in Medora we finished with NoDak (a newly learned shorthand) and crossed over into Montana. Not long after we entered Montana, we got a call from our friend/realtor letting us know that Murphy’s Law is working and there's an offer on our house now that we're out of town - so we have that to mull over from our Billings, MT Super 8 motel room!

Tomorrow we are off to Missoula to see the Masseys. Luca has been as good a road companion as possible for a 14-month-old, and charmed the pants off of everyone in his proximity at dinner tonight. We hope to treat him to a shorter day of driving tomorrow.

Goodnight from the Super8!


View Larger Map