Yellowstone and Montana, Land of Trucks

Our route took us into Montana through spectacular scenery in the northwest corner of Yellowstone Park. At one point Lindi pulled off the road so we could spend a moment to appreciate the looming snow-covered Grand Tetons to the east.

A few hours and a driver switch later, Mary veered off the road and stopped the car, saying “don’t you just want to put your feet in that water?”

A few observations about Montana: first, everyone here drives a truck.

Nary a car to be seen in Livingston, MT.

Second, Montana is gorgeous — at least in June. And it’s really really big, and really sparsely populated. We didn’t see much to recommend Billings, but Bozeman looks like a fun city. I’m hoping we can spend a little time there on the drive back.

Downtown Bozeman.

Montana also appears to have its share of fossil fuel reserves and infrastructure. After passing this refinery we learned that CHS is the parent company of Cenex, which supplies the central US with petroleum. Cenex gas stations are ubiquitous here.

Despite the grueling pace (12+ hours per day of driving) we are still in good spirits. Last night we enjoyed a picnic dinner in a gas station parking lot bordered by an idyllic green lawn.

I wanted to lie down in the springy cool grass, until Lindi mentioned the possibility of ticks. But we did luck out with our timing, as it began raining just after we’d packed up and gotten back on the road. As the sun went down behind us, we spent the last three hours of driving enjoying a breathtaking, nonstop lightning show, which illuminated the enormous Montana sky.

Montana also seems to be fairly libertarian when it comes to Covid protocols, which go from lax to pretty much nonexistent the closer you get to North Dakota. At the place we stayed in Glendive, MT, none of the employees wore masks, and the lone Covid sign, taped to the checkin counter, was full of misleading and inaccurate information:

(Note that this notice also doubles as an ad for EcoLab, the company providing the hotel with its hand sanitizer products.)

Lastly— and this applies to all the states we have driven through — the hotel and truck stop industry appears to have taken advantage of 2020’s Covid-induced vacancies to remodel all of their guest bathrooms. Every single place we’ve stopped has had brand new, sparkling clean bathrooms. Often with identical grey tile work.