Days 37-43 - Driving home

 

We made it home safe! Here were our stops on the way after Glacier:

• Butte, MT
• Billings, MT
• Bismark, ND
• Minneapolis, MN
• Chicago, IL 
• Clearfield, PA
• Somerville, MA

Montana

Tristan's road trip pro tips

Nice views, but they say the speed limit on rt 90 is 80 mph when half of it is twisty mountain passes, and then it feels like they're doing road construction on all the flat bits. When they do road work they shut down an entire half of the highway and make everyone split the other direction with half of us driving the "wrong" way. There's wayyy too many stores/restaurants/motels with "Grizzly" in their name even though bears are godless killing machines.  4 / 5 Stars

North Dakota

We hit the beginning of the Canada wildfire smoke in North Dakota.

Tristan's road trip pro tips

If you're trying to get from anywhere in the north-eastern half of the US, to anywhere in the north-western part of the country, I can't recommend North Dakota highly enough. Here are some of its many features worth recommending, especially if you take rt 94:

• It has a town called Center which is the Geographical center of North America
• The roads are in good condition and their road construction seems to actually be very planned to not be too disruptive
• The views are excellent! There's beautiful rolling hills covered in farms. There's lots of protected wetlands with pretty rivers and trees. There's a National Grasslands. 
• Route 94 goes right through the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. We didn't stop, but the views from the highway are great. In 10,000 years this is going to be another Badlands
• Barely any billboards
• Pretty good cell service almost everywhere

Seriously, driving through North Dakota was *chef's kiss* for road trip driving. We stayed in Bismark for the night, which was nice, and it's the state capital. Their state capital building was just a couple minutes away. It's in the middle of a pretty big park, and this is what it looks like:

If you're thinking that a 19 story building is probably the tallest building in Bismark (by a long shot) you'd be right. It really does tower over the surrounding neighborhood. But this 19 story building is also the tallest building in the entire state!  5 / 5 Stars

Minnesota

Wildfire smoke was definitely worse driving through Minnesota.

Tristan's road trip pro tips

We got the best pizza of the trip (pear, gorgonzola and dill from an Argentinian restaurant that specialized in pizza and empanadas) and my (Tristan's) favorite tacos of the trip (vegan Korean "duck" with pickled veggies) in Minneapolis, so that counts for something. But the drivers here are the worst. It feels like every bad driver in the mid-west decided to move to Minnesota. Also, their road construction is even more disorganized than Montana's.  2 / 5 Stars

Wisconsin

Still smokey.

Tristan's road trip pro tips

Way less road construction, but maybe they could do with a little more because the roads are a bit rough in places? Also a surprising amount of billboards advertising cheese or casinos or water parks (how close they are, if they're indoor, and if they're the largest in the world). But very nice views, lots of trees to go with the farms. 3.5 / 5 Stars

Illinois

We stayed at the same place with the lovely garden in Chicago both ways. This time however it was cast with a smokey orange glow. Pretty to look at but not nice for sitting.

In this upside down world, opposite of covid days, we are wearing masks outside and taking them off when we go indoors.

The morning Chicago skyline covered in a smokey haze. We're really glad we had time to explore Chicago on the way out because we sure wouldn't have wanted to explore it with the current air quality.

Tristan's road trip pro tips

It's like Wisconsin, but without the charm. A bunch of highways that all go to Chicago. 2.5 / 5 Stars

Ohio

The welcome sign that greeted us in Ohio read 'So much to discover.' We then proceeded to see many signs like the one above. Maybe the full slogan is really something like 'So much to discover we can't even begin to tell you.'

Pennsylvania

Ah Pennsylvania, we had high hopes for your roads.

They were pretty, but a little too fast, hilly, and windy to be relaxing. The good old New England trees are back though, even if we aren't quite yet!

We finally got ahead of the smoke for a bit so we went for a lovely walk before dinner.

Pennsylvania wildflowers aren't too shabby.

Those hills though!

Connecticut

Connecticut made me miss the roads of Pennsylvania. The roads were very busy. I completely forgot how much more populated New England is. While Connecticut roads were flatter they were way too windy for the number of people. Also not so great drivers.

Massachusetts

But it was all worth it to get back to Massachusetts where the cats were waiting for us just where we left them. Gianni napping on the dinning room table and Defora under the coffee table. Jaguar, like his photo, no where to be seen.