Westward Ho! Day 2

Done in by the Testicle Festival

Sean and I aren’t overly competitive people, especially with ourselves, so when we set our personal milage record last month, we thought it would stick for a while. Part of this wonderful journey, though, is embracing the unexpected!

Our plan for the day was to drive straight up I-90 to Missoula, MT, a long, 600 mile drive that would get us there in the early evening.

 About 20 miles from Sturgis, we hit a wall of fog. Not just misty fog, it was more: I-can’t-see-my-hand-in-front-of-my-face fog. It was slow going for a while, but eventually the sun broke through and we were back on our merry way.

We hadn’t really planned any stops on the way to Missoula, but we found ourselves passing Little Big Horn and Custer’s Last Stand Battle Field and decided to stop.

The museum was very interesting and full of great Indian Leaders’ pictures and artifacts.

The battlefield itself was intriguing. They had markers where each of the soldiers fell during the battle and you could just imagine the battle raging.

We headed back to the Interstate and made good time to Missoula. We stopped at one of the first hotels we came across, but they were booked for the night, so we tried another one…and another one…and another one, but they were all full.

Apparently the 31st Annual Testicle Festival was in progress in a near-by town. 

EVERY SINGLE HOTEL ROOM WAS BOOKED in Missoula and the surrounding area. EVERY…SINGLE…ONE.

By this time we were tired and very road-weary and didn’t even really want to find out what a Testicle Festival ("Testy Festy" for short) was all about. We just wanted a room and a good dinner. Our only option (other than spending the night in jail or a 24-hour casino) was to continue down the road. About 45 miles later we managed to find the last room in Hamilton, MT, right in the foothills of the Bitterroot Mountains.

And we were even lucky enough to get to the restaurant about 5 minutes before it closed.

All in all we managed to rack up 768 miles in just one day. Our previous record was 648. I think the new record is going to stand for a long, long, time.

Day 1 - 603 miles
Day 2 - 768 miles