US-2: The long road through Montana

We left Shelby, Montana this morning, heading East on US-2.  We had a long drive from Shelby to Minot, North Dakota ahead of us, but we were ready. 

When planning the trip, I knew this would be a long day of driving without many stops.  US-2 is 666.6 miles from one end of Montana to the other, and we traveled about 400 of those miles today and then still had 130 miles until we reached Minot.  As we left Shelby, we could see the Sweet Grass Mountains in the distance. 

This section of US-2 has definitely seen better days.  Thankfully, it looks like they are starting road construction in this area.  It was like this for about 5 miles and you couldn't travel more than 35 MPH

After about 200 miles of driving, we finally made our first stop.  The girls were traveling so well, but Maddie was giving me all of the indications that she was thirsty and this seemed like a good place to stop.

There weren't many things to see or do along the way, but I did make a couple of stops at some of the points of historic interest to learn a little about the history of the area and get some pictures of the surrounding landscape.

There is a lot of Native American history in this area.  Someday I'd like to come back and wander off of US-2 a bit to explore more of it.  

One of my favorite things about traveling down roads like US-2 instead of the Interstate is that you get to experience the small towns that make up this great country of ours. 

You can also see things that seem ordinary or boring, but to me look beautiful-like these hay bales or the cattle on the range. 

 And I found this UPS center in the middle of nowhere just fascinating!

After traveling nearly 400 miles through rolling hills and flat prairie lands of Montana, we finally, we reached North Dakota!  Boy was it windy out there!

It was a beautiful day for traveling.  The temperatures were in the mid 70s and the sun was shining.  Today all of the girls were exceptionally good travelers, even with only one stop where they all got out.  After 530 miles, 9 hours, and 1 time zone change, we reached Minot. 

We were all exhausted after our long day of travel, so I quickly picked up some Mexican food-it's the first time I've had Mexican since we've been on this trip-and headed back to the hotel to eat.  We took a quick 1 mile loop around the mall that is right behind our hotel and we have been in for the night. 

Tomorrow we continue our journey East with some fun stops along the way.  I've been looking forward to this portion of our trip ever since we left Alaska!  It should be a fun day for all of us. 

Oh, I should note that today we saw a moose!  After over 5,500 miles of driving much of it through areas with Moose crossing signs or places called Moose row, spending days in a country that uses a moose as it's mascot...and not one moose.  But today, with no warning and no signs indicating that I'd see a moose, just outside of Ray, ND, there it was about 100 yards off the road trotting through a field of grass.  I was travelling along at 70 MPH and by the time I realized what it was, I was passed it.  It appeared to be young, but it was amazing to see!  I just wish I had been able to get a picture