Day 3 (Wednesday, June 8, 2016)

Lesson learned when we cleaning up our campsite in South Dakota--don't wear light-colored shirts when wiping down your cookware.  It leaves smoke smudge.  Oh, well.  It is part of the learning experience, right?

We drove through Custer State Park on the way out of our campground towards Crazy Horse.  It is a beautiful 71,000+ acre park, complete with the "largest" herd of bison.  We did have to stop for a fawn, but the only bison we saw were 5 next to a campground.; they looked pretty docile and were in a fenced in area.
We drove over to check on Crazy Horse.  We last saw the monument 10 years ago and they have been working relentlessly to garner attention for this project.  When you look at the mountain, it looked the same but then different.  You could really tell a difference when looking at the pictures they have of their progress.  More of the mountain has been blasted away to make way for his arm and horse.  They have added to the museum--an even more amazing array of Native American artifacts.  Touchscreen monitors located here and there better tell their story and future goals.  Additions of a restaurant and such encourage people to come and spend more time there.

We left South Dakota, ready for another long drive day.  The Interstates are straight, but those highways to get from Point A to Point B are an adventure in and of themselves! 

Into Wyoming and again, field upon field upon field, but now mostly pasture, and many horses.  There are still herds and herds of cows, and, sadly, no windmills sighted from the Interstate.  They keep their snow fencing up so you can see how much drifting they must have to deal with when winter comes.  
Montana.  In Indiana you dismiss them as a bank of clouds on the horizon, but when you are driving west through this great country of ours, those "clouds" could very well be mountains way off in the distance.  Dark, dark blue/gray, but then, as you focus in and get closer, you see distinctive peaks, some with snow. Craggy faces.  Beautiful beyond words.  We skimmed to the right of Yellowstone and the Tetons, traveling parallel with the Yellowstone River at times. Looking up from my book (Sabriel by Garth Nix, recommended for YEARS by Max and finally being read) only to see an abandoned railroad track, hanging onto the side of the hill kept my attention for awhile.  I followed it with my eyes for a great many miles, wondering what did it haul?  Where did it actually start and end?  How long has it been abandoned.  Electric poles are actually few and far between, some the victims of landslides past and not replaced.  The state leaves their tall orange markers out, so they know where the road's edge is when the snow flies!  They are taller than our truck!

BUGS! Holy cow.   Andrew has actually had to physically scrub them off of our windshield at least twice!   It sounds like it is raining, but rain doesn't leave behind entrails or varying colors of splatters.  And at one point, after a really hard rain spurt, we thought there was steam from the pines, but they were swarms of bugs, just hovering over the tops of the trees!

At approximately 7:30 Mountain time we crossed the Continental Divide, elevation 6393, so everything now draining to the Pacific!!  

We had planned on driving all the way into Idaho but decided to set up camp a little earlier so we could do it in the light.  Jellystone--Yogi and BooBoo greeted us as we pulled in for the night.  We lucked out and got a tent site; the camp manager said it gets busier and busier every day and soon they'll be sold out each night.  This was another really great campground:  very clean, and lots of amenities for those staying longer.  The sites are sort of close so I can't imagine camping when it is "full," literally right next to each other.  Of course, we are used to living with plenty of space around us so it may just be strange to us.  
A strong line of storms was heading in our direction and we didn't want to have to put up a tent in that!  It took some teamwork to get the tent up against the intense wind as it kept wanting to twist this way and that.  Once we were finished, the wind kept the tent with a slight lean to the right!  The storm pushed through a few hours later and we stayed dry and comfy.  

Early to bed though so we can get up early and tackle another day of driving:  Idaho for a hike and into Canada next!