New Trip: Denver to Boston Via Canada. July 2022.

Travels with Nate continues. The plan this time: drive to Colorado and spend two weeks in the Mountains outside Denver, drop my wife, Michele, off at the airport in Denver and head home via Canada.  When I come up with these plans, people usually don't ask my why anymore, they have come to know that I like to travel great distances by car in order to see new landscapes and new things.

The plan originally was to drive to Alaska first, and then head across Canada, but after mapping out the number of days and miles that would require, I scaled back the trip to its current form. Alaska remains my only state yet to visit .

This trip will be a little different than my previous Blog's - in that I have many more miles to cover most days and will only have a chance to make one or two interesting stops each day. Yeah I know, I could have stretched the trip out for a few more days - but I already set the parameters and I have planned visits with friends in Eastern Canada, and stuff back in Boston that I have committed to doing - so I only have 7 days to make this trip.

Day 1: Denver to Billings Montana:

After dropping off Michele at the Airport in Denver, I headed north towards Wyoming. I25 North turns into high plains, not much to look at, but beautiful in its own way. I drove to Casper, where I left the interstate and headed West towards Billings Montana.  The further West I got, the better the scenery. The roads were good, but tricky because the speed limit will go from 70 to 30 in the blink of an eye. I reflected on my brother in law, who just got a ticket in Wyoming, when the speed limit went from 60 to 30. I guess I was vigilant, or just lucky, no tickets today. West from Casper, I drive through Thermopolis and Cody. Especially after Cody the road got pretty. The road was good and not very busy, except for a couple of long road work stretches, where I had to stop and wait for the work car to guide us through the one way stretch, it was a good drive.

The only stop I had planned today was in Red Lodge Montana. The road from Red Lodge: "The Beartooth Scenic Byway", called America's most beautiful highway, by Charles Kuralt was highlighted in my guide book. Charles Kuralt was one of my inspirations for my travels. I always enjoyed his segments on on CBS news "On the Road With Charles Kuralt". Sadly there was not enough time in the day to do the whole scenic byway, but I did stop in Red Lodge.  The road to Red Lodge comes up to the eastern entrance of Yellowstone National Park, so it gets beautiful, and a welcome change from the High Planes of Wyoming. I had heard of the Ski Area, Red Lodge, but didn't put in together, that it was here in this town until I saw the signs.  I had also not connected this town with the recent floods north of Yellowstone, but there was ample evidence of the river over flowing it's banks just outside of town and signs that the Northeast entrance to Yellowstone was still closed because of the floods.

Book on Tape: Jack Reacher Killing Floor Lee Child - Good book because the Jack Reacher character is all about travelling the US.

Podcast: Rough Translation - Alone@Work, about Women Truckers

Song of the Day: Traveller  Chris Stapleton, my new go to first day on the road song

Beer of the Day: Hopzone by Bozeman Brewing.