this is gonna be long...hold on

We made it to Washington! Its hard to say how many hours we drove to get here, but it has been about 16000 miles so far and one very very close call to running out of gas. (I had flashbacks of being young and running out of gas with my dad after we drove past the gas station). We are staying in the tri-cities area which is where Matt originally stayed when he went out here. PNNL has there main branch here and our temporary home (hotel) is about 3 1/2 hours from here. So we will have a short drive tomorrow.

Wednesday we left Brookings and stayed in Rapid City, SD. This was my favorite area and hotel so far.
Some highlights include
- Stopped at Cabella's and Matt purchased a Furminator for the dogs and I am so excited to use it someday.
- Drove and walked around the Badlands National Park.
- Saw an area that used to have nuclear missiles
- Complimentary cookies at the hotel :)

Thursday we saw Mount Rushmore and walked the mile long presidential trail. We drove through Deadwood, SD and ate lunch at a restaurant owned by Kevin Costner and we saw a bunch of his movie memorabilia. We also stopped at an old fish hatchery. We were not able to go into any buildings as they were locked. But we were able to take the dogs along. Dude went nuts trying to get to the ducks and Matt fed the trout of course. We stopped in Billings, MT for the night. I was not super impressed with the town. We stopped at a Best Western and Matt fibbed and said it was only him and one dog staying at the hotel.. Big mistake. They put us on the second floor and we were walking out of the stairwell together when we thought the manager caught on that we were together. She said "oh there are 2 of you?" and Matt responded with a quick "shes not with me." After that, we snuck out separately to get dinner and after that I spent the rest of our stay in the hotel room. Which I wont argue with, I didn't have to let the dogs out that PM or AM and I got breakfast brought to me in bed :)

Friday we stopped at Prairie Dog Town State Park. It wasn't open but we did see a handful of little doggies running and barking. I also thought I came down with a cold, with a sore throat and stuffy nose. But now I think it's allergies or something with the air pressure change and/or the air conditioning in the hotel rooms. We also got Crazy Bread and LC pizza for lunch and Coldstone for dessert, yummy. We found a trail right off of the Montana State University -Bozeman campus and took the dogs for a little walk. That night, we made it to Missoula, Montana and settled in at another Best Western. We were hoping that we were not on a black list from the night before. We were able to watch the Twins game at a sports bar near campus called the pressbox. On the downside, we weren't able to swim or get in the hot tub as it was being ruled by a guy with a mullet, his PBR and his friends.

This afternoon we made a stop at the University of Montana bookstore for a Grizzly's t-shirt. We also stopped in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho and took the dogs for a walk right off a lake that had an amazing view. It wasn't like the Duluth board walk but it had a beach and sidewalk and play ground with lots of joggers and bikers. I wouldn't mind living there. The area and view of the mountains were awesome. Dude and Jersey however would not like living there as dogs were not allowed on the beach. Tonight we made it to Kennewick, WA after a brief scare of almost running out of gas. It's hard to know when you will be coming up to a town or if there is not a station for 30 miles. We filled up 16.4 gallons, which we think the tank holds 17. YIKES! But to make my night, I sat in the hotel hot tub and they have complimentary cookies and milk :)

Phew that was a long one, I've been working on it for 2 days now! Happy Saturday night!