Wild Horses and Wide Open Spaces

After the Yellowstone portion of our road trip, Bekah and I decided to see what the American West had to offer as we made our way back to Missouri. We were not disappointed.

We barely made it out the north entrance of Yellowstone when we encountered something totally surprising and wonderful.  In the first town in Montana, we noticed people lined up in lawn chairs along the main road.

Bek and I speculated that maybe there was a parade, but since there were no road blocks or anyone directing traffic we figured it was okay to keep driving.  Then suddenly there was a woman standing in the road waving frantically at us.  Honestly, I still had no idea what was going on but we pulled over and when we looked ahead we saw this:

And then this:

We also discovered why Montana is called "Big Sky Country" and I learned to use the panorama setting on my camera.

I could stare at that sky forever.

We spent the night in Billings at a truly lovely hotel.

And the next day set out for Mount Rushmore.  As we entered South Dakota, the weather began to look pretty ominous.

Determined to see some dead presidents, we pushed onward and soon we reached our destination.

Bek and I agreed that we didn't need to stay long...rain drops started falling and the presidents were glaring at us. Maybe someday when the weather is not so angry I'll go back and get a better look at Mount Rushmore.

The rest of our drive looked like this:

 

Too soon, we said goodbye to the West, and hello to Missouri. 

Well maybe not goodbye...just "Until we meet again."