Greetings from Missoula, MT!

This evening we arrived in Missoula, after spending the day driving through Montana, Wyoming, and the rest of South Dakota. No new time zones today, although we did cross the Continental Divide. Some highlights from today's drive included more of the Black Hills; seeing antelope, prairie chickens, and a bald eagle; visiting the site of the Battle at Little Bighorn (Custer's Last Stand); a wild thunderstorm (in which the high winds pitched a tumbleweed against the van-- we felt like we were in a Roadrunner cartoon!); and roadside brush fires. In addition to seeing some small smoldering wildfires near the road, we were amazed to see how smoky Missoula is from all the wildfires in the hills. The haze hangs in the air in the valley, limiting the view of the mountains, and then when you get out of the car, you can actually smell the wildfires. According to the hotel staff, we should see more fires as we head west towards the MT/ID border.

Unfortunately, we missed a day of blogging yesterday, but we had a good excuse. As we were pulling into Rapid City, SD we could see a thunderstorm on the horizon. By the time we left the restaurant after dinner, the storm had blown in full force, with high winds and flash flooding in addition to the lightning. And then we heard the tornado sirens. Yikes! It was an adventure getting back to the motel, and we were glad to arrive safely. Although we lost cable and had no internet access, the power stayed on and our first-floor room did not flood. We were lucky in that I-90 was actually closed beginning at 2 exits west of where we were, due to baseball-sized hail. This morning, we saw abandoned cars with smashed windshields and all sorts of storm debris. We were glad we hadn't tried to go farther west last night!

Tomorrow is the last day of driving, as we are headed from Missoula to Seattle! It should be another pretty drive, as we cross Idaho, eastern WA, and then over the Cascade Mountains. Smokey will get to add another 2 states to her list, and I'll get to drive in Idaho for the first time!

Thanks for all the great comments. We appreciate everyone thinking of us and praying for us along the way. I received a wonderful piece of news yesterday-- my Washington State RN license FINALLY came through. That saga is a whole other story that I'll save for another day, but let's just say that in order to get through the bureaucratic red tape, we needed to get the office of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Minority Leader involved. Sometimes it pays to have friends in high places... or in this case, a highly connected aunt who saved the day. :)