3000 Miles of Love Compliments of Dan Holmes

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  • After much kicking of tires and fussing over the cat and chickens, we departed the McNab residence and headed deeper into Eastern Montana. Well, at least 25 miles deeper into Montana before break time. Murray Bar: Livingston, MT. Under the advisement of good friend / Leisure barkeep Ben, we rolled in for a quick drink or two. Caught a few minutes of the PGA championship and befriended some locals who seemed quite skeptical of our goal of bedding down in Rapid City, SD. Granted it was already 4pm and the drive would be another 10 hours (12+ hours Penske Standard Time). Our cowboy friend shared his tricks and secrets for tree conservation and wished us well. We rolled on… On our drive through Billings and down to Wyoming we were met with rain and thunderstorms. It had been some time since either of us had experienced a solid, dramatic battering of lightning so we were deeee-lighted. The rainbow split over I-90 didn’t hurt either. The lightning gave way to darkness and yet another winding mountain pass. The signs for the Grand Tetons led us to believe that it was probably lovely country we were blindly rolling past. In Sheridon, WY we stopped for gas and a snack. Taco Johns won out for our midnight meal which was a total mistake because Taco Johns is worse than Taco Bell and that is no easy feat….and they didn’t even give us hot sauce like we asked. On a positive note, it was fun to drive our enormous rig through the drive-thru. Again though, Taco Johns is gross and they should definitely put beans in the grilled chicken burrito. That would be a start. We definitely didn’t make it to Rapid City, SD. Gillette, WY is where we rested our heads at a janky Budget Inn that we had to sneak Alice into. Gillette was completely uneventful aside from being the “energy capital of the nation” and by “energy capital of the nation” they mean thousands of railcars heaped with coal. Yeah, not much going on here so we grabbed the worst breakfast sandwiches ever at this little bakery and got the heck out of Gillette.

    After much kicking of tires and fussing over the cat and chickens, we departed the McNab residence and headed deeper into Eastern Montana. Well, at least 25 miles deeper into Montana before break time. Murray Bar: Livingston, MT. Under the advisement of good friend / Leisure barkeep Ben, we rolled in for a quick drink or two. Caught a few minutes of the PGA championship and befriended some locals who seemed quite skeptical of our goal of bedding down in Rapid City, SD. Granted it was already 4pm and the drive would be another 10 hours (12+ hours Penske Standard Time). Our cowboy friend shared his tricks and secrets for tree conservation and wished us well. We rolled on…

    On our drive through Billings and down to Wyoming we were met with rain and thunderstorms. It had been some time since either of us had experienced a solid, dramatic battering of lightning so we were deeee-lighted. The rainbow split over I-90 didn’t hurt either.

    The lightning gave way to darkness and yet another winding mountain pass. The signs for the Grand Tetons led us to believe that it was probably lovely country we were blindly rolling past. In Sheridon, WY we stopped for gas and a snack. Taco Johns won out for our midnight meal which was a total mistake because Taco Johns is worse than Taco Bell and that is no easy feat….and they didn’t even give us hot sauce like we asked. On a positive note, it was fun to drive our enormous rig through the drive-thru. Again though, Taco Johns is gross and they should definitely put beans in the grilled chicken burrito. That would be a start.

    We definitely didn’t make it to Rapid City, SD. Gillette, WY is where we rested our heads at a janky Budget Inn that we had to sneak Alice into. Gillette was completely uneventful aside from being the “energy capital of the nation” and by “energy capital of the nation” they mean thousands of railcars heaped with coal. Yeah, not much going on here so we grabbed the worst breakfast sandwiches ever at this little bakery and got the heck out of Gillette.

    Posted on August 17, 2009 with 6 notes

  • So once again, thanks to Dan Holmes, Miss Margaret McNab is along for the ride—handling shotgun duties, film loading, sandwich artistry, drink making, small talkery, big talkery, Niña petting, Alice shushing and roach procurement. We are quite the road-tripping team. Kinda like Tim and Helena of Well Done Tour but with hack writing and shoddy iPhone photos, so it’s more like “Poorly Done Tour”….Zing! The first day’s goal was Couer d’Alene, ID where we found shelter in Margaret’s vacated Grandparent’s house. We made it in near record time, considering we left 24 hours behind schedule and are driving a 22 foot truck towing a Saab full of chickens. We gassed up for the first time in Ritzville, WA and let me tell you the name does not even begin to describe the ritzyness of this place. 300 miles, 30 gallons, $100 … you do the math, but 10 MPG is a heckuva lot better than 8 or 7 for that matter. Raleigh-Durham or Bust. Day two was a somewhat short hop over to Bozeman, MT, where Margaret’s parents call home and thus another free place to stay. The only obstacle: The Great Rocky Mountains and what an obstacle they were. 40 MPH top speed up the passes due to all my heavy crap and the weakness of the little International that could. 25 MPH top speed downhill for trucks over 12,000 lbs, we pushed 30 a few times but the smell of burning brake pads had me down-shifting into second MY-T-QUICKLY. Along the way we met a nice fake indian and cowboy couple at the 50,000 Silver Dollar Bar/Cafe/Junkstore (yes, they really have 50,000 silver dollars decorating the place, I guess it was cheaper than wallpaper.) We stopped in Missoula for lunch at the Staggering Ox, where they serve sandwiches in a bread bowl shaped like a can … strange, but tasty. When we got back to the tour-mobile we were happily surprised to find Olive’s first road egg. Good job Olive, keep it up and maybe we can trade these little buggers for food and board. Bozeman was safely reached in a non-record time of 9 hours 35 minutes and we were greeted by the McNab’s and the Grand McNab’s with armfuls of Buffalo burgers and ice cold Fat Tires. Not a bad way to wind down a near ten hour driving day. After a good night’s rest Olive provided breakfast for the ‘fam’ and then played in the backyard with Niña until the hawks started circling above. Showered and clean for the first time since last weekend’s Peacock Farm-Scientology wedding, we’ve about got everything loaded for the drive to Rapid City, SD. Thanks to the McNab family for their hospitality and see you on the road.

    So once again, thanks to Dan Holmes, Miss Margaret McNab is along for the ride—handling shotgun duties, film loading, sandwich artistry, drink making, small talkery, big talkery, Niña petting, Alice shushing and roach procurement. We are quite the road-tripping team. Kinda like Tim and Helena of Well Done Tour but with hack writing and shoddy iPhone photos, so it’s more like “Poorly Done Tour”….Zing!


    The first day’s goal was Couer d’Alene, ID where we found shelter in Margaret’s vacated Grandparent’s house. We made it in near record time, considering we left 24 hours behind schedule and are driving a 22 foot truck towing a Saab full of chickens. We gassed up for the first time in Ritzville, WA and let me tell you the name does not even begin to describe the ritzyness of this place. 300 miles, 30 gallons, $100 … you do the math, but 10 MPG is a heckuva lot better than 8 or 7 for that matter. Raleigh-Durham or Bust.

    Day two was a somewhat short hop over to Bozeman, MT, where Margaret’s parents call home and thus another free place to stay. The only obstacle: The Great Rocky Mountains and what an obstacle they were. 40 MPH top speed up the passes due to all my heavy crap and the weakness of the little International that could. 25 MPH top speed downhill for trucks over 12,000 lbs, we pushed 30 a few times but the smell of burning brake pads had me down-shifting into second MY-T-QUICKLY. Along the way we met a nice fake indian and cowboy couple at the 50,000 Silver Dollar Bar/Cafe/Junkstore (yes, they really have 50,000 silver dollars decorating the place, I guess it was cheaper than wallpaper.) We stopped in Missoula for lunch at the Staggering Ox, where they serve sandwiches in a bread bowl shaped like a can … strange, but tasty. When we got back to the tour-mobile we were happily surprised to find Olive’s first road egg. Good job Olive, keep it up and maybe we can trade these little buggers for food and board.

    Bozeman was safely reached in a non-record time of 9 hours 35 minutes and we were greeted by the McNab’s and the Grand McNab’s with armfuls of Buffalo burgers and ice cold Fat Tires. Not a bad way to wind down a near ten hour driving day. After a good night’s rest Olive provided breakfast for the ‘fam’ and then played in the backyard with Niña until the hawks started circling above. Showered and clean for the first time since last weekend’s Peacock Farm-Scientology wedding, we’ve about got everything loaded for the drive to Rapid City, SD. Thanks to the McNab family for their hospitality and see you on the road.

    Posted on August 13, 2009 with 2 notes

  • 3000 Miles 46 Hours of drive time 12 States 9 Spliffs 5 Days 3 Chickens 2 People who don’t even know each other 1 Shared brand of stupid Welcome to 3000 Miles of Love; Compliments of Dan Holmes.

    3000 Miles
    46 Hours of drive time
    12 States
    9 Spliffs
    5 Days
    3 Chickens
    2 People who don’t even know each other
    1 Shared brand of stupid

    Welcome to 3000 Miles of Love; Compliments of Dan Holmes.

    Posted on June 8, 2009 with 1 note

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