Progress Has Been Made

Well, I don't really have a ton of exciting stuff to add about the trip, but I did make some progress in the past week or so, so I thought I'd add it here.

My main accomplishment is that most of my shopping is done for the trip. The main thing I got that wasn't on the list from my last post was a new car stereo. I decided that I really want to be able to listen to my iPod/Phone on my car since radio stations might be lacking a bit on some parts of the drive. Plus, this stereo has Bluetooth built in, so in addition to being able to stream music from my phone, I'll get to try out the world of hands-free telephone calls. This is a bit of a tangent, but I decided to get the stereo from Abt Electronics. When I called to pull the trigger on the purchase, I was on hold for quite a while. Finally, a "manager" took my call because he saw that I had been waiting so long. After we finished up the order, he said to ask for him if I had any questions or problems with the order, and said that his name is Mike Abt. Anyway, he's the president of the company, but I guess if customers are on hold long enough, anyone available is supposed to take the call. I knew there was a reason I liked Abt so much. Here's an article in case you're interested, which you're probably not: Abt and Goliath.

Anyway, back to the trip. The good news is that I'll be having a good friend of mine accompanying me on part of the drive there (from Minneapolis to Calgary), then she'll fly home from Calgary. It will be great to have someone with me--even though I like traveling by myself, 5 days in the car by myself is a lot. We were looking at my original route, and we have actually modified it a bit. The main difference is in Montana. Originally, I was going to go Billings, Great Falls, Glacier National Park. Now, it looks like we're going to try Billings, Butte, Glacier National Park. Here are the two routes so you can see the difference:

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My friend was interested in stopping at some hot springs, which is why we picked this new route. I am not sure which one we will stop at though--there's Fairmont Hot Springs which is basically just a swimming pool and resort, there's Chico Hot Springs Lodge, or Warm Springs Montana which is a natural spring instead of a warm swimming pool. Anyway, there are lots of options.

The other benefit of passing through Butte, MT is that we can drive up Montana Highway 83 which is an old logging road through forested valleys that is supposed to be beautiful.