This adventure started off with a bang.  A real bang  
  when the passenger front tire blew.  The worst of it 
  was when the lugnuts would not move.  So Josh and 
  Looey started to walk to the exit.  They only got a few 
  feet when help arrived.  Looey rode off to find the 
  tools to get the lugnuts off.   A half hour later he returned
  with no help but it did arrive shortly.  The service man
  couldn't budge the nuts either.  The car was towed in, 
  the nuts removed, and finally (after another stop) a new
  tire put on.  By now it was six  and a half hours from when 
  we left home and we were still in Michigan.

  Next problem: Chicago at rush hour.  
Even though it was Saturday, 
the traffic was horrible.  This 
was not in my trip plans! We were 
suppose to be going through Chicago 
at noon when traffic was light.  To 
add to the misery the tempature was 99.  
The air conditioner quit long ago on 
our car.  I was as wet as when I step 
out of the shower!

The evening brought relief from the heat.  
As we traveled north into the cooler climate.  
The stop outside Madison for dinner, 
even though it was 9PM helped cool our tempraments too.

Minnesota by night was uneventful.  
Unless you call scaring Josh by 
taking a different route from 
what he had been told.  
The instructions had been to 
"just stay on 94" so when Looey 
took the bypass around Minneapolis 
Josh went into panic mode.  
Dad was going the wrong way. 
Of coarse, Looey knew what he 
was doing, having lived there. 

Sunday morning dawn over Fargo for us.  The task at
hand was finding breakfast.  Valley City fast foods do
not open until 8, so we found out.  I guess no one in
Valley City goes out for breakfast before church.  By the 
time we reached Dickenson it didn't matter it was after
8 and breakfast was served.  In Bismarck we called Zach
to tell him it would be dinner time not breakfast time 
before we arrived at his place.  Thanks to a certain tire 
and traffic in Chicago.

Mid morning we made our usual 
stop at the Painted Canyon rest area 
north of Medora.

It was time to really wake up.  
We may have had breakfast in Dickson 
but I went back to sleep having driven the dawn shift.

 Hey Josh, 
they put that stone fence 
around for a reason.
He decided he needed a closer 
view for his pictures.

Sunday afternoon we finally reach Montana. Our visit there 
was good, though brief. We met, Holly, the mother of our 
next grandchild (due in February).  After see parts of the 
Pryor Mountains we had not seen while living here trying to 
find her parents place.  Oh well, we acquired a book of 
Montana topo maps that was useful in the next leg of our trip.

These are the Bull mountains
 where our place is located.
And yes that is smoke!
There was big forest fire just east of
our house.  Fortunately the winds were
from the west.

 The moon over our 
mountain put on a
show for us.

This was taken a few minutes later 
when the moon had moved behind the clouds.