Day 3: The Long, Unpaved Road

Spirits were high as we looked forward to a mere three-and-a-half hours of driving today, thanks to the long push yesterday. Well… we were also served a great reminder to pause and actually look at the route for the day to make sure we clearly understand what we are getting into. There was a route that was 20 minutes longer south of our path, but we thought direct was the best as usual. Enter the first sign that said construction for the next 19 miles. We quickly learned the notes in our trip planner about unpaved roads were not a mistake.

The major road work made the trip take four-and-a-half hours to get to our final destination of Circle, MT. We did arrive at 3 p.m. to a campsite with full hookups leaving us lots of time to finally relax and take long showers. Rob went for a run, and then we all explored the half-mile long, 540-person town. There wasn’t much to see, but we did get an up-close view of farm equipment for sale along the road.

We ended the day with a dinner of reheated steak and cheesy pasta, kids playing whiffle ball, Kelly doing laundry ($4.75 to wash x2 and $2.50 to dry x1) and Rob working. Nicholas pulled out a loose tooth today, and despite packing SO MUCH stuff, the Tooth Fairy wasn’t anticipating a visit, so the traditional $1 coin will have to wait until we return.

Some stats so far: We are in our 3rd state and have driven 939 miles over 19 hours (Rob is leading with 80 more miles, but Kelly has driven 2+ more hours, drawing all the slowest legs).