Food, Fitness, & Fun in All 50 States

During Skyler’s last couple of day’s of work in Seattle, I was at home packing up our apartment for the long haul back to MO. It was absolutely ridiculous how much crap we had accumulated over the past year and how NOT in the mood I was for packing it all up. That being said, it was one of our worst packing jobs ever! We were both exhausted and dreading the 2,000+ mile drive all while being super anxious to be home and see friends and family for the first time in over a year. All of that combined to be one big mess (and a few broken items). We did however finally get everything loaded up in the U-Haul late the night before we were scheduled to leave and let me tell you…it was one full load! The Jeep and the trailer were both filled to the brink! It was a definite sign that it was time to downsize (I will write more about this topic later). But, we were up and at it early the morning of August 11th ready to hit the road and bid farewell to Washington.

Our road trip from Seattle to home in Missouri was pretty intense! It was 3 of the most exhausting day’s ever, but oh so fun! Rather than taking the most direct path home, we decided to do a little bit of sight-seeing on our way through Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Iowa, and finally Missouri. Our first day was about 13.5 hours worth of driving from our apartment in WA to our motel in MT. To be honest, the first day wasn’t too exciting, just a lot of driving.

As always, we sucked at getting our pictures at the state lines. WA is the worst state for this! We tried to get our pictures a few different times while we lived there and again as we were leaving. But their signs are always super tiny and like on a bridge or at an exit where there is nowhere to pull over safely. So, sadly we don’t have a picture of the WA state sign with us in it. But we did get the other two that day…

Something that made the endless hours in the car not quite so bad were the gorgeous views!

By the time we finally got to our motel in Hardin, MT we just wanted to shower and go to sleep! It was 11:30 at night and we were ready to call it a day. We stayed at the Western Motel there in Hardin and to be honest, it was pretty nice for a motel. It was only $75 for the night, and was certainly quite old. But considering we were in the middle of nowhere, I would say it was the best of all our options. And the owners were super nice! The front desk closes at 11, but they stayed up late until we got there and gave us pointers on what to see and do in the area. They were extremely welcoming and accommodating. And the room came with a mini fridge which was great for keeping the stuff that was in our cooler cold overnight. All-in-all, it was a great place to stay to get the location we needed as long as you know in advance that it isn’t some new modern hotel property. It is what it is, a clean place to shower and sleep for the night.

That pretty much sums up the first long leg of our trip back home. The next day was a fun filled day of major sight seeing…