one good, one bad/creepy

Every new place has some good things and some bad things about it so here's our initial evaluation of Dillon....

Wells Fargo=good thing

I have used Wells Fargo ever since I moved to Pocatello and love it. When we moved to Michigan they didn't have Wells Fargo but, thanks to the internet, we were able to still use it for the most part. It became annoying when someone would have to write us a check for something and we had no way to deposit it but we made it happen (we're fighters like that). Now, we're in Dillon and Wells Fargo is the only big chain bank that's here and I feel like it's a little gift for putting up with Michigan.

Now for the bad/creepy...

Weird, creepy meth stuff painted on the side of run down buildings=creepy thing

In case you can't see, the sign on the left says "these ruby slippers won't get you home after a hit like this" and the other says "meth will get you my pretty..." Creepy, right?! Now, most of Dillon is really nice and this is definitely out of place but Mikel and I have been hoping to hit a red light on the street in front of these buildings since we've got here so we could share... weird.

the new place

So we finally took some pictures of the inside.

This is the kitchen...

 The flowers were given to me by a couple players. We played a little game where they drove around town asking questions and trying to find our house. I may have answered a couple questions wrong (I'm new here!) but it was good to see them!

 Living room. Obviously a couple boxes still need to be upacked and we have to figure out what to do with the stupid brick that sticks out into the middle of the room....

 Bathroom...

 Guest room....

 Office...

 Our bedroom. All the rooms have these big closets...

 Coat closet...

 The other end of the hall with all three bedrooms (one straight ahead and two to the right) and the bathroom on the left...

It's nice to have our own space and a little garage!

our new house

We're getting settled in to the new place and are glad to finally be in a house again! No midnight basketball or P90X on our ceiling at absurd hours.

This is the outside...

 It's not a huge yard but there are horseshoe pits in the back!

 We'll finally get some good pictures of the inside once we get the last few boxes put away.

There's still no tv yet at our place so we went to a local bar in town to watch the basketball game last night. It has a bunch of cool mounts and is run by one of the big boosters in town. It's a pretty cool place...

 EVERYTHING in Montana seems to have at least a couple slot machines in it too...

Inside pictures coming soon!

hello elevation

Apparently we killed a lot of bugs with the windshield so we couldn't get a clear picture but this is the welcome to Montana sign. We were so excited to see it (not only because we were moving to Montana but also because the end of driving was near)!

These are some mountains along the drive. We have definitely missed these!

Devils Tower

After Mount Rushmore we headed to Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming. We had to decide between Crazy Horse and Devils Tower and since Mikel had already seen Crazy Horse, we chose Devils Tower...

 It seems so random and out of place but it was massive and beautiful...

Another good stop.

the view from our driveway

Looks like a storm is coming!

Mount Rushmore

After Wall, SD we continued on to Mount Rushmore. I had never been and was so excited!

So cool!

We are finally getting settled in at our new place and I am currently stealing borrowing internet from some unknown neighbors! Thanks friendly Montana people!

Wall Drug Store

 On Wednesday, we stopped at Wall Drug Store in Wall, SD. It because famous apparently because, when they were having a difficult time getting people to stop, they started offering free ice water to travelers. It has evolved into a huge tourist attraction that has just about every trinket you could think of as well as a bunch of other random stuff.

Like this barrel with a saddle on it..

My buddy...

 These are all the little stores within Wall Drugs...

 A chapel...

 A jackalope...

So random but so fun!

goodbye humidity

Apparently all I have to do is give up on getting the pictures to work and then, all the sudden, magic happens.

The second day of our trip started with crossing the Mississippi River. It was huge and beautiful!

 Welcome to Minnesota! Unfortunately, central and western Minnesota was not much to look out. A lot of flat and a lot of farms....

Our next stop was the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD. We had no idea what to expect but it was something to see and admission was free. It made for a good excuse to get out of the truck!

It is an entire building decorated in corn. They change the design every year and have been doing it for over 100 years; they even have a committee that entertains suggestions if you have any sweet ideas. The inside has pictures of all the previous years and even part of the inside is covered in corn.

The actual facility apparently houses everything from Dakota Wesleyan's basketball games to concerts and school proms. Probably one of the most unique venues I've ever seen!

 After that, we crossed the Missouri River...

 Luckily, we didn't see any...

 From there we continued onto Murdo, SD and there happened to be a museum right by our hotel so we checked it out. Can we say creepy?? It was called the Pioneer Auto Show but it had a little bit, scratch that, a lot of everything. The whole thing was like 40 buildings all filled with different things. They had cars, a whole gemstone and rock collection, tons of collectibles, and some old buildings that use to stand in Murdo. I'm sure if we would have let him, the guy who worked out of the museum would have followed us around and told us about every single thing we looked at.

It was late when we got there so we made a quick trip of it but it was an amazing collection or set of collections...

This car was outside the museum...

 The General Lee (the only one that wasn't crashed)...

 A car made entirely of wood....

 One of the rooms of stuff..

 Couldn't pass up the opportunity...

 Elvis' motorcycle...

 This picture doesn't do justice that was the creepiness of this room but trust us, it was creepy...

 The rooms/buildings were all over this property, most of the stuff was barely even protected from the elements...

 An old service station...

 The dentist room...

 Complete with sets of teeth...

 Then we went to The Diner (that was the name) that was attached to the museum and gift shop. The guy in a shirt and tie was clearly out of place and someone even commented and asked where he was from and what he was doing in town.

Murdo was definitely an experience and, although I don't need to go back, I'm glad we went!