North to Alaska - Week One

We departed Atlanta on Tuesday, May 27th and made a fast, 3 day trip to Jamestown, North Dakota. At Mile 7 of a 1700 mile trip, we made our first wrong turn. We recovered nicely and we were on our way!

We originally planned on a short (250 mile) trip for the first day with a over-night stop in Paducah, Kentucky. Aside from liking the name a lot, there's a really cool song about the town:

From 1943 Busby Berkeley Technicolor Musical, "The Gang's All Here" starring Benny Goodman & Carmen Miranda: 

We felt pretty good by the time we reached Paducah so decided to keep going. We ended up in Benton, Illinois for the night.

TRIVIA: Benton, Illinois claims to be the first city with a Beatle in it. George Harrison visited his sister there 4 months before the rest of the fab four stepped foot in the USA.

Things were going really well and we were averaging over 400 miles a day. When we reached St Louis, we turned west and continued to Kansas City before heading North.

TRIVIA: The part of Hwy 70 we traveled from St Louis to Kansas City is a section of the FIRST interstate constructed as part of Eisenhower's Interstate system. 

We spent two nights in Jamestown, ND, visiting Charles' cousins. It was great to see Erika again and we had a great time.

Our next stop on our westward route toward Glacier National Park in Montana was Makoshika State Park. This is a wonderful park full of Dinosaur bones and other fossils from the Cretaceous period (end of the age of the dinosaurs). Lots of great dinosaurs have been found in the park and the landscape is "other-worldly"!

We we're in Makoshika for two nights then continued West. We spent the night in the Walmart parking lot in Havre, Montana (free RV parking for Walmart customers and a great place to stock up on supplies). Friday morning we made the last 200 mile hop to Glacier Park.

Tonight we're sitting in a KOA park just outside Glacier National Park. We're here for the power, water, and free WIFI before heading into the park for a prettier parking space but NO services at all.

We'll be in scenic Glacier park for 5 days, enjoying the great outdoors with no cell service, wifi, or electricity. We'll check in with great stories and amazing photos no later than Friday, June 13th.
Stay tuned!

More pictures here on FLICKR: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nothinglikeit/sets/72157644644691689/