We left the Badlands and rushed to Mount Rushmore. Now I was getting a bit worried about time - the ferry only leaves Bellingham WA once per week, every Friday, so if you miss it you're screwed. And I had lots of important work meetings scheduled in Ketchikan. The plan was to get on the Ferry and get off in Ketch for a couple days - do my meetings, and then get back on the Ferry to Juneau.
Mount Rushmore was pretty cool - in the middle of nowhere and there were a million tourists there. I think Sadie took more pics of the vending machine. We didn't spend very long there -except for the detour to get there and back to the highway seemed to take forever, but we did get to drive through the Black Hills National Forest and see "the largest" in-progress carving/blasting of a mountain for a memorial to Crazy Horse. Lots of Sioux heritage all around this area - especially around the town of Custer and there were museums and historical sites - we tried the Indian Museum of North America but they were locking the doors just as we got there.
A short drive through Wyoming, but got to pass through Gillette, which has lots of nice memories. My friend Jim worked for the Burlington Northern RR there and I spent some good times there with him and his weird roomie - who I remember was born not being able to smell.
Then on through northern Idaho, which was maybe an hour drive and high fives as we passed through Lookout Pass into Washington! 
Yippee! We made it to Washington on Thursday!
There aren't many places west of the Mississippi that I get bored driving through - I never get tired of seeing desert landscapes, but western Washington was really really the pits. It was flat, you could see forever and there was nothing... nothing. Now the drive was starting to get to us - and I absolutely hated listening to Sade's music, so for the first time on the trip - she put on the head phones and I tried listening to my "Iliad on CD". I had always wanted to read the Iliad, but the CD was as boring as could be - I found myself deep in thought about stuff and realized 1/2 hr of the Iliad had gone by and I didnt hear a word he said. So that didn't work.
Miles and miles and it was still so flat and barren - no birds, no roadkill, no trees, no rocks, that I told Sade to throw our ketchup-smeared garbage out the window. It seemed like it would only contribute to the microhabitat and biomass so we went nuts and threw all our organic garbage out the window! It was fun and we felt like Hansel & Gretel leaving a trail. 
I kept promising Sade that the scenery would change and sure enough as it was getting dark, the flat landscape starting changing (and I am sure we saw Mt St Helens in the far distance) we crossed the Columbia River, which was beautiful, and slept over night in Ellenburg, right next to Olmstead State Park. :)
Then early into the a.m. we drove straight through to Seattle and a bit of culture shock with the big city and traffic jams. 5 North from Seattle to Bellingham - another high 5 cuz we had plenty o time to make it to Bellingham.
But - it was Friday before July 4th weekend and the traffic going north on 5 was horrendous!! 4 lanes stop and go traffic for hours. I started to panic. We made a frantic stop at a Walmart to pick up some supplies for the Ferry ride and I think half of Washington was at the same Walmart. It was actually worse than the Monticello Mallwart which is pretty bad. At the checkout line, the cashier couldnt get the security cable off Sade's "Desperate Housewives" season set of DVDs and the mile-long line behind us was getting freaked out and I kept saying "Sade, do you really need this??" And she said "That's all I wanted", and the two funny guys in line behind us kept saying "She must be desperate! Ha Ha" and finally, just after the guy suggested going and getting cable cutters from aisle #456 1/2 mile away, it was tossed aside and we left the store in shit stressed mood. But! we made it to Bellingham just in time to get in the vehicle line at the required 3:00 for a 6:00 p.m. departure! We made it!!!!
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