Like Amy's previous post says, it seems that Bozeman is the place to be for the Bobcats this summer (kinda funny because MSU's mascot is also the Bobcat). It's great being able to come home to familiar faces, even when I'm not at Bates.
Maddy and I arrived in Bozeman on June 4th after a six-day road trip across the country. We made it out here pretty smoothly to our surprise. My car (her name is Annie and she's awesome) only needed one pit stop to get looked at and she killed it for 2,692 miles.
After packing Annie and scrambling to say goodbye to as many people as we could, we were on our way to Vermont on Friday afternoon. We spent the night with Maddy's family and picked up the statue (long story, but essentially this is one of the reasons we drove out). We were lucky enough to see Halie in Brattlboro for an hour or so. It's weird going from seeing someone everyday to not seeing them for six weeks...we needed our Halie time!
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| and we're off! |
We left around 6 AM on Saturday morning and spent some quality time on I-90W as we made our way to Ohio. Before leaving for the roadtrip, my mom told us to stop in random towns, find a diner, and have a meal– it's the best way to experience the people and culture of that town. So, that's what we did: The Scotia Diner in Scotia, New York was diner stop #1. If you ever find yourself there, I highly recommend the blackberry pancakes. We got to Ohio around 5 or 6 PM and had a family dinner with Maddy's grandparents, aunt, and cousin. We spent two days in Ohio and were totally pampered– pedicures and all. We realized this isn't the typical cross country drive that most people think of, but it was nice to have a day off from driving and for Maddy to see her family.
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| the second geotag of the trip |
We left Cleveland on Monday afternoon and arrived in Chicago on Monday night. Maddy was the real MVP that day because she drove five-lane Chicago traffic in a stick with TWO bikes on the back and didn't stall once. She also remained really, really calm– I think she was surprised by that :)
Chicago was a blast! We stayed with our good friend, Kylie, also a Batesie, for two nights. On Tuesday, we went out to lunch with her mom and sister for her sister's birthday, ate way too much food and then walked around Chicago for a couple hours to get rid of the food baby in preparation for her sister's birthday dinner. We met up with another friend from Bates who lives outside of Chicago, as well, so Maddy and I got private tours of the city.
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| being tourists at The Bean |
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| beautiful Chicago! |
Wednesday was our longest day– we were driving from Chicago to the Badlands in South Dakota. We left at 5 AM and arrived at 7:30 PM. Many rounds of Madlibs were played, as well as every genre of music you could think of: from Taylor Swift to middle school dances to country, rap, and even some classical. We had diner stop #2 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota where we had a late lunch. I have a friend from high school who is working in the Badlands this summer, so we spent the night in the park. The plan was to get up and go for a road bike around the Badlands, but we quickly realized that wasn't going to happen when we woke up to heavy wind, rain, thunder, and lightning. Instead, we drove through the Badlands, took lots of touristy photos, and were back on the road to do touristy stop #2 of the day: Rushmore!
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| The Badlands |
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| Happy to be here! |
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| touristy pictures with some cool guys |
After Rushmore, we jammed to some burned CD's courtesy of a friend and Maddy's cousin. I drove the last leg into Bozeman and I'm pretty sure my jaw was dropped for a solid hour– I couldn't get over the mountains! I'm now understanding why it's called Big Sky country :)
So, 2692 miles later, we made it! Maddy's settling in at home and I'm settling into my apartment that Amy, Olivia (Colby skier), Sarah (Williams skier), and I are sharing for the summer. Keep checking to see what adventures we get ourselves into!
-Sadie
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