The Great Plains

took the "Hi-line" yesterday (Highway 2, along the northern border of Montana) which is pretty crazy. there are towns along this highway that we thought only existed in movies. many parts of this area are very economically depressed - i've never seen so many boarded up, crumbled houses and businesses. but much of the landscape is very beautiful too, in its own way...

anyway, started off the day at this breakfast place where i had eggs, hash browns, and breaded "pork side". i asked the guy what "pork side" was and he said, basically, it's pork. i'm always up for something new so i figured i'd give it a try. i had no idea it would be 5 gigantic pieces of pork. jesus christ. they don't mess around on the Hi-line



some of the boarded up bars (although i think the 2nd one is actually still in business - despite the boards)





some cool stuff we saw along the way:



this is some shack that's just sitting there about to fall over (it's not designed like that)..



i walked up to it to take some more pictures and saw this headless skeleton next to it. it was pretty creepy..



some other random stuff along the way









apparently there's a big meth problem in this part of the country. we saw tons of signs like these..







in all fairness, if i had to live here... (nevermind)


in one town we noticed this guy had an interesting dashboard decoration.





one couldn't help but wonder if that was the head from the headless skeleton by the fucked up shack. one also couldn't help but wonder whether the person who decided to put this skull on their dashboard was under the influence of methamphetamines.

the great plains are full of mystey.


now we're on our way to North Dakota to visit my family (my mom and dad recently built a cabin there to spend summers in) .. we're both looking forward to it. i'm hoping to do some fishing and my sister and nephews will be there too so that will be fun. and seeing my family there is always a hoot.

there's some debate right now about whether to go to South Dakota and see the president's heads or not. kiki really wants to go but i'm kind of more like, "heads shmeds". we'll keep you posted...