Day 5: Bar Harbor, ME + Acadia NP

We woke up soooooooooo early and drove to a ranger station in the pitch black darkness with Bigfoot and his friends to buy an Acadia NP pass from the automated machine. We then headed up to see the sunrise at Cadillac Mountain. We had to get a reserved spot online in order to see the sunrise but we were so glad we got to see it since it was our actual anniversary. The sunrise was pretty!

We had breakfast at Cafe This Way and we knew the vibes were going to be on point when they were playing Fleetwood Mac. Yeehaw! We went on a hike and saw the clashing water along the rocks at Thunder Hole. We walked the Jordan Pond trail and enjoyed popovers and tea at Jordan Pond House. True story: I did fall on some slippery rocks and that was kind of funny.

Regardless, it was a fantastic day and for dinner we went to the Thirsty Whale Tavern and had burgers & beers. We hit up CJ's Big Dipper for blueberry ice cream and walked back to the Inn and relaxed after a long day.

Day One: Des Moines, Iowa - Wall, SD

We started our journey just after 10am with our final destination being Wall, SD. While getting gas at Sinclair – I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take a pic with the dino statue then CATWMAN was scootin’ along through South Dakoter. We stopped at the 50ft Dignity statue and were blown away by its beauty and size. In my opinion it was cooler than Mt. Rushmore. We made it to Wall, SD and checked in to our hotel. We stopped by the wacky Wall Drug area with a little under an hour to take it in (truth be told, we had visited Wall Drug on a previous road trip). We decided to eat at the Badlands Bar where we tried some local beers and shared a bacon mac & cheese, fried pickle fries, and a side salad. The waitress was bustin’ a move – and that’s one thing I’ll say ….every front desk person, waitress, staff member of wherever we went was hustling. The front desk lady at the hotel was there checking us in in the evening and she was there in the morning to get us our grab-and-go breakfast bags out of the fridge. Shout out to these fine people and tip them well if you find yourself traveling and able to do so.

Day 2: Wall, South Dakota – Billings, Montana

We left South Dakota and drove 80mph into Montana. After checking into the hotel we explored downtown Billings. They have so many casinos in Montana it’s absolutely nerts. There are strip mall casinos everywhere you turn. In the Midwest we have just as many bars as we do churches but in Montana it’s like twice as many casinos as churches. Billings is charming and cute, honestly. I love it there. It’s a nice walkable city with plenty to do and see. We stopped at a brew pub called Uberbrew for dinner. We both got local beers and split a giant pretzel, side salad, and mac and cheese. The waitress told us that breweries in Montana have to serve their last drop of beer no later than 8pm. Now I knew why all of the restaurants closed by 9pm. After walking around some more and using the tiny downtown casino bathroom – we headed back to our hotel for the night.