Day 3:(Butte, MT to Custer, SD). Only saw three states today — Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota, almost all of which was spent blasting along I-90. The last and most interesting portion of the journey took place on Hwy 16 just after Gillette; I eventually stopped in a Super 8 motel in a town called Custer, SD, a few miles shy of Mount Rushmore, which I’ll check out tomorrow morning.
Today was another largely problem-free day for the Deathmobile too, although I gave myself a scare setting off from Butte this morning, when the battery appeared to be dead… The battery was fine, I’d simply left the car in gear (to get better access to a tape that was jammed in the stereo), and the neutral safety switch had disabled the ignition. Luckily I figured it out before calling AAA! On a more worrying note, there seems to be some rear-end noise again — this would be particularly frustrating, as the entire rear end was re-built TWICE in the last couple of weeks…
I decided to quit driving relatively early tonight, both so I could see Mt Rushmore & the Badlands tomorrow, and because I was pretty tired from the previous day’s driving. This evening I ate Buffalo steak in The Captain’s Table, then had a couple of Budweisers (it was either that, Bud Light or Coors) and a gamble in the Gold Pan Saloon. It was fun, but this town is a bit too “Twin Peaks” for my liking…