Day 01 – Well today is the day! I’m up an hour early at 04:30 in anticipation of leaving. The Suburban is way overloaded, it was good until mom came home from her other trip and decided that we needed way more stuff (same old show, act 2). I’m hoping that her spirits improve today once we are underway. It’s a long way to Sandy, UT, some 9.5 hours and we’ll need to stay in good humor the whole way. Maybe tonight in the hotel, I can add any bit of news, praying for an easy, safe trip!
Arrival into Sandy, UT ~ I am happy to say that we have safely arrived in Sandy, just a bit south of Salt 
Lake City. My mom has incredible luck, she had been followed and “flashed” (warned with lights) of multiple state troopers due to her lead foot. We were even scanned by a helicopter patrol and still managed to make off like bandits. We made incredible time, despite construction ~ only 9 hours for some 700 miles! That would make a trucker proud! Mom actually did great!!! Chloé, Chantel’s dog, made mom laugh for some 8 miles straight, laughter truly is the best medicine.
Tomorrow we are off to Butte, Montana, thank goodness it’s only about 6.5 hours. I expect to be able to update and fill in some blanks tomorrow night. Cheers from the Beehive State!
Day 02 – So today was the trek from just south of Salt Lake City to Butte, Montana. No mom and Chantel, those are not Baptist church steeples, though they do resemble them. I learned today that the LDS Church has a strong presence even into southern Idaho. LOTS OF HILLS and a pretty steep grade up in altitude. This evening in Butte, MT, which was far from certain as a destination due to all the wildfires that have been 
taking place recently (tons of smoke, you would’ve thought it was L.A. in the early 80’s!) Mom was fairly concerned about the smoke and brume due to her asthma and perceived danger if the fires “decided” to move our way. Butte is a quaint little town that only exists for strip-mining. Chantel and I watched most of the NFL season opener between the Dallas Cowboys and the NY Giants. The bar at our hotel was decidedly Giants territory. Speaking for myself the majority of people were from out-of-state (to be expected in a hotel, but a heavy proportion were from Los Angeles), despite in back-end U.S., there were a couple of cuties which caught my eye (who knew any “family” was out here in the Old West). Tomorrow we make our way to Whitefish, MT to a dude-ranch called the Bar W. We have a rodeo to attend tomorrow evening, might have to skip a post due to the lateness of the hour. Maybe I’ll make a few friends with some friendly cowboys and have someone to invite to Chicago or maybe visit out in the lost state of Montana. Thank goodness United Express flies to Kalispell and Missoula! {wink}
Pics of the The Continental Divide
Due to the length of the next coming entries, I’m going to have to move them to their own pages, click on the ones which interest you. They are in chronological order.
skyboyintl 
Sounds like you all are having some fun. Lots of traveling though. Enjoy!