It’s raining when we wake up. It lightens up while we break camp, but it seems like we’re in for a wet day.

We decide to try to find breakfast in Casper. We drive in a big spiral through neighborhoods and construction detours before we find downtown. Then we wander around on foot amidst the few highrise buildings until we settle on a place called Eggington’s. It looks like a chain, albeit classy one, even though I’ve never seen one before. They have cappucino and green chile and portions as big as my appetite can handle, which is more than I expected to find with our random methods. We leave Casper ready for the road.

It rains hard. Even with new tires, the car hydroplanes a little. After a while it eases up, and we explore some towns.

Sheridan, Wyoming has a genuine-looking old main street, and a Dairy Queen with $2.59 banana splits and no bathroom. We drive through some neighborhoods to get back to the freeway. It looks like a decent place to live.

Billings, Montana is surrounded by oil refineries. We drive through a downtown with a few highrises like Casper and onto the strip, where we do seemingly endless errands. We spend all afternoon there.

Finally White Sulpher Springs, Montana smells like it sounds and has a nice public picnic area where we make grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner. A short drive north and we’re in Lewis & Clark National Forest, where we are once again free to camp with the cattle.