First, special thanks to Craig from Bozeman, one of our readers. He was kind enough to treat us to dinner. It helped break up an otherwise long trek that started this morning in Wallace, Idaho and ended in Glendive, Montana at about midnight, a total of 678 miles.

Craig, keep in touch. We want to know how your Protege project is coming along.

On to the day itself: We drove the entire state of Montana today and learned a few things. The U-haul will do 75mph under its own power, but it will coast to 81 down a steep incline. And I-90 in Montana has a series of steep inclines that wind down mountain passes between Missoula and Butte and Butte and Bozeman, which gave us plenty of opportunities to exceed the speed limiter.

We also learned that Montana has a 26-year old annual tradition called the Testicle Festival and that before you reach Glendive you must pass Bad Route Road and Whoopup Creek Drive.

Some of the rock formations around Butte and Bozeman are beautiful and impressive. But what really stood out to us today was the sheer size. Being from Boston, it’s hard to grasp the idea of a state so large that you can barely drive across in a day. If you drive 200 miles in any direction from Boston, you’re in a new state (or the Atlantic). It was a little different today.

We anticipate being in Minneapolis by tomorrow night, which puts us on schedule to arrive in Boston late Friday.