The Northwest: Washington, Idaho, Montana

2026 September 7-9

The idea to drive east along the entire length of Interstate 90 from Washington to Massachusetts occurred to me a few months ago. I’d always wondered where the road goes east of Spokane. When I realized how many old friends lived in the cities along the way, an itinerary slowly took shape. We would leave I-90 for a bit after Billings, MT to join Interstate 94 along the Yellowstone River heading north to Minneapolis, before rejoining the I-90 in Chicago en route to its terminus in Boston. There would be side trips and detours. On the westward return journey, we will take Interstate 80, for the sole purpose of seeing the largest truckstop in Iowa. Over 6591 miles, plenty of new things to see and do.

The time is 7am. Mountain time zone of North America. The rising sun is directly in front of us, piercing in a cloudless sky. Miles of asphalt and lines of telephone poles stretch into the distance. Ever since we left Interstate 90 to continue onto Interstate 94 outside of Billings, Montana, the land has been gradually flattening out. The mountains are behind us. It is day three of our cross-country road trip, and we are still in Montana. I have a visceral understanding of why they call this land the Big Sky. It does seem like the sky has more room for everything.

Yesterday we heard hours of podcasts about Montana’s history, geology, and current economic struggles. There was a neat episode about Chinese immigrants in Butte, Missoula, and Bozeman working as miners and laundromat owners and railroad workers in the late 19th century. There were episodes about the Salish, Kootenai, Pend d'Oreille Indians, and the treaty of 1855 that sets the context for the housing crisis of the 2020s. The theme of the last 300 years is a relentless cycle of boom, bust, and successive of waves of people coming to seek their fortunes in a land that is simultaeously huge yet never seems to have enough. There is a human metaphor somewhere in that story.