Saturday August 23, 2025
Long drive from Billings, MT to Green Bay, WI. Not including stops it’s a 15 hour drive. We left Billings at 10pm Thursday with goal of driving about 200 miles. It was 12:45pm when we parked at a Fish & Wildlife fishing access site on the Yellowstone River outside of Fallon MT. Beautiful summer night and clear dark sky night with millions of stars and the Milky Way. Most importantly it was quiet… not far from the interstate but enough so there wasn’t a lot of road noise. Needless to say in eastern Montana we were all alone.
Day 2 driving was going to be a 13-14 hour day. Woke up really early and pulled away at 5:30 am headed to Stanley, WI for the night. 4 states in 14 hours. Glendive and Makoshika Badlands, Medora, ND with badlands and grasslands of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, neat and tidy farms with sunflowers and trees in wind rows around the houses, then Fargo ND, Minnesota and lots of trees and little lakes. Minneapolis/St Paul finally Wisconsin with the quintessential red barns, silos, corn fields and cows. Beautiful drive every hour. We camped at a city park in Stanley. It was a small town. The park was a quiet simple grassy place on a small lake with dry camping (no water or electric).
Day 3 of the drive to Green Bay. We started early again. On the road at 6:30am for a 3 hour final drive to stay with friends Erin and Ryan in Suamico… a cute little bedroom town north of Green Bay with the lazy Suamico River and a small lake.
Such a pretty location!
Green Bay Packers Football Game Today was a big day… my first NFL game and visit to Lambeau Field! Erin and Ryan are BIG Packer fans (understatement) with lots of local connections. They are part owners of a skybox so we were really introduced to top tier Packer experience. We started with their tailgate party. Arrived 3 hours before game time. They have their tailgate routine down pat. Bacon, brats and beer…and a shot ski tradition. They fly a Packer flag and a Montana flag… symbolizing Ryan’s Montana roots and Erin’s several years living in Montana.
Erin took us on a walking tour around Lambeau Stadium and the Titletown area. This big stadium is parked in the middle of a typical Wisconsin neighborhood of little houses and quiet streets. Most of the little houses directly across from the stadium have added rooftop tailgates to their properties! It’s really ingenious and they are still cute little neighborhood houses. Adds to the fact that the Green Bay packers are owned publicly by the people! It’s worth a trip to come visit Lambeau any time of year. It’s special.
Since it was a preseason game there wasn’t as much tailgate traffic or preparty going on around the stadium so it was easy to walk around and see everything. When it was game time we headed into the stadium to their 5th level skybox. Wow! Oh wow! Besides the four of us and their friend Mike there were about 6-8 other people in the skybox. I think it seated maybe 16 people.
We had many food choices to enjoy during the game, drinks, popcorn and a dessert cart. Something for everyone! The sky box windows open up so you could hear the crowd and feel the air. We had a nice partly sunny day, not too hot, but windy.
Green Bay was playing the Seattle Seahawks. Preseason means the starters aren’t playing. They play their rookies and second, third string guys.., so no one takes it very seriously but the stadium was nearly full. Green Bay won 20-7. We had fun being introduced to the whole Packer atmosphere! Erin and Ryan were such great hosts!
We had one more day of putting the fenders and front wheel on the bike. Erin and Ryan gave us a tour of downtown Green Bay, back to the stadium to the Packer shop and Hall of Fame. Then we hit a brewery and tour through the little village of Saumico.
Tomorrow we start our ride to Peshtigo, WI! We are just a few blocks from the Lake Michigan Route. Off.we.go!!
cinnicrew 