I live in the Seattle area and my eldest daughter went to Indiana University - Bloomington for her undergrad degree in Music Performance. (If you have a musician and they want to study music and you've looked at the conservatories and nearly fainted at the price -- IU - Bloomington has one of the best Music Schools in the country. I had to pay out-of-state tuition, but it was still a lot less than the conservatories.)
Anyway, driving my daughter from Washington State to Indiana, I took I-90 and that takes you through North Dakota. I remember coming back on a Sunday and I went for more than an hour on one stretch of road without seeing any sign of humanity. It was a little eerie.
My daughter drove from Seattle, WA to Wilmington, NC two years ago. It took her three days longer than she expected it to! Montana and the Dakotas and all that? REALLY BIG.