Grand Forks, ND to Billings, MT

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THE BASICS
On August 7, we headed west again on US 2 and decided to take a "tour detour" in a loop over Devils Lake to Fort Lincoln. We continued, stopped briefly in Rugby, then spent the night at a pleasant town park in Towner, with electric hookup only.

Next day, we traveled through the oil boom countryside, heading toward the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. That night, we again camped at a town park, in Grassy Butte, with electric only.

Next morning, we drove (car only) the 14 mile scenic drive (and back) in the North Unit of the T.R.N.P. through gorgeous badlands and grassy plains. We rehooked to the RV and proceeded to Medora, about 50 miles south, where you enter the South Unit of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Showers felt sooooo good when we hooked up at an ordinary RV campground. That night, we did two of Medora's touristy things: ate at a "Pitchfork Fondue Barbecue" and enjoyed the "Medora Musical" in an outdoor amphitheater.

On August 10, we drove the 36 mile scenic loop through the South Unit, seeing buffalo and more buffalo, but most delightfully, several "prairie dog towns" where their "cheeping" was so cute. We tried to buy a few fresh groceries for supper but discovered that there are few groceries in Medora; you are supposed to eat out! In the evening, we enjoyed some country music at the campground.

August 11, John's birthday, was predicted to reach the high 90's, and since the air conditioner in the truck cab does not work, we drove about 150 miles in the morning and were hooked up by noon at a nice KOA in Miles City, Montana, with the air conditioners in the RV doing yeoman duty. We bought way too many groceries and had a nice little birthday supper.

The next morning, we took a chance by taking our ailing air conditioner problem to a local Ford dealer in Miles City and they fixed it by adding freon. (others had said it would be a costly repair, and here it was the easiest one possible) We proceeded to Billings, the largest city in Montana, a whopping 90,000, which seems small to an easterner, but this is a vibrant town, for sure. We wandered around downtown and went to a jam-packed music event on a closed-off street.

Friday the 13th was a bit shocking because it was cloudy and rainy most of the day, and cool as well. We drove the local "scenic drive" which included some dramatic views from the buttes above the city. Later we toured a very elegant house in Billings and went to the Art Museum. It is busy here these days, culturally. Wednesday there was a concert with John Cougar Mellenkamp and Bob Dylan, Thursday night the street music, and tonight a Blues Festival as well as the opening of the Montana State Fair. Plenty happens out here!

THE FLUFF
North Dakota is beautiful! The wide, wide flat plains in the eastern end are graceful and almost meditative. There are frequent "prairie potholes", caused by the glaciers, small ponds in the middle of fields. Apparently, they tried draining them some years back, but since half of the ducks in North America visit them each year, they have been allowed to revert. The "badlands" in the west are only bad because the soil is rockier and farming is not possible. There are plenty of black angus cattle out there.

A neat phenomenon is that you can be riding along surrounded by plains, then suddenly you come over a hill and there are only grass-less valleys and colorful rocky hills. Then you might find yourself on top of a butte with only grass stretching in all directions.

As we drove over Devils Lake, we were surprised that the lake was nearly as high as the road. Well, it turns out that the lake has been mysteriously rising for many years - five feet in the last two years and 41 feet in the last few decades. The Corps of Engineers is quite busy finding ways to divert and block the water, and they are only probably winning the battles.

Fort Lincoln was a fine opportunity to see what a fort had been like. There were many buildings to tour, around a large central square. It only functioned as a fort for a few years and had been used for multiple other purposes since, including schools and a sanitarium. Stories about the pioneers, especially the women, fascinate Linda. What strong people!

North Dakota claims to have the friendliest people in the U.S., and we would certainly have to agree. The lady at the visitor center in Rugby tried several ways to help us get online, which had been a problem for days. And in that visitor center, they have gathered tourist information from all the states and provinces! We picked up the latest edition of the NH Highway map. I have never encountered that before.

She also told us how, back in 1931, it was determined that Rugby is the "geographical center of North America." She said that someone cut out a piece of cardboard in the shape of the North American continent, and when they balanced the cardboard on the head of a pin, it balanced at Rugby.

Southwest North Dakota has the most unusual time zone situation. Look on a time zone map, yourself, and see how strange and arbitrary and frequent the lines are. It is so confusing that most signs which list times also indicate whether it is central or mountain time. There are a lot of oil workers from all over this continent and it must be a challenge for them too, getting to work "on time" and communicating with folks back home.

At the town park in Grassy Butte, we met a very nice man from Oregon who was staying in a tent in one of the picnic pavilions, getting up at 4:30 A.M. (mountain time...) to go to work at an oil drilling operation. He said he had spent some time in New Hampshire when he was taking a course at Harvard years ago. It would have been interesting to hear more of his life story....

Gas prices provoke double takes. The first time I saw "Unleaded $2.85, super unleaded $2.75" or "Unleaded $2.85, super unleaded $2.85", I thought it was an anomaly. But it wasn't.

We decided that black angus cattle are sociable beasts. Small herds would be clustered near the oil drilling and pumping operations. It seemed an interesting contrast, the broad grassy plains with sporadic oil wells dotting them. We were told there are some 150 oil rigs dotting the southwest quadrant of North Dakota. And this is the start of the development.

There are so many Indian reservations! (They do use the term "Indian" out here) And so many casinos! And so many trains; long, long ones, carrying coal and other freight. It seems as if campgrounds tend to be established near railroad tracks, because we enjoy frequently hearing train horns. And there are a lot of groups of motorcyclists, often camping in tents at the campgrounds where we stop, and it looks like a fun way to vacation. There is a huge motorcycle gathering in Sturgis, South Dakota, around now, and they are on their way to or from it.

Tourism is huge out here. It seems that every town develops a tourist brochure, and some develop unusual attractions like immense cow or Paul Bunyan statues or the Rugby monument. One town with a population of 125 has a full-color brochure, to attract both tourists and, of course, business. North Dakota became a state in 1889, so its history is a lot shorter than our New England states, but it is more usual to find a pioneer museum in a town here than not. Some towns develop special appeals, e.g. Minot has a cluster of Norse-type buildings and an annual Norsk Fest.

Sometimes the tourism angle can get a bit overdone. I was enchanted last winter when I first learned that Theodore Roosevelt had gone to North Dakota to hunt, but fell in love with the terrain, and his feelings for ND had a big influence on his ideas about conservation and establishing national parks. But, out here, I seemed to run into the quote just a few too many times that he "never would have become President if it hadn't been for his time in North Dakota."

As we, sadly, left North Dakota and moved into Montana, the colors of the landscape seemed to shift from frequent greens to green only when there was a massive irrigation operation, and generally every shade of brown from light to medium. Maybe wheat grows without irrigation, but we saw little else. Roofs on buildings tend to be metal to resist hail damage.

John has spotted quite a few Schwan's trucks. Schwan's is a food delivery service, and as we travel these long uninhabited distances, we can understand why having food delivered might be preferable to driving 50 miles each way to get it yourself.

While we waited for the truck air conditioner to be resuscitated, we had mocha coffees in a large, hip coffee shop in Miles City. The main street there was quite interesting, with an above average share of saloons, boot and tack shops, the hotel where the character "Gus" from Lonesome Prairie died, and then a hip coffee shop.

A few recent amusing signs. "dat Udder Place Lounge." "Bad Route Road" in Montana. "Sneak Creek Saloon." "Coffee- Best Fuel for a Road Trip." On a church door: "Please remove your shoes before entering. Thank you." And most puzzling, way out miles from a town in either direction, at intersections where there was nothing in sight but a dirt road, many times we would see road signs like "338th St. NW" or "415th Avenue."

We have seen more Native Americans in Billings than anywhere else yet. And many shops display Indian crafts.

Have I mentioned our problems with directions? We keep encountering situations where we try to follow a route outlined in a tourist guide, but it somehow doesn't end up being the same thing in reality that it is on paper. A route that is supposed to be marked by signs will be missing some of the signs. A real problem, especially when we are driving the big RV, is that they will put just one sign to indicate a turn, and it's often directly across from the turn - very challenging if you are in the right lane and are supposed to make a left turn. It can get very frustrating. Maybe I'll will my fortune to provide better signing. Oh, wait, I don't have a fortune. Oh, well.

We are headed next toward Yellowstone, and John is studying which entrance to use, which roads to travel, etc. etc. We will be relieved when that escaped prisoner from Arizona gets captured, because there is some concern that he might have headed in this direction. Bearing that in mind keeps us from getting too, too placidly blissful about our adventures. I guess he has decided that we will proceed to Red Lodge today. Soon I will have to take measures to avoid panics when we are on precipices. Wish me luck!

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Comments

[naholter]

163th ave SE
My parents live north of a town of about 300 people, there are maybe three avenues in that town, but tier address is on 136th Ave SE. The government in it's wisdom has given everyone a specific street address. As far as I can tell, in ND, the 0,0 point is the physical center of the state. My folks live S and E of the center of the state, thus the SE designation in spite of the fact that they live N of the closest town, and NW of the largest town in the state. Out here in WA, in the rural areas, you see individual address signs with 6 or 7 digit numbers followed by "PR" which seems to mean private road (123456 E Tierney PR SE). This is supposed to help the 911 responders find you. I'm glad you enjoyed your stay in ND. It is a great place.