From Montana, through South Dakota . . .

Belvidere East KOA, Belvidere

Wednesday, 31 August 2022

Google told me today's drive would take 5 hours and 13 minutes, which of course meant it would take me at least 8 hours minimum.  Sunrise was at 6:22, and I left the campground a few minutes later.  It was a few minutes after 4:00 this afternoon when I arrived at tonight's campground, making the drive 9½ hours.  Good thing I didn't wait until later to leave here.

today's route

I marked the route in yellow in Montana, because that's what I used for all my travel in that state.  But I switched to blue in South Dakota to separate this one trip from the orange of my month there.

I stopped in Miles City to get some gas, and it was $3.89/gallon.

You can see from the map above I could barely get the whole drive in one shot and, until I got to South Dakota, I was pretty much in uninhabited country.  I heard several weeks ago that this area, in the Powder River Basin, is the world's largest known coal reserve and the US's largest coal mines.  It is also, increasingly, becoming a continuous fire zone.  The coal seams can ignite and burn underground for years, even centuries, without much notice from humans.  But when those seams burn upward and reach the drought-dry vegetation growing on them, they become very visible and dangerous wildfires.  Their normal lack of visibility also means no one's been studying them.  But the residents in this basin are banding together to change that, apparently figuring it's better to try to figure out how to control the fires while they're still in the ground, rather than waiting for them to come aboveground and destroy a town.  I found an interesting article about the situation written just a week ago.   https://www.msn.com/montana-s-devastating-wildfires-are-starting-underground  

I heard on the radio that July was the 451st consecutive month with global temperatures above the 20th century average.  (That's 37 straight years.)  Those temps must surely be contributing to the coal-seam-wildfire problem.

I saw several mule deer and was surprised to drive quite a distance before seeing the first herd of cows.  There were ranches scattered here and there, each with massive stacks of hay bales.  I saw one small field with very small square bales of hay next to a large field with large round hay bales.

The town of Volborg consisted of 2 houses and a "general store," per the sign.  And apparently a skunk (per the smell).

I saw 5 low hills together all covered with trees, and another one the same height right next to them with no trees but with a mohawk haircut of rock on top.  Some hills here are lumpy with rock, some look smooth, some are as pointed as if a pencil sharpener had been at work.

I saw 10 or 13 wild turkeys in a field.

We stopped at the town of Broadus, the largest town in the area aside from Miles City.  Google's directions told me to turn on Park Avenue, and I was hoping it got that name because it had a park on it.  Which it did.  Cottonwood Park, so we stopped and Dext got to walk down a large grassy avenue lined on both sides with nice old cottonwoods, each apparently with a smell.

After crossing the Powder River, I passed the first weigh station I've seen in a month in Montana that was closed.

From Miles City I took MT-59 for 78 miles, finding very little traffic along the way.  After Broadus, I turned onto US-212 and encountered lots of semis, which made driving much more of a challenge for me.  Trying to stay out of their way on those roads isn't easy.

I started passing Pronghorn here and there and reminded myself I was getting closer to Wyoming.  You may remember that Wyoming has some of the highest numbers of Pronghorn, and I certainly saw a whole lot of them during my month in that state.  In fact, I'll always associate the 2 in my mind, at least as much as Wyoming's other truly amazing natural attributes.

I also started to see quite a few flocks of sheep, along with cows and plenty more Pronghorn, and I thought I saw 2 elk, drinking from a water trough that was in a field for sheep.  They had antlers and, if they were deer, then they were very large deer.

A sign told me I was driving through "America's top beef, corn and soybean producing counties."  

I grew up in Texas with rivers and creeks running from north to south (towards the Gulf of Mexico).  But in Montana they often run from west to east, I suppose because of the continental divide and the Missouri River drainage.

Speaking of which, I crossed the Little Missouri River.  And very sadly, I passed the bodies of 2 fawns by the road, and felt so very sorry for the poor mama deer.

A sign told me I could turn right and get to Devil's Tower.  Something about that place held a lot of magic for me (and not the Close Encounters kind).  But that's not where I was headed today.

"Welcome to Wyoming," I was told.  And "Fire Danger is High."  

And suddenly, instead of desert-like land, I saw vast fields that had been cultivated.

One road was named Lonesome Country Road.

I started seeing snow fences and realized I'd seen very few in Montana which, after all, certainly gets its share of snow in the winter.

I'd forgotten how beautiful Wyoming is and passed a pastoral view of mountains and trees and farms and a deep river valley.

A sign warned me there was a "Truck Crossing 1000 Feet" and sure enough, when I got there I saw a truck crossing the road.

I passed several industrial plants of some kind, all fairly close together, and none of them within miles of any town - or even an RV park.  I saw a whole lot of cars at these places, but I have no idea where those workers drive to after their shift.  We were a long way from any town.

And then: Welcome to South Dakota.  And I quickly arrived in the town of Belle Fourche.  You remember when I was here last year visiting the Center of the Nation monument.  I stopped for gas and found they were offering regular gas, with a 95 octane rating, for $3.99 and plus gas with a 97 octane rating, for $3.79.  Before I started pumping I went inside to be sure I was reading those prices right, because it seemed odd to me to have the better gas for 20¢/gallon less.  But that was the price.

I needed a grocery store and Google had told me there was one right on my way in Belle Fourche.  I'm pretty sure I stopped at a grocery store at that exact location last year, and the owners were closing the store.  But I've tried and can't find it on my blog posts from when I was in Belle Fourche - or anywhere else for that matter.  I'm sure I posted it because it was such a weird sensation - most of the shelves were empty and the only meat they had was frozen prepackaged stuff, no fresh foods at all.  I guess I'll find it when I go back and reread all this stuff at the end of my trip.

Anyway, there's an operating store there now, and I was frustrated that they had very little of what I was looking for.  Which shows that full shelves aren't the only marker of a well-stocked store.

We stopped at the visitor center where I remembered they had a place to dump my waste tanks.  It needed to be done and I really didn't want to get into a campground later today, tired from driving, and still have to empty my waste.  By the time I got done with that, I was absolutely dripping with sweat at 11:45 in the morning.

I passed a sign advertising "Horse Hay For Sale," and I wondered what other kind is there?  Wouldn't horses eat all kinds of hay?  

I'd forgotten about those strange "Why Die?" signs that South Dakota has stuck around all the highways in the state.  Because I couldn't find an uncopyrighted version online, I managed to locate a photo I took - it's in the Day 8 post for South Dakota, in case you don't remember them.

I passed Sturgis, and then got off the highway at Rapid City.  Belle Fourche having disappointed me, I still needed dog food for supper tonight and thought I'd try in Rapid City.  But I took a chance on a road looking like it had stores - and it did, but not a grocery.  I drove around unsuccessfully for a while and finally stopped in a residential neighborhood and turned on my hotspot and my laptop and found a Safeway that was a ways away but it looked like I could find it.  And I did.  And got Dexter some supper for this evening (thank goodness).

On the way to the Safeway I'd passed what looked like a nice park and decided to stop once more to walk Dext.  But when I went back, I found I could get into the very small parking lot only from one direction and had to turn around several times.  Once there, I discovered the building I thought was for community groups was actually the Rapid City Parks & Rec offices.  And they didn't want anybody else parking in their lot but P&R employees.  So I parked anyway and ran inside and asked if they'd mind if I took 10 minutes to walk my dog.  Which she graciously allowed.  There was no other parking for that park - which had a name and picnic tables and lots of trees - so I can't figure out who they expected to visit the park or where they expected them to come from.  Very busy streets on both sides, so not a quiet neighborhood.  Weird.  

The park had 6 or 7 busts of people who all seemed to be Native leaders from various fields - lawyer, scientist, medicine - like that.  Carved into each pedestal was the person's name and dates and field of work and a quote.  I didn't have my camera so I had to rely on my memory (hah) and remember only a man named Vine Deloria, Jr., known as a historian and Native rights activist.  His quote said something about how the Bering Strait theory of people crossing a land bridge to get to this continent was racist.  He said proof exists only in the minds of white scientists who want to keep Indians down.  Well, it wouldn't be the first time that long-accepted theories have been shattered by modern perspectives, so I looked it up.  And I couldn't find anything at all that made me question the theory, or to explain why it was racist.  Human beings have to come from somewhere, and evolution has long suggested humans gradually evolving from apes, and I've never heard of any of the big apes living anywhere in the Americas at any point in time.  So either humans or apes had to get here from somewhere, and the land bridge theory seems to have a lot going for it - early forms of men following the game that was seeking new territory across the land bridge that had been formed when the earth's crust had a different shape than it does now.  Why is that theory something that keeps Indians down?  To me, it shows how adaptable and resourceful they were.  Anyway, that was our stop in Rapid City.

We passed huge fields of sunflowers, huge fields of maize, huge fields of corn, and a gazillion signs for Wall Drug.

The "check engine" light, that had come back on soon after I left Hardin on my way to Miles City the other day, went out some time around where I had to climb a hill and revved the engine up over 4000 RPMs to do it.  And then I wondered if by doing that, I was just helping to blow out the carbon that was probably clogging the valves because of using ethanol gasoline and driving relatively slowly all the time.  I think that's what that Sea Foam I added was supposed to clean out.  Whatever it was, the light went out and didn't come back on today.  Yea!

And finally we got to tonight's campground, which fortunately turned out to be very pleasant with not many people there.  And I made a mistake.  I was so tired that I decided to order a pizza that the campground was offering from their little cafe.  It turned out to have a thick blanket of mozzarella on top and almost no pepperoni, which I'd paid an extra $1.25 to have added.  Mozzarella's okay but not my favorite cheese, and there was an awful lot of it.  But it was supper I didn't have to fix myself, so that was okay.

My month in Montana

My take on Montana

where I went this month

Montana's land

I think the map shows I made a truly valiant effort to cover Montana as much as I could in 1 month.  There weren't many paved roads I missed.

That's something I heard from someone this month: Montana's not a paved-road state.  And I found it to be true.

As I pointed out now and then in my daily posts, Montana has some serious mountains in the far western part; it has lots of hills all over, decreasing in size as you go east; and it's got a lot of prairie - a whole lot - in the eastern 2/3 of the state.

The lowest point is at the Idaho border, which seems odd to me given all the mountains in that area.  It's at 1,804' on the Kootenai River.  The highest point is almost on the Wyoming border southwest of Billings.  It's Granite Peak at 12,807'.  Neither of these is even remotely near the plains part of the state, which indicates that this is indeed high desert here.  The Continental Divide runs through Montana, another indication of the altitudes here.

Montana's history, and much of its current economy, centers around mining of various kinds.  And it truly is an array of resources they have here: everything from sapphires to metals (gold, silver, copper, molybdenum) to gravel/stone and oil, to wind and water (they have so little they have to engineer it).

But what impressed me most was how agricultural this state is.  I came here expecting to see nothing but cattle ranches, and they are certainly here.  But what's also here are crops.  Wheat, corn, potatoes, sugar beets, soybeans.  Cherries, apples.  I just never thought of Montana as a farming state but it very definitely is.

And it has some real natural beauties.  Flathead Lake is a natural one and quite lovely.  Of course there's Glacier Natural Park and the sights contained there.  And it's got the Big Sky.

I've found displays and monuments to the Lewis & Clark expedition in many other states, but none has as much claim as Montana.  The expedition touched many states as they journeyed down the Ohio, up the Mississippi, and then up the Missouri until finally reaching the Columbia River and the Pacific Ocean.  

But Montana is the biggest state they crossed (of course none of these areas was a state then - they were mostly part of the Louisiana Purchase and the vast Oregon Territory), so of course it's the state they spent the most time in.  Even now, Montana is the 4th largest state in the Union; it's 630 miles across and 255 miles north-to-south.  And it was here that the expedition found they could not follow the Missouri all the way to the Pacific - they found its headwaters.  This was an important area to the expedition, and the state celebrates that today.

Montana's people

What Montana doesn't have is people.  It ranks 43rd among the states in terms of absolute numbers, but it's #48 in terms of density (beating out only Wyoming and Alaska).  The largest city is Billings with 117,000 people, which is 20,000 smaller than Waco, TX.  Havre, in the north near Ft. Benton, comes in at #10 with fewer than 9,400 people.

This makes Montana an extremely rural state, with almost the entire population living in the western half.  And that leaves eastern Montana very empty.  Lots of isolation out there.

Because this is a farming economy with so few people, Montana is a poor state as far as its government goes.  I'd've thought they'd put higher taxes on the companies that are extracting the state's natural resources, but I'm guessing they're afraid to lose the jobs that are propping up many of these towns.

So between the poverty of the government and the isolation of the residents, Montana's got a real problem with not only mental health in general but suicide in particular.  Drug use here is every bit the problem that states in the East and Midwest are better known for.

But almost everyone I met was pleasant, friendly and helpful.  And if it weren't for the many many NO DOGS signs, I'd have called this a friendly state.

I should note here that John Steinbeck said he was "in love with Montana."  Love is a funny thing - it's a very individual feeling and no one can predict who or what they'll love.  Steinbeck certainly did a lot of traveling around the country (see Travels with Charlie) so he knew whereof he spoke.

Driving in Montana

As I've noted in several places, I ran into problems with some of Montana's roadways.  And there was definitely a lack of street signs in some towns and cities.  But overall, I was comfortable on Montana's roads and thought the highway department did a good job for travelers.

Somewhat unusually, Montana has 4 currently valid standard license plates:

since 2010

since 1989

since 1991

since 2006

There are plenty of specialty plates of course.  But it took me a while to realize all 4 of these styles were official and current.

I got 3 thank-yous from other motorists for pulling over for them, and only the one blare-out by the semi driver because of the awkward situation that was certainly my fault but also his and particularly the other driver's.  

In general the drivers here were polite and relatively safe.  And they mostly passed me when I gave them a chance (saving us both frustration).

What I didn't see that I wanted to see

I wrote about most of it.  

But at Great Falls I apparently missed the Giant Springs (one of the world's largest springs) and Roe River (the world's shortest river).  

And what I was sorriest to miss was the Beartooth Highway, considered one of North America's most scenic.  It's not completely in Montana - it dips down into Wyoming into Yellowstone National Park.  But when the Yellowstone River flooded this June, it took out much of that road and the park had to close both its northern entrances.  It never occurred to me I should have driven that road when I was doing my month in Wyoming last year, but sometime I'll be able to come back and see it.

My conclusion

Apologies to Steinbeck, but I didn't love Montana.  I liked it a lot, though.  And I guess I felt a little sorry for it.  The people in this state are suffering from a lack of state government resources they sorely need.  And that situation is exacerbated by the self-reliance attitude folks here have - we don't need help from the government and can take care of our own problems.  In my view, actually, they can't.  But since I can't see any obvious way they could make this situation better, they're stuck with it.  And that's why I feel sorry for them.  But they do have a magnificent state.

Montana - Days 28 - 30 in the Miles City campground

Miles City KOA, Miles City

Sunday, 28 through Tuesday, 30 August 2022

I'm slightly amazed at all I got done in the 3 days I was here.

When I was in Hardin the wifi signal was strong enough that after doing a couple of full blog posts, I spent time setting up the framework for 7 more.  I've learned how to create a draft post and upload photos in such a way that I can put text in between them later.  When I have a weak internet signal, I can end up waiting a half-hour or more just to upload 1 photo, which has been very frustrating and unproductive.  But now when I have a stronger signal, as in Hardin, I can get the photos attached to the draft, and then fill in the blanks later when the signal's slower.

Because I didn't know what it would be like in Miles City, I got those drafts done for 7 blog posts.  Now that I'm here and am lucky to have a strong signal, I was able to finish those 7 and do 3 more besides.  Great progress, but of course this is the end of the month and I still have 11 more to go to be caught up.  Well, progress is still progress.

Besides that, I saw a notice that the feds would stop shipping those free covid at-home tests on Sept. 2nd and decided to go ahead and order them.  When I placed one order, they immediately told me I could place a 2nd order, still for free.  Knowing this chance wasn't going to last, I went ahead and did that.  So at some point, David and Anna are going to have a total of 4 packages with 2 tests in each one showing up in their mail box.  I wrote and told them what to expect and said they could have half of them if they wanted.  They do a lot more socializing than I do.

I made tacos one night - which actually means I'll be eating them for days because it takes 5 meals to use up one recipe's worth of meat.  Haven't had them in a long time.  Mexican food is something I never get to eat - well, Tex-Mex of course.  I never go to a restaurant at night because then I'd have to drive back to the campground in the evening.  And I can't imagine enchiladas or something like that tasting very good being half cooled off in a styrofoam carry-out container, so it's not like a burger that I can go buy and eat at my kitchen table with the critters around.  And anyway, I want a beer with that kind of food but sure don't want to drive in the middle of the day after eating a heavy meal that includes a beer (I'd fall asleep even faster than usual).  My family are really nice about taking me to a great Mexican restaurant when I'm visiting them, and that's about it.  So these tacos were a treat.

Also while I was here, I cleaned the windows, changed the sheets, turned the mattress (my every-6-months chore), did the laundry, checked the weather for the upcoming days, and planned my driving routes to my first Minnesota campground.

We had nice weather most of the time we were here - really pleasant with a good breeze and easy temps so we not only didn't use the AC, we didn't even start the portable fans until late afternoon.  This campground sits on the edge of the Tongue River, not far from the Yellowstone River.  Dext and I found a short path along the Tongue and walked around there, and around the neighborhood, every day.  Locusts everywhere and Dext loves to try to catch them. 

We met several new dogs in the campground's dog park and Dext always seemed interested for the first few minutes.  And then he always turned away and went to sniff something else.  I think he'd benefit from having a new live-in companion - a dog he could get to know and learn to trust.  He seems lonely.  But I'm not going to get another dog right now.  He and Gracie were so used to each other it's impossible for him to replicate that easily or quickly, and maybe not at all.  

And having only 1 dog instead of 2 is light years easier on me.  I don't care much for small dogs, and 2 bigger dogs together were honestly more than I could handle.  I had to be constantly on guard for their different reactions to new dogs and new situations - different from each other's reactions, I mean.  And there was always the risk that they'd pull me along the ground in trying to get to another dog or deer or horse.  One dog I can handle.  

And Dext no longer is on guard himself - I think he felt he had to protect Gracie and that's why he was so quick to bristle when we'd meet new dogs.  He's fine now and is eager to meet new dogs.  I no longer have to worry about where our campsite is - it doesn't matter if we're surrounded by other dogs.  With just Dext, it hasn't been a problem at all.  My life is so vastly much easier that I just won't  put myself through that again until my situation is more stable.

Montana - Day 27 - to Miles City

Miles City KOA, Miles City

Saturday, 27 August 2022

today's route

Because today's drive would take less than 2 hours, I didn't leave the Hardin KOA until after 9:30, trying to finish up some things in a place I knew, rather than waiting to do them in a place I hadn't been to before.

I took a state highway - a less-traveled road - to join the interstate, just wanting to see something besides what I'd already seen.  Doing that meant I'd be missing Pompey's Pillar, a landmark that Montana promotes to tourists.  It's a National Monument, at least partly because William Clark scratched his name and date into the rock here.  The National Park Service says this is the "only known visible evidence of the entire journey that remains intact."  Here's their description and a photo of the place.   https://www.nps.gov/pompeys-pillar-mt  

If I could have gotten to it fairly easily, I'd've gone, just to see it.  But for some reason the highway department didn't create a nearby exit from I-94.  I had a choice after leaving the campground of either taking 16 miles of unpaved road (Google's 1st choice, of course) or backtracking for miles once I took any paved road to the interstate.  I just wasn't that interested.  But it's certainly something I'd put on my list of things to see when I come back here.

We stopped at a rest area and once again I found some interesting signs.

It's incredible the weather these guys work in,
which I'd never thought about before I had to drive
in that snowstorm near Albuquerque earlier this year,
grateful for how they'd cleared the roadway.

This is a sign they should put on billboards for more exposure. 
I don't know how many people would see this at a rest stop. 
But it's an argument that would work on a whole lot of people.

I'd seen signs like this at other rest areas.
I'm glad Montana is making this effort,
which I haven't seen in other states.

This sign is about Hell Creek, where those dinosaur fossils have been found in Makoshika State Park.  Because it was discussed at the visitor center there, I almost didn't include this - but here they have some information I didn't see at the visitor center that I thought was interesting.

enlargements below

I can't imagine why this item was included on the sign about Hell Creek, unless it's the idea that cross-country car drivers in the 1910s are as much dinosaurs now as the dinosaurs are.

And there was this historical marker.

It sounds like this was part of the program that included the missile silos
in North Dakota and Montana.  But since I'd reserved 4 nights in Miles City,
I wasn't reassured by these references to it being in the badlands,
and in "some of the most isolated places in the country."

This rest area also had a sign warning that rattlesnakes had been seen in the area - but the sign itself was in a seriously inconspicuous spot.  It was a small sign and was placed where incoming cars could see it (if they could read really fast) but not where trucks and RVs would see it.  I parked next to it, which is the only reason I noticed it.  For rattlesnakes, they ought to make more of an effort I think.

Back on the road, we passed a field where the grass was so tall it almost hid the cows that were grazing in it.

I heard on the radio that the drought had uncovered some dinosaur tracks in Texas as rivers receded from their usual level.  When I looked it up, I found something amazing - even if you're not much into dinosaurs.   https://www.cnet.com/science/hidden-dinosaur-tracks-in-tx  I remember seeing dinosaur tracks somewhere back East, though I can't remember exactly where right now and a word search on my blog doesn't bring it up.  I'd really like to see these tracks but am sure the rains will cover them back up before I can get back down to Texas.  Just as well, I suppose, since it preserves them.

A semi with an empty trailer passed me, and he had an American flag waving behind his cab.  The problem was the flag was almost black from his exhaust, which was spewing near the flag - not exactly the display of patriotism I think he had in mind.

And my "check engine" light came back on again.  At that point I decided to adopt a so-what mentality about it.  Sometime when I'm going to be in one place for a lengthy period I can get a mechanic to check the entire system and replace all the spark plugs and whatever else they think is a problem.  But I've seriously tried to fix it and it's just going to have to be good enough.  (I hope.)

A sign said I was passing the Ft. Keogh Livestock and Range Research Laboratory.  When I looked it up I learned it's a USDA project since the 1930s, and they do research on raising beef cattle and on the land itself, including work on fire, drought, soil and weeds.  I think I've seen similar programs being done at ag schools in other states.

In Miles City I found I'd just missed - by a half hour - the weekly farmers market; everybody was packing up and leaving.  The market was at Riverside Park, where I'd planned to walk Dext - except it was plastered with signs saying NO DOGS IN PARK.  What is with Montana and this no dogs policy they've got everywhere?

So I started to drive around town, hoping I could find someplace else for him when I was going to the grocery store.  Except Google's directions to the store were pitiful, telling me to turn on streets that the city hadn't posted street names for, so I couldn't find them.  And even when I stumbled on them accidentally, they still didn't go where Google said they would.  But eventually I found the store, and driving from the store to the campground I found a small park where I could walk Dexter.  

We got to the campground, got checked in, and then I got really frustrated because first, they'd assigned me to a spot that wasn't what I'd asked for, and when I got to the right spot I couldn't find any part of it that was level.  It was a difficult period.  But once I got settled in, I found that their wifi signal was great (something new and different), and I was able to finish my post for Day 4 in Montana (today's only Day 27).  But that means I'll be able to get some work done while I'm here.

But I'm sorry I'll miss their bluegrass festival.  A sign in town told me Miles City hosts a bluegrass festival on the 3rd weekend of each September, and I'm sure it'll be a lot of good music.

Montana - Days 25 & 26 - Little Bighorn Battlefield, in Hardin campground

Hardin KOA, Hardin

Thursday, 25 & Friday, 26 August 2022

When I'd finally gotten a phone signal yesterday, I called Jeff, the mechanic, and talked to his wife who handles the phone for him.  I told her what we'd agreed to, that my "check engine" light hadn't stayed gone long, and that I'd planned to be here until Saturday and which day did Jeff think he could come out.  She picked Friday.  So I decided to go visit the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument on Thursday.

today's route

At the national battlefield:

The visitor center at the battlefield is only about 15 miles or so from the campground, so we got there fairly early.  And yet again I saw signs saying No Dogs.  I'd counted on being able to walk Dext around after I'd gone to the visitor center, so I was seriously disappointed - and I think he was too.

Beginning at the entrance and continuing in the parking area there were many signs stating clearly that large vehicles needed to park over there.  So of course over there is where I went.  But conspicuously, 4 much larger RVs didn't.  They all parked in the section set aside for cars.  

I was busy watching them, astounded by their obliviousness, when I saw someone from the visitor center come tell them to move.  Which they did while complaining about it.  (Huh?  The space for big rigs was just feet away from the car space, unlike places that send us to remote parking areas.)

Then they all got out - couples in each RV, clearly all traveling together - and one of them noticed the sign saying masks were required indoors, at which point several started complaining again - and kept on complaining when they went inside.  The word "entitled" sprang to my mind.  Incredible behavior.  The sort of thing that inspired the "Ugly American" sentiments back in the '60s.

Inside I found plenty of exhibits about the series of events that led up to the well-known battle here, but they didn't seem to be as polished and clear as I'm used to from the National Park Service.  Of course, part of my problem was that these 4 couples were all milling around where I was, all talking loudly and making it hard for me to see and understand the exhibits.  So I've rearranged what I saw in presenting it below, in hopes it makes more sense now than it did to me then.  I've blown these photos up as much as I could, but they presented the information in long lines of text, and that plus the glare on the glass made it hard for me to get all the text into a photo.  And I'll just say in advance the misspellings and typos and odd language choices made me want to volunteer my services to the Park Service to clean these up.

Background:

Wouldn't you have thought the Army would have noticed that 6,000 Indians, including up to 2,000 warriors, had left the reservations?  And had gathered at the Little Bighorn River?  Either their surveillance failed or they underestimated their adversary.  As you'll see below, the military was seriously out-manned.

Campaign Strategy of the US army:

The Powder River engagement:

Preparation by the Sioux and Cheyenne:

Battle of the Rosebud River:

Battle of the Little Bighorn River:

Those numbers refer to notes below.

After the Battle:

a grave marker, like
the one for Custer,
see text above

Odd, really, how Gen. Custer has been so nearly deified by Americans since this battle.  For one thing, he was following orders without figuring out that conditions weren't as his commanding officers expected.  For another, no one still knows exactly where he and his men went after they split off from Major Reno so his heroism seems to rest on the fact that he was killed.  No one seems to note that he and his men were surrounded, which doesn't seem reasonable for an experienced officer like Custer to allow.  And the fact that the original position of the American government was inhumane didn't seem to have bothered him at any point.

Anyway, these exhibits - and you can see how hard they are to read and digest - gave me all the information about this battle I wanted to know.  The fact is that I mostly came here because I was here, and it didn't seem right to leave Montana without having visited this monument.  Sort of the way I felt about Mt. Rushmore (just over the border in SD).

From there, I wanted to find somewhere for Dext to walk, so we went back to the town of Hardin where I'd found a park online.

Hardin:

And the park was there, this time minus signs banning dogs.  Yea!

It was Custer City Park, and we found a monument there.

The plaque says:
"To the memory of General George Armstrong Custer."

On the back of that granite slab was another plaque that was hard to read, even enlarged and cleaned up as I've done here:

Despite this glorification of an Army officer who, in my mind, didn't do anything to deserve it but die in the line of duty (which I agree is something but a whole lot of other people do this without getting parks named after them), this was a very nice park, and Dext and I were happy for the chance to wander around with grass and trees for a change.

We stopped at an IGA on the way back to the campground.

Back in the campground:

On Friday, I had to wait till mid-afternoon before Jeff was able to get there.  And except for a break to go to an auto parts store in town, he worked there for several hours.  He changed 2 of the spark plugs and coils (I think) and cleaned things up a bit, and after he'd gotten done, the RV's computer was registering no problems for a change.  A big relief.

Earlier in the day I'd done some laundry and donated some of the Flathead cherries I still hadn't eaten to the Wisconsin natives who owned the KOA, making me a friend for life it seemed.

This campground is only a mile from town but definitely out in the country, with crops growing in fields all around us.  In fact, the neighbor closest to my campsite started up the irrigation flow for his field and ended up nearly flooding the campground.  I noticed and went to check with the owners that all that water was supposed to be coming in - and they mobilized quickly and got the neighbor to come over and fix the leakage.  So I felt like I'd done my good deed for the day.

For some reason, birds kept flying into the side window, which they don't usually.  I couldn't figure out what to do to make it look less like a flyway to them, and after a while they stopped.  I guess the light changed. 

Once when I looked out that window I saw a bunny hopping with the birds in the dried grass outside the RV.

There were a whole lot of flies around here - and apparently all over MT this time of year.  Major nuisance, and they tend to keep me indoors to avoid them.  Except of course they get inside.  I managed to kill 2 at once, which reminded me of a story from my childhood called "7 At One Blow."  It was about a man who'd killed 7 flies at once and was so proud of himself he made a belt with that slogan on it.  But of course other people thought he meant people, not flies.

I asked the owner about the various facilities I saw across the road.  She said one was a coal-fired power plant that sent all its power to North Dakota and Wyoming, (so the campground across the road got none of it).  She said another was an asbestos plant, and a third had been a sugar factory because sugar beets are a big crop around here.  She said the factory had been moved to Billings and the huge silos I saw stored the sugar beets until they could be transported.  She said all these sugar beets were used in Pepsi and Mountain Dew, and when I saw the word "backlash" on the label, that meant the sugar beets that had been used were these particular local sugar beets.  I'm not sure about that "backlash" part, though I'm sure that's what she said.

I've been noticing lately that when Dext and I get back from walks, and I pat him a lot if/when he's been good (meaning, he hasn't eaten anything), then Lily comes running up to get patted too.  Maybe she was doing that when Gracie was alive and I just didn't realize it because I already had 2 dogs to pat.  But she's definitely doing it now.  It's not like she doesn't get at least her share of attention - but she's just figured out how to get even more.

Montana - Day 24 - Billings, then Hardin

Hardin KOA, Hardin
Wednesday, 24 August 2022

When Dext and I went for our early walk this morning, I saw for the first time why Montana claims to be Big Sky Country. 

Because I was in a state park, there were very few lights, and because the moon was just a thin orange crescent, moonlight wasn't a limiting factor.  And always before my view was limited by hills or trees or houses - or all 3, and I didn't have any of those limits here. 

So what I saw was a huge sky full of stars, including the Milky Way which I rarely see these days.  It was an incredible sight.  I don't remember ever seeing a sky this big.

This sight made that ghastly washboard road worthwhile, though I really wasn't looking forward to the return trip.  I stopped at the camp host on the way out to see if there was an alternative.

The host turned out to be a woman my age from south Alabama traveling with her dog.  She said the washboard was the only way out, and that residents in the area had been asking for years to get the road paved.  But so far county officials hadn't authorized the money.  She said she'd previously been camp host at the campground on the north side of the reservoir, and up there they had a paved road and a phone signal and an internet signal, and it had been hard for her to accept their request that she move down here.

She said she'd noticed me particularly yesterday because my RV was a small class C like hers.  She too thought it was crazy for people to travel around with those monster 5th wheels and class As, especially to rural areas like this one.

Her advice on the washboard was for me to take it faster, not slower, but I told her we'd been shaken to pieces when I'd tried.  Nice woman.  When I mentioned the sky view I'd had this morning, she suggested I look for Dark Sky Photography.  She said their photos of nighttime skies are amazing.  She's right, and here's their website if you're interested.   https://www.darkskyphotography.com

today's route

So back down the washboard we went.  This time I saw 3 people working with bee boxes, wearing protective gear.  They looked so odd in that gear it took me a minute to realize what I was seeing.

There's a small colony of White Pelicans living at Cooney Reservoir.  They're such impressive-looking birds.

When we'd finally made it down the gravel roads and back out onto regular pavement, we passed through the town of Joliet, where a sign said "Fire Danger Today - High."  I think it's been high (or higher) for this entire month, no matter where in Montana we went.

I passed a field where grain had been harvested.  On either side of the field there were those big round bales, but in the middle of the field were 2 rows of tiny square (literally square) bales of something.  Such an odd sight.

I saw a large nest on a platform on top of a pole, with a large bird in it apparently feeding its young.  Seems a little late in the year to be hatching a brood but I guess they know what they're doing.

I saw another one of those Montana Meth Project billboards, this one saying, "Ask me who I tied to the steering wheel."  

We passed an operation for Knife River Sand & Gravel.  I've seen other sites for them in the area - all being worked - so they must be a pretty big outfit.

Back in Billings, I saw a sign at a Wendy's said, "NO WHIRING."  It took me a minute to realize one of the movable letters had moved out of place.  They're paying $14 - $17, they say.  Seriously more money than fast food places used to pay.

We stopped at the Centennial Dog Park and Dext got to meet some other dogs.  I've been noticing that he often shows interest in playing with other dogs, but after about 15 seconds he stops and that's it.  Then after a while he'll show some more interest, but again it doesn't last any time at all.  Well, it's still a step toward mental health that was beyond him for a while.

I stopped at a Target where I finally found refills for Lily's litter genie disposer.  I stopped again at a Chase bank and restocked up on some cash for gasoline - because I'd been seriously depleted with the high cost of gas recently.  And I stopped at a CVS to get refills of my blood pressure medications.  

From there we went back on the road toward Hardin.  We crossed the Yellowstone River again.  I saw 5 white †s all together.  Another family I suppose.  Such a sad thing.  But as sad as they are, I'm going to miss them when I leave the state - they're a sort of connection to other folks who've traveled this road.

The campground in Hardin had a dog park, where Dext made friends with a 20-month-old Doberman named Blaze.  His owner came from St. Petersburg in Florida who drove a small RV like mine.  She said she'd never have the nerve to drive one of those big monster rigs (and I agreed), but that she'd recently met an older woman in a Utah campground who had driven a huge Class A, towing a car.  She said her husband had cataracts so she did all the driving and that she didn't have any trouble with it.  The Florida woman and I marveled at her courage - and I remembered meeting a woman several years ago - maybe in New Hampshire? - who also had a husband with something wrong with his vision so she was the one who drove their class A, towing a car.  And I couldn't help but wonder if we'd met the same woman.  And maybe she'd made it all the way across the country with that rig and her disabled husband.  I'd love to think so.

Montana - Day 23 - to Cooney Reservoir, via Billings

Cooney Reservoir State Park, Red Lodge Arm
Tuesday, 23 August 2022

today's route

Thankfully, we had no problems at all during the night.  It looked like that bar/restaurant had been open during the evening, but I kept the overhead fan on overnight and we didn't hear a thing.  This morning, I could see no reason for us to hang around this strange place so we left soon after 7:30.

The highway department was mowing the roadside grass, and the mower was followed closely by a tanker of water standing by.  I wondered if it was in case of fire?  Montana has been seriously trying to promote awareness of all the little things that can cause fires - like idling the motor in high grass, or dragging a chain on the ground.  And, while I wouldn't see a problem with a grass cutter, that doesn't mean there isn't one.

At the town of Roundup, I took Dext to the city park while we waited for the post office to open.  But this was yet another park with NO DOGS signs plastered all over the place.  So I walked him around the block - which turned out to be the size of 2 blocks because they'd attached a ball field to the park and put up NO DOGS signs there too.

I'd pretty much picked the town of Roundup out of a hat when David asked me to find a place where he could send me mail.  I've often found that post offices in big cities won't accept General Delivery mail except at the main post office, and those are often hard for me to find a parking place at, so I look for towns instead.  Roundup looked like the largest town I'd be going through today besides Billings, which is the largest city in Montana so I discarded that as an option.

Roundup has more than 1,700 residents and, based on the ones I met at the post office (where my mail was waiting, no problem), they seem reasonably friendly.  And though I know irresponsible dog owners are many, and cause serious inconvenience for all of us, I still can't understand this major emphasis on NO DOGS I'm finding in Montana.

Past the town of Klein, a sign told me the Bull Mountains were here.  Couldn't have proven it by me - I saw no mountains.

I did see lots of evergreens and some deciduous trees.  Cows, crops, goats, family farmsteads.  Occasional burned hillsides.

I passed 2 family farms in real contrast to each other.  Both had a house, cars, farm buildings, farm equipment and an RV.  But one place looked neat and trim and organized and comfortable, while the other just looked junky.  Guess which one I'd rather live in.

I saw a type of utility pole I hadn't seen before.  These were metal, huge, and tapered to a point on the bottom.  They looked almost like tops balancing on their points.  I didn't see any extra wires or structures to keep them in place - anything extra beyond what I see all the time, even in the ordinary wooden telephone poles.  Very strange.

We came to Billings (though there was no highway sign saying so), and when I was driving through a business section, I noticed a few buildings with evaporative coolers on the roofs.  That made me realize this climate would be great for those "swamp coolers" and wondered why I wasn't seeing many of them.  Are the winters so hard they go bad when they freeze?  Although I've seen them wrapped up before to protect against the cold - I think I saw that in Arizona.

I'd made arrangements to meet a mobile RV repair guy in a large industrial lot.  He said it belonged to his brother, whose farm was next door, and he rented the use of it for his mechanical work.  He told me he has a day job and does this mobile RV repair work in his off time.  Nice guy.  And he seemed to know what he was doing.

He repaired a strip of molding that had come loose.  I was ready to just pull the molding off until I realized it was protecting screws that held the door hinge on.  By the time I noticed it, the wind had almost blown it off altogether and I'd stuck it back on with strapping tape.  That was working but wasn't a long-term solution in my mind.  So this guy, Jeff, fixed that in about 30 seconds.  

And then he tackled the "check engine" light problem, which was the real reason I'd called him.  He checked several things in the engine - spent about a half hour on it - and then said it was a tricky situation.  He agreed that the RV's computer said there was a problem with only a couple of spark plugs, but it might be the coils and not the plugs, because the computer doesn't specify.  And he also said that the real problem could be that the whole system needed to be replaced - all 12 spark plugs and maybe even more than that.  And even changing 2 would take longer than he had right then.

We agreed on a Plan A and a Plan B.  Plan A was that I would stop at the Auto Zone in the town of Laurel, which I'd be passing through on my way to tonight's campground.  There I would buy a product called Sea Foam, which I would then put in my gas tank, and which should clean my injectors or valves or like that.  He reset the "check engine" light and said with the Sea Foam it might be enough and the light wouldn't come back on.  And if Plan A didn't work, we'd go to Plan B, which was I'd call back and make arrangements for him to drive out to Hardin, where I'd be staying for several nights.

Well, the "check engine" light came on while I was still driving to Laurel, but I still bought and added the Sea Foam, hoping that would be an easy fix.  From there I turned south toward Cooley Reservoir and the state park there.

The state park has several different campgrounds, and the one I was in was the farthest south - and down nearly 4 miles of washboard road.  Seriously.  The road was absolutely torture.  I found I couldn't even go faster than 5 mph in parts of it because it bounced us around so much.  And when I got to the campground, I was astounded at the number of big rigs that were camping there.  Sure, it was a beautiful lake and people were boating and fishing, but I wouldn't have thought it even possible to get one of those RV monsters down that road.

There was no phone signal there, and my hot spot didn't work, but at least they had electric hookups so we weren't uncomfortable.

Montana - Day 22 - back across MT to Grass Range

The Ole Mercantile, Grass Range
Monday, 22 August 2022

Below is what the Makoshika badlands look at sunrise.

Those layers of sediment are a walk through time itself.

When I was out walking with Dext before bedtime yesterday, I got stung by a bee or wasp, and it really hurt.  And it still hurt this morning - enough so I was afraid that when I swatted it its stinger might have broken off in my leg.  But I hoped that once we got on the road and my attention got distracted from it, it might stop hurting.  Which it mostly did.

I felt bad about running the generator all night and possibly ruining a hoped-for wilderness experience by the 2 other couples camped near us.  Not bad enough not to run it, but bad enough so I left early this morning and drove down to the visitor center so I could run it without guilt.

The visitor center is the head of a short trail, and while we were there I saw 4 groups/couples/singles with or without dogs head off down the trail before 7:30.  I was surprised so many went so early.

I saw a bluebird in this park - always welcome, though I don't associate bluebirds with desert.

today's route

Once we were on the road, we ran into rain, heavy at times, then intermittent, but rain all through our drive.  Hard to complain about it when the state needs it so badly.  When I crossed the Red River, for instance, I noticed it barely existed.

As you might be able to tell from the map, we saw a whole lot of wide open spaces today.

I've been seeing large piles of firewood at people's homes everywhere, but I can't figure out where the trees are coming from.  Almost the only trees I've seen so far in the state (except for those near the Idaho border) have been planted or they grow along streams.

The town of Circle bills itself as "An Agricultural Community."  We always called places like that farming towns.  They expect people to come visit for the hunting and fishing, according to signs I saw.

I suffered from lack of sleep all morning.  The sun didn't go down until 8:00, and it stayed light much longer, and then I woke up at 1:00 and couldn't get back to sleep.  Maybe because of the noise from the generator - though it never got too cool in here for me.

A highway sign warned me of a "rough narrow road next 40 miles."  Not really what you want to see but I appreciated the heads-up.  And they told the truth.  That road was also straight and very hilly (making it harder for me to stay awake).

I saw more cows, fields of grain growing and bales of whatever grain had been growing there.

I've been seeing "Mandatory Watercraft Inspection Stations" all over the state, and unlike most states, the ones here in Montana are always staffed.  There was one at a rest area where we stopped so I could try to wake up.  And that's where I saw this signs about local history; I was particularly interested in the observation at the end by a local resident:

Montana is 630 miles wide, and today I'd planned to drive only 211 - so at this point, we were a third of the way on today's route, which I suppose would make us a sixth of the way across Montana.  It felt like more than that.

The sign had told me the "rough road" would last for 40 miles, but we came to miles of road construction, effectively increasing those 40 miles by a lot.  At 2 different projects we needed a pilot car, so these weren't simple little 1-lane-road short detours.

At the town of Jordan we crossed Big Dry Creek - and recrossed it later - so I can state with authority that it isn't a dry creek.

At one ranch I saw 2 large steamrollers (or whatever they're called these days) parked just inside the entrance gates - and they were surrounded by a herd of horses.  Maybe they cast shade?

After more than 2 hours of driving, I was just saying to Dext that there's bound to be another rest area up ahead - when a sign said in 1 mile there'd be a rest area.

They had a fenced-in dog area at this rest stop, and while I was waiting for Dext to get tired of sniffing around, I noticed the flags that were flying here.  Specifically I noticed that it's time for them to retire these.  Montana must really be having budget problems to leave the state flag in this shape.

It's worn down so much the last "A" is partly missing.

After crossing the Musselshell River, we were in Petroleum County.  I know mining has been a critical element of Montana's history, but this county name seems to be leaning into it a bit too much.

I'd spent this whole drive falling asleep at the wheel, an absolutely horrifying prospect with no easy remedy.  When I stopped at the rest areas and walked around, I felt awake enough to keep going - but I never really was.  Coffee and coke didn't seem to make a difference.  What likely kept me alive was the surprising lack of traffic on this highway plus the rumble strip along the center line telling me I'd drifted out of my lane.  Finally, I put on some Jimmy Buffett and that finally did it.  Hard to fall asleep when you're singing along to "Cheeseburger in Paradise."

After we'd passed Winnett, I noticed mountains in the distance - the first I'd seen in several days.  When Montana does plains, it does them good and proper; and when it does mountains, it does Rocky Mountains.  No half measures in this state.

I passed a farm with a pair of political signs: "Freedom Convoy 2022" and "Let's Go Brandon."

Following Google's directions, at the T-intersection of MT-200, which I'd just spent hours driving on, with US-87, I turned south for 1.1 mile and found what looked to me like a truck stop, right where it was supposed to be.  

I'd found a place called "Little Montana Truckstop and Campground" by looking at a Google map to see if they flagged a campground in the area.  And even though it sounded pretty casual - a truck stop, after all - I'd called ahead and made a reservation just to be sure I'd have a place to stay after a long drive.  So while I was getting gasoline (though not filling up because they were asking way more money than any place I'd been all month), I looked around for a sign but couldn't find one.  It looked like an RV was parked at another business across the road leading to the town of Grass Range, and I couldn't see a campground at this one, but I asked inside when I paid for the gas and they said sure, they had vacant camping spots.  

It seemed a little odd that they couldn't find my reservation, but that's happened to me before and this place seemed a little on the casual side (to say the least).  But I hadn't paid in advance, which might have clued me in that I was in the wrong place, so I didn't think much about it.  I paid for a night, they said to pick any spot behind the building I wanted, I drove back there and saw 6 or 8 campsites with full hookups, and I picked the one that seemed the most comfortable for us.  It was while I was walking Dext around that I noticed a small sign that read "Little Montana Truckstop" at that business across the road.

By then, there was nothing I could do about it.  No chance the folks here would give me my money back just because I got the place wrong and the other place looked a lot more pleasant (trees vs no trees, grass and other RVs vs weeds and being on our own).  Google hadn't warned me that there were 2 alleged truck stops at this intersection (and they weren't exactly truck stops, though several truckers did stop there overnight).  And this place didn't have any sign at all while the place across the street had a very small sign that I could barely read even while I was walking around and not driving down the road.  It was just one of those things.

But I didn't feel safe there.  This "Ole Mercantile" store had a bar/restaurant right next door that looked like it could get rowdy at night, and we were all by ourselves back there in the weeds.  I was once again thankful I had Dexter with me, and I locked all the doors (which I almost never bother with), and decided to make the best of it.

We got here early enough that I could have worked on my blog, but I was so tired after driving for 6 hours in hard driving conditions, and with the lack of sleep from last night, that the most I could do was edit some photos.  We had an early supper and an early last walk and called it a day.