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.