August 27 - Miles City to Victor, MT

August 27 - Wednesday
Today was the day we were going to stop in Bozeman to visit my niece.  Driving from east to west in Montana is really quite interesting as in the east it is mainly flat farm land.  Most all of the fields were harvested leaving the area a light tan color and with those huge round bales of hay laying here and there.  I tried and tried to get a  pic of them but driving 75 mph makes it quite a challenge.

This was just beautiful driving by

Best I could do with the bales

Farmer cutting his crop 

I do find driving 75 mph is not in my comfort zone but in Montana you do what Montana's do - you drive 75.  The further west we got the more the landscape changed.  At first it was rolling hills and by the time we got to Victor it was huge rock formations and mountains. 

Wonder if this is the coal train track.

The Yellowstone River winds it's way along I-90

 When we passed by Billings I was surprised to see so many refineries. Rats, I was hoping it was only in the eastern part of the state.  Also wondered why there were so many coal cars on the railroad.  I did learn that Montana has 25 per cent of all the coal in the US.  The problem is it is difficult to mine and worse yet transporting it is horrendously expensive.  So not a lot is taken.

Not a pretty site

We did stop in Bozeman to 'try' to see my niece.  We could not connect but hopefully Roxi and Deb will be able to come to MI in October.  They are in the planning stage now.

My pitiful Barn Shot

So even tho we had not planned on arriving until Thursday we arrived a day early.  I had not seen my son Don for eight months and it was so nice to see them well and happy.  Working to much but they are young.  The town of Victor is very small but we did manage to find a restaurant to have our celebration dinner.  We were celebrating seeing them and by the end of the week they may well be celebrating us leaving. 

Mountain range getting close to Victor, MT

Mike C. would be proud of me because I have not washed the car yet.....but that will happen tomorrow I hope. 
Ok the pic of the head on the that semi was Michael Jordan and he was advertising his cologne.  So here's another one:  What actor had a pot-bellied pig called Max?

August 26 - North Unit of TRNP

After an enjoyable evening at the Medora Musical....well, maybe I overstated enjoyable.  It was unbelievably cold (46) and windy so even with our winter jackets on we were chilled to the bone.  Hello it's August not December.  And believe it or not our tickets were wrong again, but we did end up sitting in a much better viewing area.    Remember the group Chicago Boyz who did an acrobatic routine, they were there and had just an outstanding performance.  I've posted just a few pics.

The gal in the middle was the star of the show.

The Chicago Boyz were fantastic

Our mission today was to view the north unit of TRNP and that is exactly what we did.  But what we did not know was that the guard shack where you show your senior pass had 'upsized' because it was manned by this huge buffalo who was just munching grass by the TRNP sign.

The Buffalo Guard

 I would not have gone into that shack either if it meant walking pass that buffalo.  Our travels took us on a fourteen mile treck thru the park but we were detained again as another buffalo was standing in the roadway and we waited and waited for it to move. 

This one was in no hurry to move

Once it finally did we were on our way and managed to spot some big horned sheep.  Those horns were huge. 

This was taken a long way off

What a difference to have sun and clouds with no rain even if it was only 43 in the morning.  Turned out to be a much warmer day. The following pics are of the north unit.  Not a lot of people take the time to visit it because it is a 50 mile drive to just get to it.  Well worth the drive.

 

 

 

 

 

Around noon we left North Dakota and spent a few hours visiting with my niece, Deb, who lives in a small town called Circle, MT.  I have not seen my niece in a long while and can you believe I did not even think of taking a pic.  They are in the process of rehabbing their home and it is going to be gorgeous.  Very modern and sleek. 

Now Circle is 45 miles away from everything, I mean everything, no cell phones no nothing not even traffic.  So when we were leaving, Deb told us about a quicker way to get back to I-94 so we took it.  What Jim did not tell me was that the fuel was running low.  I mean low!! We arrived at a fuel station with a little under 40 miles left.  And who knew if that fuel thing was accurate.  The road we were on had nothing, it was like we were the first humans to be on that road.  No cars, no cell service, no homes- nothing.  I bet at night it's really spooky out there.  I had made my mind up that if we did run out of fuel there was no way Jim was leaving me to man the car.

We are now in Miles City, MT for the night.  Our plan, well our plan seems to change daily but we do plan to stop in Bozeman tomorrow to visit yet another niece for a few hours and then eventually get to my sons home in Victor, MT.  Real perk now is not having to deal with all those tanker trucks dealing with the oil business.  It certainly uglies up an area. 

August 25th - Teddy Roosevelt National Park:


(Note:)  If you click on one picture all of them will show up on the bottom of your screen so you can view them that way.  Easy




Well today was just ugly.   We woke up to rain and the worst looking sky I've seen in a long while.  It actually was dark and gloomy most of the day and my pics are pitiful because of it.  I did manage to get a few that were not totally black so I've posted those.

See what I mean about bad weather 

Ok who is this and what are they advertising

My Barn shot of the day

For those who don't know, I love old barns

 We did tour the South Unit of TRNP and even tho it was raining part of the day the park was just beautiful. 

Even with the heavy cloud cover the landscaping was drop dead gorgeous.

This was almost white in color

 

 

 

 

Do you see it....blue sky...almost

Saw lots and lots of buffalo.

Was singing "Oh give me a home where the buffalo roam"

 

 This was taken on the Wind Canyon Trail 

Was wondering if snakes lived in those holes in the rocks but didn't check.

Also saw lots of these Prairie Dogs just a diggin in their holes

Tonight as I said we are schedule to attend the Medora Musical and yes we have our winter coats going with us as it's still very cold.

 We are touring the North unit tomorrow and hopefully the weather will be a bit nicer. Either way we will be leaving North Dakota in the afternoon. 

I did want to mention that yesterday as we were driving from South Haven, MN to here the scenery was indescribably beautiful.  We passed field after field of corn and the corn tassels were totally bronze in color making the fields appear to have a bronze haze.  I've never seen anything like it, but sadly in just a few short weeks the corn stalks will turn from a deep green to an ugly brown and their life will come to an end. 
Along with the corn I saw just acres and acres of those gorgeous yellow sun flower plants.  Even with the wind blowing, those beautiful yellow flowers held their heads up facing the sun ever so high just reaching for it.  Those too will in no time be spent with their then brown heads hanging in despair with their leaves drooping with all life gone. 
One thing I did notice was that the fields of golden wheat were not yet harvested and I believe it is because of the tremendous rains this part of the country has gotten.  The wind and rain actually had in many spots laid the wheat on the ground.  I am sure it will be difficult to harvest those crops.
Another issue that is very noticeable is the number of tanker trucks and oil trucks in this part of the country.  Prices are much higher than I remember and it's more than likely because of the oil industry that is drilling here.  Does not make for beautiful landscapes.  Will keep blogging....

August 18, 2014 - To August 24, 2014

Aug. 18th - Monday
The day finally came for us to start our next travel adventure.  I will try posting as often as possible but since the first half of this trip will be to see our two sons and some good friends it might not be too often.  We left around eight am and managed to spend almost twelve dollars going thru tolls in Illinois before we arrived at Osseo, WI. 

My Barn Shot of the Day

Aug. 19th - 23th  (Tuesday-Saturday)
We left Osseo, WI and arrived in MN in the Prior Lake area which is near the twin cities.  We stopped to see friends Len and Linda A. which was nice  as we haven't seen them since leaving Florida. 
Then in the car and off to South Haven, MN to spend time with good friends Keith and Sandy and Jerry and Lori.  We spent a good bit of time playing cards, going on a number of boat rides and having picnic lunches most every day.

Keith and Sandy's Beach House

 

Beach Scene Just Beautiful

 

Keith and Sandy

 

Lori and Jerry

Around four each day we had our gathering time in which I finally found a drink I really liked.  I have the recipe for this so I plan on making it.  On Friday we went north to Longville, MN to see our good friend Barb for the night.  She also lives on a lake (Mule Lake) so the views were fantastic  We ended our stay Saturday night by Sandy and I beating the men at Hand and Foot which ended a ten game losing streak for Sandy.  Perfect ending for a perfect week.


Aug. 24th (Sunday)
Since we had 510 miles to travel we left fairly early for Medora, ND.  We had forgotten that we would gain an hour so actually arrived around 2:30pm.  The weather just is not co-operating as it rained a good bit of the way and it is colder than cold.  Try 54 degrees, incredibly windy and it's expected to drop to 42 tonight. Grrr.

My pitiful Barn Shot of the Day

 

Arriving in North Dakota

 

Birds in Flight Sculpture

 

North Dakota's Painted Canyon Area

 

Big day tomorrow as the first national park that we will visit will be The Theodore Roosevelt National Park which is nestled in and around a cute little town called Medora which is at the upper middle west end of North Dakota.   Tomorrow after our national park visit we have tickets for the Medora Musical which is suppose to be fantastic.  For some reason when we went to pick our tickets up they had changed our date to Sept. 5th and actually moved our seat location.  We were not able to get the seats we ordered but are very close, even so it made me mad.  Hope it is not raining tomorrow so I  can post a few pictures along the way.  That's it for now.