6/16/13 Crossing into Canada

We had a rough crossing the last time we entered Canada (for the Maritimes trip -  we got pulled out of line and they took all our alcohol, our plants and firewood - all because we forgot some alcohol that we carry for cooking, not drinking - rum for cake, and bourbon for salmon).  So, this time we were prepared and inventoried the rig and knew exactly how much alcohol we had on board - 11 cans of beer, 1/2 box of wine, 2 full bottles of wine and less than 1/2 bottle of bourbon.  I even poured one bottle of white wine that was in the frig down the drain, and gave a second bottle of while wine to a neighbor in the campground.  They were both "two buck chuck" and we could not see paying duty on wine that we don't usually drink anyway (we are merlot drinkers).  We knew we were a little over the limit and thought we would just pay the duty and be on our way.

When we got to the crossing, the border patrol did not ask a single question about alcohol.  All he wanted to know was if we had any weapons.  He asked three times about weapons and even asked if we were sure we didn't have even a "teeny tiny gun".  Go figure.

We are going to Banff tomorrow and are excited to see this beautiful park.

6/15/13 Montana

We have been driving through Montana and seeing a lot of beautiful country side.  Phil and Nita have had repeated problems with their truck and it has been a frustrating trip for them.  Hopefully the last fix will work and they won't have to see the engine light come on again.

Spent a couple of days at Glacier National Park.  As has been happening at several places we visited, we were a little early to see all of the park.  In fact, we could only drive on 16 miles of a 50 miles loop as the snow had yet to be plowed off it!  However, Phil and I decided to hike to the top of a 2 mile trek up the mountain to see "Avalanche" lake.  The first thing we saw on the hike was a sign warning about black bears.  I almost turned around at that point.  However, I picked up a couple rocks to bang as we went around the hidden corners and we mounted the trail.  It took almost two hours to make the hike as it was so steep and the elevation did not help either.   Along the way we saw a very fresh pile of bear scat and heard of bear sightings from others on the trail.  A little nerve racking, but we continued on.  It was well worth it when we got to the lake at the top,  It was breath taking.  The trek down went much faster.  About and hour and 15 minutes.  However, going down hill so steeply was murder on the knees.  I could barely walk on my left knee by the time we got to the bottom.   I was worried that I might have done some damage.  But I iced it that night and it was fine the next morning.

6/3/13 Medora, ND to Billings Montana

Traveled today, we left North Dakota at 9:00 this morning and didn’t get into Billings, Montana until around 5:00. Should not have taken that long, but old Murphy was sitting heavily on Phil’s shoulder today.  Nita tells the story the best, so here is her journal post on the day:

" It was raining when we got up this morning, and it rained nearly all day. Pushing the rain showers was a super strong headwind (is there any other kind??). A headwind of any kind kills your gas mileage!! Added to the mix were some really long steep climbs. Do you see where I’m going with this?? Yep…it happened again!! We ran out of fuel!! Only difference was, this time we were paying attention to it. The engine warning light is going off again, and I truly think that it has something to do with the computer. When Phil noticed that we might have a problem with fuel, the readout said we had enough fuel to go 71 miles and we only had about 55 miles to go to reach the RV Park. Then the available miles started to rapidly fall and damn, we are on the side of the interstate again!! Fortunately, this time John and Fran were behind us!! John drove up to the next town, picked up fuel and brought it back to us. When we finally got the truck going again, the computer said we had 71 miles of fuel left!! On five (5) gallons of fuel!!! Yeah, right!! Lesson learned…don’t trust the computer, trust the gauge!!"

But, wait…there’s more! When they pulled off of the interstate to get fuel, Phil noticed that the trailer is leaning a little bit. So when they got to the gas station, he got under and looked, sure enough, they had a busted spring on the passenger side of the rig, and we are in the middle of nowhere in Montana! Our destination for today was Billings, MT, so our only choice was to try to make it. At least they had a full tank of fuel, but the wind is still blowing a gale, and now their trailer is going down the road at a slight angle. We are only going 50 miles per hour on the interstate trying to keep their tires from blowing with the added stress of the broken spring.

 A very stressful 45 minutes later, we pulled into the RV park that will be our base camp for the next four nights, that is, provided we can get the spring replaced and get the truck looked at for the engine warning light.

 After we got settled in and relaxed a bit, Phil & Nita's friends, Eric and Connie Johnson came over and we followed them to the Red Lobster for dinner. We had a great dinner and really enjoyed meeting Eric and Connie.  After dinner we found the local Wal-Mart and did some grocery shopping. So, it was late when we got home and got everything put away. Been a long day, glad it’s about over!!

6/1/13 Medora - The sun is shining!

Woke up to more rain and cool temperatures on Friday , so we decided to stay in today, get some wash done and just rest. We watched a couple of movies this afternoon, and then played some cards.   So far, we have had over 3” of rain with this storm and we are under a flood watch.

 Saturday morning the sun was shining!! So, we decided to see some sights. When we got out to the car, we had a big surprise. On top of the driver’s front tire was a bird nest, with long strands of string hanging from it. The time frame that the car sat there was from late Thursday afternoon through this morning. We felt so bad to have to move the nest, but better that it be done now, before there are eggs in it. So, we put it on a limb of the tree next to the rig, hoping for the best.

 Bird nest taken care of, we headed back to the National Park, driving the southern loop. This park is beautiful; there are so many different types of landscapes. Grassy hills that drop suddenly to form cliffs showing the different levels of sediment, making it look like they are painted with different colors. The erosion of the different clays leaves huge boulders sitting on top of pedestals, ready to topple at any moment. The recent rains have caused mudslides, rearranging the landscape again.

 The park is full of Prairie Dog Villages and we stopped to watch their antics many times. Today we even saw several babies, under the watchful eyes of adults, as they played and rolled in the dirt. We also saw a few lone buffalo on the grassy slopes, and some wild horses.

 After the completion of the park loop, we drove east on I-94, backtracking a little, to the visitor’s center for the painted hills of the North Dakota Badlands. Before we even got all the way into the parking lot, we find a small herd of Bison resting in the grass. These were older males, I think, they had the full beards of a more mature bull. It is easy to forget that these are wild animals and that they can be very dangerous. They are use to people and seem to take our presence with a grain of salt. But, the biggest bull can weigh up to 2000 pounds, turn on a dime and charge at 35 miles per hour!  So we did not let them get too close.  There was one point where I had to keep backing up as one was heading my direction and made me very nervous!  I was able to do facetime with the grandkids and give them really close up views of the bison doing very normal behavior such as scratching their backs on trees.

Here a couple of the beautiful views we saw:

To finish off the day, we went back to the ice cream shop and finally got our ice cream, it was really good! 

5/31/13 First Day in Medora

Still raining this morning, this is a pretty steady rain, the type that will soak in and not just run off. That is, if there is soil and not clay. The roads in the campground are developing small red pools.

We braved the rain and went to explore the Visitor’s Center at the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. We started to go on the loop around the southern edge of the park, but because of the rain, any pictures we might have taken would not have turned out well, so we turned around and headed for Medora.

 Medora is a very small town that caters to the tourist industry, and is only open during the tourist season. There is no grocery store, only a convenience store where you can buy bread and milk, but that’s it without going 35 miles east or west. There are only 42 regular residents here in the winter time, and everyone who works here during the tourist season comes from somewhere else. There is a lot of history here and several museums, including a Cowboy Hall of Fame.  We tried to get an ice cream cone at the ice cream and fudge shop, but we were a couple of days to early and were asked to come back on Saturday.

 With no ice cream available, we gave up and came back to the campground, where we spent the afternoon playing cards.  The girls are leading the guys 17 wins to their 11.  We are going to keep track to see which team has the most wins at the end of the trip. 

5/29/13 Crazy Horse to Medora

We managed to get up and get out of the Crazy Horse Campground by 9:00am, that’s a really early start for us!! We headed north on Highway 85 and made a quick stop in Spearfish at the Wal-Mart to get a few things 

The first part of the trip was through more rolling hills of green grasslands, used mostly for grazing. Along the way we saw lots of cattle, and some Antelope and Deer. There were a couple of signs notifying us that there were private Bison herds, but we didn’t actually see them.   We eventually crossed into North Dakota.   Lots of beautiful countryside to see!

 Since before we left on this trip, we have been hearing about how busy the south west part of the state is due to oil drilling and pipeline. We saw several new oil drilling sites, the equipment pumping the oil is the same we have seen everywhere all over the country, the same up, down pump. I was kind of surprised that technology hasn’t upgraded this process. We didn’t see any evidence of pipeline going in, so that must be happening elsewhere.

About 2 miles below the surface of western ND is a formation called the Bakken, this is a rock layer rich with oil reserves. Until recently this oil was not extractable. A new and controversial technique-hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” has now allowed oil companies to get the oil out of the ground. Phil and Nita have had personal experience with “fracking” in Arkansas, where they are using this method to get the natural gas out of the rock. In Arkanuste