Today’s drive was 280 miles but seemed much longer. We
stopped at every rest area, mainly just to stretch and walk around. Even
Lovie and the cats were agitated. Lovie either sat on me or jumped back
and forth between the back and front seats for the whole trip (not her usual behavior).
Towards the end Gwen caterwauled for 20 or 30 minutes. I let her out of
her carrier and it didn’t help. At one point she stepped on the window
control and lowered it all the way down. I don’t know which of us was
more surprised. She didn’t try to jump out but neither did she back away
from the window so another few seconds and she might have taken a leap to
freedom (and injury or death). That reminded us to be sure the
child-locks are activated when either cat is loose. Now that we’re set up
and back to normal everyone is fine.
The Montana welcome center was a nice break. The lady
working there was quite interesting. I could have visited with her for
quite a while. She asked if we’d heard about the situation at Glacier
National Park which I haven’t related yet. A 38-yr-old mountain biker was
killed by a grizzly two days ago, riding just outside the park boundary.
He grew up in the area and was a U.S. Forest Service law enforcement officer so
certainly knew what he was doing. It was a very unfortunate situation.
I don’t have many pictures for today. Several didn’t
turn out well which is unusual. Had a problem with them blurring while we
were driving.
A beautiful pond on I-94 as we were leaving North Dakota
this morning.
Crossing into Montana. This is what I thought the southeastern part of Montana would look like but the rolling grasslands lasted for only a short time. There are lots of badlands and hills with a lot more visual interest than I expected.
Crossing into Montana. This is what I thought the
southeastern part of Montana would look like but the rolling grasslands lasted
for only a short time. There are lots of badlands and hills with a lot
more visual interest than I expected.
More Yellowstone River valley farms and fields with badlands
ridges in the distance. In the eastern part of Montana the river gets
broader and slower as it goes past the farms which depend on it.
The Yellowstone is the last free-flowing river in the lower
48 states, running 692 miles from its headwaters near Yellowstone Lake to the
Missouri River in ND. Its blue-ribbon trout are famous in the world of
fly-fishing. We will probably see the other end of the river when we
visit Yellowstone National Park in September.
In case anyone is curious about the town of Garryowen, it
was named for the well-known Irish tune, the marching song of the 7th
Cavalry of the Battle of the Little Bighorn fame. A privately owned town
of 7.7 acres with a population of two (I’m assuming they’re the owner and his
wife), it is situated where Sitting Bull’s camp was located just prior to the
battle. It consists of two buildings which house a gas station, a Subway
restaurant, an arts and crafts store, a museum and the post office. The
town has been for sale for a while. It was put up for auction in 2012 but
was withdrawn from the auction when no bids were received. From what I
can determine, it is still for sale today. The company handling the sale
calls it “one of the smallest towns in the United States.” Does this mean
there’s a town with a population of one? It sounds cool to own your own
town…….until you want to sell it and can’t get rid of it.
We’re at the 7th Ranch RV Park a few miles south
of Garryowen. It borders one end of the five-mile-long battlefield.
We can see I-90 from our campsite but thankfully can’t hear it. The
next two days we’ll be touring the battlefield and nearby museums in the midst
of mid-90’s heat. (It was 94 when we got here.) The reviews of the
battlefield suggest that it takes more than one day to do it thoroughly so
we’re here for two days to accomplish both that goal and the one of getting
well away from any fireworks and 4th of July noise.
No comments:
Post a Comment