Day 20, Monday June 17, 2022, Traveling from Minot ND to Malta, Montana.

 Day 20,  Monday June 17, 2022, Traveling from Minot ND to Malta, Montana.

Another beautiful day in the northern Plains as we move to another state and as far west as we go on this one. The morning was very nice with temps at 61F when we awoke, ((7:00 AM) . Our friend Bob from Chesaning, MI, who camped next door, left just before we did as he was headed to Glacier National Park with his two children (14 and 18) and wife for his two weeks vacation. I believe he works for the Saginaw County Road Commission in  Saginaw.

We were on the road at 9:30 am and with the one hour that we gain (Time zone change)  heading into Mountain time at the Montana border, we will save an hour.

 

Do you wonder why the powerlines look so sturdy out here in the Plains?

In front of Doc Holiday's Restaurant are 25 figures of the"Old West"

Floodman's Thistle

 

Again this route takes us through that wide open, Big Sky country and nothing but wheat fields and specifically spring wheat, durum wheat, barley, flaxseed and safflower. Ruth and I were trying to figure out why the wheat was not all the same color? That explained it as research shows that there are three kinds of main grains listed. The darker green wheat is the spring wheat and the lighter the durum. We did see some fields of Flax, (blue) and Safflower (yellow) also called rape seed. Some photos show the fields as far as the eye can see.

More of the "Old West  at "Doc Holliday's"

One of 5 main crops is the spring wheat .It is a deep green color..

Another crop is flax seed. It has a blue flower

 

One of the towns we went through (there were not many on this 200 mile leg), was Poplar, MT. It is the center of activity for the the Ft. Peck  Reservation and  is home to The Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes^. Though separate, both tribes have similar-sounding languages and are of the Siouxian language family. Fort Peck Reservation is home to those two separate Indian nations, each composed of numerous bands and divisions. The Sioux divisions of Sisseton/Wahpetons, the Yanktonais, and the Teton Hunkpapa are all represented. The Assiniboine bands of Canoe Paddler and Red Bottom are represented. There are about 9,000 members at the present time. (One quarter blood qualifies for membership).  Most of the social activity, residences and outdoor activities are along the Missouri River, which flows along the southern boundary of the reservation.The town of Poplar has many services ad building the tribes built and is the assumed "Headquarters" for the tribes.

 

The high banks of the Missouri River  can be seen all along US 2 and here at Bowdoin NWR in the distance

 

We watched  the high banks of the Missouri from US 2 for the entire 200 miles into Malta. The Yellowstone River flows north out of Yellowstone National Park, and empties into the Missouri flowing east in north central Montana south of US 2  about one hours drive. This area on the Missouri is where Lewis and Clark took the Expedition of 1804-1805 to the west coast  for President Jefferson.

After the border with Montana, there were no oil rigs, oil pads nor trucks. The Bakken oilfield is only in NE North Dakota.

Western Wallflower

The oil industry (Bakken Field) is everywhere near Minot ND

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An open site at Minot, but quiet.

 We are camped on the north edge of Malta  in a very small (25 sites) campground right along side the Milk River which we will see more of as we travel through the NWR's. Behind the campground, is a "campers delight". HA! The main tracks of the BN & SF Railroad. Since we set up our site  about 9 trains have gone through including the "Amtrac". (Passengers only). The Milk River crosses under the trestle so the sound of the cars going over is usually very loud! The trestle is about 300 feet away. This is the main line between Minneapolis and Seattle so everything on the RR goes through here. The trains average 150 cars each, and there is a puller and a pusher Engine to move it along. I'll let you know how the night goes. !!!  The west bound trains are almost always empty and move fast .

We did get set up, but the truck was on an incline and we lost the blocks holding it up as we unhitched the truck. The trailer went down on the hitch foot. No one hurt even though Ruth is back there usually. A neighbor happened to be going out and stopped when he heard and saw the jolt. He helped us and after some jack work (always carry a jack in a trailer) and some redoing of the blocks  under the wheels, we were back on line again. Oh Hum!

That gave Ruth and myself some time to cool off from the 87 F heat in the A/C trailer that was cooling down.

We had bought some prepared Chicken Stroganoff at Albertsons (grocery) this week and had that with rice. We seldom buy prepared food but that sounded good and it was. The evening cooled off quickly and it was comfortable outside where I am writing this missive

.Hello to my Russian friends who are reading this. There are as many of you as there are those from the USA, my home country. I hope all is well over there with you .Make a comment in the comment space and tell me where you  are. That would be good for me to know.

Tomorrow we will go to a National Wildlife Reserve (NWR) nearby, and look for shore birds and perhaps an Eagle if we re lucky.

See you then.-- Jim