Ashton Arrival

Stayed at a KOA just outside Red Lodge, MT.  It was an okay campground, but typical KOA over pricing, especially for a one night stand with electricity and water only.   It did have a nice doggy playground where dogs can be let off their leash for a while.  Of course, Ditto had to stop and crap right in front of the office before we got to the dog park.  I took her anyway and let her loose to read all the newspapers.  She walked nearly the entire perimeter of the park before a guy came with his huge dog.  The guy said his dog was still a pup and would not bother me or Ditto as he turned it loose, too.  Then a woman came up and turned loose her collie.  At first Ditto seem to think, “Oh boy!”, then as she approached the other dogs and saw their size, she had a change of heart and wanted to go home.

We got a fairly early start (for us) the next morning and headed on through Red Lodge and down the Bear Tooth Highway, U.S. Hwy 212.  We had come this way last summer, but from the opposite direction.  It was just as the big annual Bear Tooth motorcycle crush was going on and the highway was jammed with motorcycles from  Cody, WY up the Chief Joseph Highway and on up the Bear Tooth Highway into Red Lodge.  Red Lodge was spilling over with them (check the July 2014 timeframe on this blog).  It was different this time, though.  Red Lodge was nearly deserted and those that were there were mostly prepping for winter.  We took Hwy 212 on into Yellowstone Park via the northeast entrance.  This is a good time to visit Yellowstone as the summer vacation crowd is gone yet it is still not cold.  But, we were in a bit of a hurry to see Skyler and his little family, so we just cut through the park and exited at the West Yellowstone gate.  There we picked up Hwy 20 which took us the 70 miles or so on to Ashton, ID.  We pulled into their drive about 6 pm.

We parked up by the dog pen like we did the summer of 2014.  Skyler had upgraded his outbuildings by adding electrical power out there.  He plugged in a long heavy extension cord and we were set.  Our parking spot was even right next to his outdoor water faucet, to boot.  As we were setting up, out came little Rosie.  I don’t remember what she was wearing, but I don’t think it included shoes.  What a cutie she is.  We all went in and settled down for a pizza dinner and lots of catching up.  Besides Skyler, Millie, Rosie and the new to us baby Pennie, Skyler’s little sister Addey was there to contribute to the “catching up”.

I'm trying to catch up this blog after the hub-bub of visiting Skyler and gang.  There was too much going on for me to keep up the blog.  I have many photos I'd like to share, but still haven't downloaded from our cameras.  So, you might want to go back to this date (and the following days) on occasion to see if photos have been posted.  I'll try to remember to tell you when I've caught up.

Lunar Eclipse

First, I promised a few photos once I got them downloaded from my camera...if we had good Internet service tonight.  Well, we do, so here they are.

A shot of the road from Stanley down to Teddy Roosevelt NP.  It was heavy construction nearly all the way which is why we wound up staying at TRNP North instead of making it on down the the south park.

Then a shot of oil rigs pumping away.  There must have been hundreds of these things.  Actually, the road leaving Stanley had more than the area right around Stanley.

Taken in the North Teddy Roosevelt Park, the Little Missouri River and a CCC pavilion overlooking it.

A quickly fading sunset for the park.

The moon...just to prove there was one a few days before the eclipse.

Weird rock formation.  Could it be there was a graffiti artist there some time ago?

Someone knocked over the egg basket.

Teddy Roosevelt NP Badlands.

Park buffalo bison.  Before our visit was over we were surrounded by them after dark.  Kind of eerie watching dark hulking forms moving slowly in the moonlight.

Thousands of fat little prairie dogs put there just to make Ditto go crazy.

Another weird rock formation that caught Joyce's eye.

Today was a short travel day.  We drove maybe three hours.  Life is hard when retired.  We left Teddy Roosevelt NP South this morning just before noon.  As we headed out, we stopped to take on a load of fresh water and just beyond the watering hole was a herd of bison hanging out on and around the road.  A couple of campers on bicycles had stopped and eventually turned around.  The woman had noticed a couple of bison calves in the bunch and thought it might not be a good idea to get too close.  Joyce and I speculated the bison have been so close to so many humans in the park that a couple of cyclists would probably not be noticed.  But, better safe than sorry.

We have to eventually nose our way through the crowd to get out of the campground.  Then we headed for Medora, the little town just outside the park on I-94.  We had taken a quick look around when we had arrived yesterday, so we just drove on through the outskirts, stopping briefly at the site of a historical beef packing plant.  Oh joy.

We jumped on the Interstate and headed for Miles City where I had planned to stop for the night.  It was a short hop, but I wanted to get settled in early so I could get set up to photo the lunar eclipse this evening.

We nabbed a campsite at a clean little park called Big Sky RV Park.  After all, here we were in big sky country, so why not?  Of course, the fact that is was about the only thing around had something to do with it, too.

We got settled in and I took a nap.  No hurry, as it was early.  We ate supper and I watched a little TV (they have cable hookups here).  Watched the Pope leave...and watched the Pope leave...and watched the Pope leave.

I got a little nervous when I saw dark clouds beginning to drift in about dusk.  The eclipse was to start at 8:11 pm Mountain time.  Things were looking critical about 7 pm, but the clouds were moving quickly so maybe...

Maybe didn't happen.  I finally got my photo just as it began to sprinkle.

Regardless of the eclipse disappointment, if you have never visited Teddy Roosevelt National Park, I recommend it be added to your bucket list.  Joyce and I liked it about as much as The Grand Canyon.  It was nowhere near as crowded and the sights were beautiful, the critters great.  Of course, visiting in late September made a big difference in the visitor population, no doubt.

Sunday Morning Coming Down

Woke up this morning to the sun sneaking through the gaps around the edges of the window blinds.  Pow!  Good morning (smiley face goes here).  It's like a puppy trying to wake you up in the morning by playing licky face.

We're still in the Teddy Roosevelt National Park (southern area).  It has a 20 miles or so loop road around the park which we took yesterday...twice, once one way then once the other way.  Things often look different when viewed from a different perspective.  This is a beautiful park, but the wildlife is the big attention getter.  I've never seen so many buffalo (okay, okay, bison) roaming free as I have seen here.  There may be more at Custer State Park in South Dakota, but I been there several times and haven't seen this many before.  Then there are the white tail and mule deer and, holy cow!, the biggest prairie dog town I've seen and with the biggest fattest prairie dogs.  They look more like groundhogs they are so fat.  Guess they're about ready for winter.

On our second go round, it was dark by the time we got back.  So, it was dusk for a portion of the trip and the critters were out in force.  We even saw a herd of feral horses that thrive here.  It was getting pretty dark by now and as we were putting along about 20 mph, we picked out a dark form in the middle of the road.  As is came into view in the headlights, we could see it was a big old (I mean old) buffalo bull strolling right in the middle of our lane.  When I got too close, he grudgingly yielded the road and headed for the shoulder.  It was then we noted he was limping.  His right rear leg was in some kind of trouble.  Joyce made a comment about him gripping about having to leave the smooth road and walk in the rough roadside...with him bum leg.

As we approached the end of the loop the speed limit went from 25 mph to 35 mph, so I picked it up a bit.  Mistake.  Buffalo are very difficult to see in the dark and before I knew it, I was in the middle of a herd of 'em.  No, I didn't hit any, but they did surprize us.

Joyce and I both have a boat load of photos that I haven't yet downloaded from the cameras.  I'll try to do that and maybe make a special post of park photos IF we have decent Internet service next stop.

Boom Town

Interesting day today.  After seeing the monster coal drag lines and Mr. Peabody's coal trains hauling coal to wherever, we left the coal mining country and headed up to Minot and on to Stanley, ND.  This is the location of the Bakken shale oil fields.  A Cedarcreek friend has a friend who worked up here for a few years and the stories he carried back piqued our curiosity.  But, first, on the way there, we drove passed a large wind turbine farm with scores of huge wind turbines churning out electrical power.  A day or so ago, we passed a large group of buildings with their roofs covered with solar panels.  Last night we camped near a hydro-electric power dam.  And, now we were heading into the oil boom town of Stanley.  The range of different kinds of power sources in such a relatively small geographical area was impressive.

Actually, Stanley did not appear too much the wear for being the center of a boom.  I saw no saloons with girls dancing on the balconies, no bath houses offering a clean shave and a bath.  There was no shootouts in the street (at least while we were there).  Instead, we found a city park with some kids celebrating a birthday with a couple of little furry pups running around loose.  So, we stopped there for lunch and a rest.

We continued our tour of Stanley and as we became more sensitive to the sights that implied "boom" we began to see a larger affect on the community than first realized.  Especially, since the boom is on its way to bust now.  There were several multiple apartment dwellings under construction and several obviously on hold as the economy slows.  There were other things that showed, as well, that a boom had occurred, like five sets of siding rails, an over abundance of building material retailers, a seeming lack of churches in the numbers one typically encounters in a community this size.

Then there was the fringes of town.  It was here that the oil industry was still at work.  There were many oil pumps tilting slowly up and down with several large collecting tanks nearby.  Big pumps new pumps, not little old rusty ones like we commonly see in Oklahoma, for example.  Then there were the huge water trucks parked all around that carried water to the fields for fracking of the shale.  And, maybe that's the sign the boom is slowing.  The pumps were pumping and trucks were parked which meant the shale had already been fracked and the major employment processes were slowing down.  All that seemed to be left was the sparkling new pumps merrily humping away unattended.  Oh well, easy come easy go.

We headed on back down to Lake Sakakawea for the night.  We're now camped at a large but empty COE campground on the upper end of the lake.  Most campsites are out in the open, as is the one we're in, but this time of the year the sun is welcome as temps are running a bit cooler than summer time.  And, out in the open is good for satellite TV reception, too.  So, I'm listening to the incessant news coverage of the Pope's visit.

Tomorrow we head for Teddy Roosevelt National Park.

The Hurrieder I Go, The Behinder I Get

Yeh, well, so I'm behind with my blog.  What's new?

Okay, let's see, we landed in a little public park called Josie Creek Park near Tony, WI.  If you don't know where Tony is, it's just up the road from Ladysmith on US Hwy 8.  Got it?

We arrived just about dark.  It was a bone fide fish camp with about 12 RV sites and maybe that many more tent sites.  You cross Josie Creek on a little one-lane steel bridge to get into the park.  A lane looped around down toward the boat ramp (that's a "must" for a fish camp, ya know) and circled back up to the bridge.  It was a full campground...except for the last one on the loop.  So, we nabbed the last one on the loop - J12, it was.  But, as I stopped in the lane and prepared to back into the spot, a woman and grown teenager came walking up alongside.  I rolled down the window and the woman said, "I can move if you want me to."  It turned out, she had the next site (J11, I guess) occupied with her car while she was visiting J10.  So, there were actually two open sites.  But, I liked J12 so I told her not to worry and we got situated in J12.  Then bang!, it was dark.  Ditto and I took a walk around the loop where other campers had roaring campfires going.  Some were busy drinking beer and telling about the fish that got away that day while others just stared at the flames.  I heard a guitar in one camp, but never saw the guitarist.

The next morning I took Ditto for a walk again while Joyce made breakfast.  In the daylight, I could see the trash dumpster across from us a ways.  There was a white 5 gallon plastic bucket sitting beside the dumpster.  It had written "Gus" on the side with black felt tip.  It was then I was certain it was a fish camp.  Someone couldn't spell "Guts" and where else would you have a bucket for guts...or even gus?

Working our way across Wisconsin, we made it to Mille Lacs Lake in Minnesota.  It was my intention to stay at a Passport America park there, but I noticed a military campground just a little further down the road at Ft. Ripley.  Ft Ripley is a Minnesota National Guard training camp.  The campground was called De Parque Woods (what else?) and was located right on the west bank of the Mississippi River.  Actually, the Mississippi was bigger here than I would have guessed seeing as how the headwaters is not too far from here.

Moving on, we hit the road the next morning (Monday morning, 9/21).  We traveled Minnesota back roads and finally crossed into North Dakota at Fargo.  We went a little further in and made camp a Eggert's Landing on Lake Ashtabula.  We had been here before.  Back in 2010 in Old Pumpkin.  It has been raining cats and dogs when we got there after dark.  We grabbed a spot and hunkered down while Old Pumpkin leaked like a sieve.  This time, we arrived in the day and found the park almost empty...and dry.  Well, it did rain some last night, but not like it did in 2010.

These photos are of the same site, five years apart.  The park this time, though, was deserted.  The camp host was pulling out as we checked in.

So, we were the only campers in the park.  Only us and a young twenty year old summer job park ranger who took a liking to Joyce the second night.  Oh, did I mention we stayed there two nights?  It was so peaceful and quiet and we had been hitting it hard since leaving New York.  So, we spent two nights there.

This catches me up to today...I think.  Anyway, we left Eggert's Landing this morning about 11 am.  I dumped the waste tanks and topped off the fresh water and we headed out.

The town nearest Eggert's Landing is Valley City.  We drove through it going in to the campground and had to drive back through it to get back to the Interstate.  We had noted an interesting railroad bridge the first time, so Joyce took a couple of shots of it this morning.

We fueled up in Valley City and headed west.  About halfway along the way we managed to get right in the middle of a five truck convoy loaded with big "effing" tanks.

I pulled in behind the third truck back as they were pulling out of a gas station.  They were slow getting started so I passed the first one in front of me, but then they all got up speed and we wound up stuck behind the second one.  Oh well, they were doing the speed limit and it was interesting watching the oncoming cars and trucks try to dodge the huge extra wide tanks when they met.

The trucks turned off just before we got to Underwood which is near the COE campground where we are tonight.  Then we noticed the large fields of coal beds on our right.  It turns out Underwood is the location of one of the largest strip coal mining operation in the US, Fallkirk Coal Company.  Google them for some interesting info.

So, here we are at Downstream COE campground on Sakakawea Lake in North Dakota.  We're about to bed down after a feed.  Tomorrow we're off to Minot and Stanley to take a look at the Bakken Shale oil "fields".  Being a "boom town" area, we don't want to stay there, just pass through and see if it's as bad as we've been led to believe.  We'll take a look then head back down to Parshall Bay on the upper end of Lake Sakakawea for tomorrow night.

UP

Tonight we're in the Michigan U.P. (upper peninsula for those who thought, "Where?").  But, first, today we started out from Campers Cove about 11 am, our usual morning start goal.  Initially, I thought we would just continue up the lake shore to the Mackinac Bridge.  But, Joyce happened to note there were several ski resorts over on the western shore.  Now where we were, a ski resort would not be a likely encounter.  It's flat.  Very flat here on the eastern shore.  Piquing our curiosity, we decided to cut across to the western shore to see what gives.  Sure enough, there were "mountains" there.  Skiers could probably get up to maybe 15 mph before the slope ended.  Anyway, we were not particularly impressed except with the scenery...and the smooth riding highways.  Well, they were smooth for a few feet between cracks and potholes.

We hit the Mackinac Bridge about 1 am.  With the sun high above, it would have been a beautiful sight except is was drizzling rain or more like driving through a gray cloud.  But, it was still a beautiful sight.  Joyce got some photos, but they're on her camera...up on the dash...and I'm sitting on the rear seat.  Sooo...

We stopped for a quick lunch at a scenic view pullout then headed on down US Hwy 2.  We had visited the U.P. in 2010 in old Pumpkin so we don't plan on staying long here this time.  So, we stayed on Hwy 2 down to near Escanaba where we veered off a short distance to a quiet little campground named Vagabond Resort on Little Bay de Noc on Lake Michigan.  It's not fancy, but I like it here.  I might stay...well, maybe not.  I've still got to see Rosie and PJ.

We're sitting here watching Rachael Maddow right now.  It's the first campsite I've been able to use my "Tailgater" Dish antenna.  When the tree count is down or there's a good sized hole located in the right place, I can get Dish TV just like at home.  Sometimes you just get tired off campfires, wine and a lawnchair.  Yeah, right.

Tomorrow night we'll be somewhere in Wisconsin.  I'll be more specific when I know where.

Great Lake! Huron, that is.

The lake was a bit far to walk to and there were too many trees to see it from Lakeport State Park where we spent the night, so we had to be happy to just know it was there.  But, today was different.  We made our way up the western shore of Lake Huron on Hwy 25, glimpsing the beauty of the lake as we passed openings between the homes and resorts stretching along the shore.  However, it became obvious we needed to move along, so we cut over to I-75 on Hwy 46 halfway up the "thumb".  When we hit Bay City, we headed back to the lake shore and traveled up on Hwy 23 toward Alpena.  Again, homes and resorts stretching all along between the highway and the shore.  But, most were classy places, not the typical run-down vacation homes and cabins.  There seemed to be some competition in naming each home.  Names like "R Place" and "P, B & J".  I wish I could remember more, but I am old, you know.  There were lot's of good names though.  And the beach itself.  We didn't actually walk on the beach, but it was a white clean looking sand without the heavy beat of constant waves rolling in.  Not that I don't like the ocean surf, but the lack of a heavy surf makes for a different experience.  Plus, you don't come out of the water all salty.

Those of you who enjoy going to the beach (and you know who you are), you might want to consider the western shore of Lake Huron for a change.  It's not summer weather here now, but mid-July ought to be fantastic here.

Speaking of the weather, we've been very lucky.  Today was in the mid-eighties and nights have been cool, but still warmer than the norm for this part of the country.  Looks like we might may continue to luck out on our trip to Idaho.  The 10-day looks good from here to Montana.  Some rain - maybe, but chilly weather is holding back, so far.

We're staying at another Passport America tonight just inland from Alpena.  As is our norm, we've been making this trip without making reservations.  It's not been a problem so far.  But, we almost had a problem here at Campers Cove.  Here it is, September 17th and this place is having a Halloween celebration of some sort the next three weekends.  We're nearly a month and a half from Halloween.  What the heck?!!  The campground was packed and nearly full already on Thursday.  It must get crazy tomorrow night.  I almost wish we could stay to see what the big deal is.  But, we will head on across the Mackinac Bridge tomorrow and try to keep heading west.  Besides, I don't think they would have an open spot for us tomorrow.