From Billings to Fargo Aug 19-20

Leaving Billings, Montana we travelled past many yellow fields and craggy rock formations. The best was passing by fields of Deer. Unfortunately this was also the most common road kill. The sky was brilliant blue and most of the country is an ocre yellow to pale yellow.

We passed by Custer and Custer's Last Stand battlefield and the next area was Bighorn. A large sign showed that yes Sakegewea is remembered. We also flew past the small town of Forsyth with an elevation of 2525 ft. There is much ado about the Lewis & Clark Trail. One hotel sign said that Lewis and Clark slept there 167 times.

We eventually came upon Rosebud, Montana. Lovely place for sledding.

One of the many rest stops (this one on Bad Route Road) had large boards talking about Clinkers. These are red topped mountains (hills if you ask me) that have an incredible function. The red portion of the mountain is porous, so that when it rains the material absorbs the rain rather than have it run off making a natural irrigation system. The bottom portion of the mountain is a dark colour and it's core is coal. The coal inside heats up causing fire and the clinkers put the fires out.

All along our route right through into North Dakota there are small sunflowers growing on either side of the highway. You can find them in large clumps near water sources as well.

We got to met the nicest of men on our trip. We were nearest the first exit of Glendive, Montana when Patrol Office M. L. Briggs pulled us over. Kim got a $20.00 speeding ticket but he dropped the speed down so that she got the lowest fine. He left us with "Kim, watch your speed". We are still looking for an envelope and stamp to pay the fine before August 29.

A couple of the interesting places along the way were "Home on the Range" and "Camel Hump Lake". New Salem in North Dakota is famous for the world's largest Holstein Cow. Montana had what looks to be Jesus on top of the mountain. Just like South America. In Montana each town had the first letter of the town embedded in one of the hills. You could see these letters for miles. Now that we reached North Dakota, they have the world's largest buffalo. We got to see a field full of the living kind.

We saw our first water fowl in two states when we moved into North Dakota. White Cranes, Cormorants, and ducks in and around the exit for "Gackle". There is a large lake that had trees that looked like they had long since been dead, but made a beautiful sight with their branches rising above the water.

We are now headed for Duluth, St. Cloud and then onto Sauk Centre, Minnesota. I think the hardest part of this is the time changes, and when you are tired, everything is funny. It's time to hit the road.