No, I didn’t visit the Mall! :-)

Saturday, 16 May 2009.  And in new is and as I didn’t really have to be on the road until about noon.  I got some e-mail done and uploaded my diary.  Today was quite nice and quite warm. 

I finally headed out about noon and look forward to an easy drive up to Edmonton.  For the most part one it was exactly that.  I did get lost looking for a gas station in Calgary and shortly thereafter stop for some gas at a gas station along the road and out-of-town. 

The weather was warm, it was sunny most of the time.  However, I did run through the occasional cloudy spells along with the shower or two.  Just before Edmonton was a visitor’s Bureau where I stopped to get a map or two and some information on both British Columbia and the Yukon.  A plan to hit the Visitors Bureau of both BC and the Yukon when I cross the borders.  The map of Edmonton proved very useful.  The drive-in to Lyn and Tony’s house would fairly smoothly although there was a fair amount of traffic. 

They had both made it home already and I was able to settle in and have a very nice conversation with the both of them.  I was taken in hand by William, their son, and given his tour of his room and a discussion of many of the toys on the shelf. 

After a most delightful dinner Tony soon crashed out as it had a long day.  Lyn and I sat around and chatted while fending off for two kids plus the two dogs.  Lynn put one kids’ program on that was a parity of Star Trek.  While little kids would love it, Trek fans would be rolling on the floor laughing. 

We had a tiny bit of excitement of excitement later when as Lyn and I were talking, one of the dogs, Dino, decided that he had to go to the bathroom and didn’t asked to be let out.  I managed to get him out of the house before he repeated his exercise while Lyn was beginning to take care of the mess on the floor. And we decided to call it an evening about this time.

Well, they did let me in.

Friday, 15 May 2009.  I rolled out of bed early enough to catch continental breakfast at the motel.  It looks like a mostly sunny day out and the temperatures in the springtime range. 

For the open road beckoned and I headed down the interstate for about an hour-turn north.  My goal was Lethbridge in Alberta.  Although the road is not marked as scenic it was pretty enough.  Heading up the road in a wide valley of farmland.  However, often in the distance in almost any direction were snow-covered mountains. 

After not void in all were they picked up Interstate 15 which was also quite pretty as it ran between two mountain ranges.  Love the whole traffic was rather light, and I was able to cruise along at just barely over the speed limit.  I didn’t want to be accused of blocking traffic. 

I left the interstate once again and drove through farmland with mountains mainly to the west of me. 

 I stopped off in Augusta for a light lunch.  The bar has a thing for elk, and the ceilings were covered with antlers.  While the hamburger was pretty good it did take quite a while for to show up and then they barman managed to forget to bring out my can of Pepsi.  However, I had a nice chat with some of the people at the bar.  I finally finished up and headed back north.  Was heading back to the interstate and took a couple back roads to get there.  

At the border the fun began.  It was quite slow as there was only one gate open at the border.  Tho he was polite, I always am to Border Folk, he told me to go inside and see the officers there. 

Some 10 or 15 minutes later I was finally called up to one of the officers and  eventually he stamped “Admitted” and directed me to another desk.  At this point they took the card and said I was free to go.  Later there are some speculation by some of the Canadians I met that this type of behavior was in response to the Speaker of the House’s comments.  Gee, thanx! 

The rest of the drive up to Lethbridge went smoothly.  I only had to ask directions once in order to find my motel, and the price was as stated in the AAA book.  The room was nice and I settled in for the evening.  As I had a wireless connection I was able to get a few things done.  Then I walked next door to Dairy Queen for some chicken thingies.  Time to crash out, it had been a long day.

Where the Bison & Deer Play, Tra, La, La!

Thursday, 14 May 2009.  Up at my usual hour AP stealthy window to see a lightly overcast sky was comfortable and cool temperatures.  They killed an hour in the end went over for breakfast not too far for the motel.  I had pancakes, unfortunately they were made the way I make them, huge.  I really needed only about one not the three I ordered.  They were pretty good and held me for the rest of the day.  While at breakfast I called both Yellowstone and Glacier International Park.  Yellowstone was no problem coming in from the north which I ended up doing.  On the other hand it was snowing up a Glacier and the roads were mostly closed.  I may well decide to cut through glacier on my way back in June.  There’s probably a better chance of not running into snow and the roads being open. 

The drive from Billings to Livingston was under mostly cloudy, but not too cloudy, skies.  It was an easy run and stopped in Livingston to get some gas.  The drive down 89 to the entrance of Yellowstone was delightful.  You’re running down basically a valley between two mountain ranges.  The road kept creeping higher in elevation and the snow kept coming down the mountainside. 

It was a slow but not too busy drive through Yellowstone.  The scenery is a spectacular as advertised.  It is sort of neat to drive by icy cold streams with steaming thermal springs adjacent.  I did manage to get a couple pictures of the thermal springs, though no geysers were in action as I go through the park.  I guess I could have waited a half an hour in the rain and sleet, may be soft snow, for Old Faithful but I declined.  I’m getting soft and my old age.

The other thing I noticed was as in much of the northern tier of the country spring was barely peeping out of the branches and trees.  There was some hint on them that life was aborning but that was about all.  The sky was overcast broken and I would drive through lots of sun and then deep shadow.  It was cool but not cold.  This change when they clouds moved in when I got nearer Old Faithful.  The rain was cold and nasty.  Oh yes, coming into the park a first ran into snow at car level at about 6700 feet. 

I only spent a few hours in this marvelous park amidst beautiful scenery.  I can definitely see a week or more wandering through the park and exploring all the byways of it.  It is an amazing place. 

I eventually headed west and out of the park after only sipping at all the beauty of the scenery I was driving through.  There were lots of bison wandering the park.  As I was leaving a dozen or so of them, including some calves, cross the road blocking traffic for quite a while.  There was also horses and what looked to be deer in the park.  Rear-ended or hit head-on 2000 pounds of hamburger walking down the middle of the road. 

I was looking forward to a nice drive up the scenic byway, US 191, but this was not to be my fate.  Due to construction and road repair I was detoured up US 287 before cutting back on SR 84 to the Bozeman area.  This added about 60 miles and a good hour to my driving time.  The drive that was actually quite pretty and I drove through a delightful rain shower, which may have been wet snow, it did hit my windscreen in an unrainy fashion.  As I was driving through a wide valley the wall of rain was quite obvious for some time and it seemed to take forever to actually catch up to it.  One reward for driving through the rain was a very pretty double rainbow.  If it was snow that was falling as well could you call this a snowbow?  Snow at car level down to 4800 feet on this road. 

I finally got to the Bozeman area, I was actually staying in Belgrade, and found my motel.  As this motel not only he had wireless but free long distance calling, I called my connection number in Albany in order to call Edmonton in Canada.  I can’t use my cell phone until Saturday without incurring really expensive roaming charges.  With Glacier International Park closed in one would be arriving in Edmonton a day early.  If I needed to check with the Lynn and Tony on this.  If need be through Banff.  As it turned out to Lynn said they had no were problems with me are writing a day early.  We agreed on a time, and I said I would be there. 

I finally managed to catch some dinner at the casino diner across the street as the original restaurant I was going to go to had just closed.  They don’t stay open late on Thursday in Belgrade.

Springtime in Montana = Snowstorms! Cool!

Wednesday, 13 May 2009.  I got up at my usual 7 a.m. time having had a mixed bag of sleep.  It is a good thing I’m not Korean, or I would have had dog for breakfast.  Some idiot let his dog out in the middle of the night, and then didn’t let him back in.  Thus, for about 10 minutes this dog was yapping and barking trying to get back in the room.  I called the front desk, and said, “If you don’t shut the dog up, I am going to call the police.”  Another guest at the motel yelled out of his door about shutting up the dog. 

I awoke to find it dismal and wet.  After waiting the hour until I can go and have food, and I headed over to the restaurant next door fighting brisk winds and rain.  Then I realize that some of the rain looked white.  While having breakfast I looked out the window and saw that it was snowing quite nicely.  Springtime in Montana.  It will be an interesting drive over to Custer’s Last Stand this morning.  Time to upload yesterdays diary entry and get on the road. 

Check-in and noticed there was a Wal-Mart just down the street from the motel and I was able to go over and pick up some balm for my foot.  I am still having some problems with dryness of the skin on the bottom of my left foot.  They had what I wanted and at a third of the price of the expensive variety. 

Loaded up and ready to go I headed down I-94 and eventually Little Bighorn National Park.  It was cloudy and off in the distance I could see something falling from the clouds.  I was hoping, it was snow as I prefer that to a cold rain.  Before long I got my wish.  First it was flurries, and then it was an actual snowstorm.  At times visibility appeared to drop to less than a mile as the wind whipped snow blew across the highway.  Soon the hills were alive, well maybe dead, but covered in snow.  A few miles into the blizzard, well seemingly heavy snow and high winds were good enough in my mind, I stopped to take a picture of the snow-covered landscape.  The grooves in the side of the road, the ones that warn you if you’re going off the highway, were filled with slush not water.  A little later I stopped and made a lovely snowball, which I photographed sitting on my windscreen.  I shall later tell folk this was the size of the hail that was falling.  Hey, some folk will believe almost anything.    The snow depth was about 1 inch.  This would lead me to believe that probably the equivalent of 2 to 3 inches of snow fell in this area as the first snowfall would melt on the warm grass and road surface.  It was obviously cold as when I crossed lanes, the snow on the road crunched as if it were frozen.  I carried on and not very far after I had made the snowball, which I threw at a post, I must have crossed some sort of divide.  The snow vanished as if some giant hair dryer set on high played across the landscape.  Within a couple miles there was not a flake to be seen. 

The wind continued to howl and push my car to the side of the road as I drove the rest of the way to the park.  By this time the overcast had partially broken and occasional rays of sun were seen. 

At the visitors center I got my park passport stamped and watched a short video of the battle there.  I then headed out to take a short drive from the hill where Custer died, almost adjacent to the visitors center, to Reno’s encampment about 5 miles away.  Along the way there were numerous way posts with descriptions of what went on that day, and how it unfolded. 

One could easily say that lack of intelligence of where and how many Indians there were, plus the feeling that the troops could easily handle any number of Indians that they faced.  It also illuminated the adage that one should not split their forces.  Custer did exactly this.  Also 250 troopers didn’t have much of a chance against 3000 Indian warriors.  They knew the landscape Custer didn’t. 

I recently read somewhere that the reason US troops were pushing the Indians out of the Dakota territory and onto a limited reservation was to give gold miners and stockman the land.  One reason the Indians were not too happy about this was that they had a treaty which gave them the land in the Dakotas in the first place.  Ah politics, it never changes. 

After a couple hours of a windblown visit to the park, I headed up the road to Billings and my motel room.  By this time it warmed up and the sun was out.  I no longer needed my hat and jacket.  Actually, the day had turned into a very nice spring day. 

Tomorrow morning I’ll figure out exactly where I’ll be heading.  After breakfast I have to call Yellowstone to make sure the roads are opened, and then I will have to call Glacier International Park to see if the road through the park is open.  This will determine which direction I’ll head after staying overnight in the Bozeman area.

Cruisin’ thru ND Badlands

Tuesday, 12 May 2009. I got up about 7.  It was cool and there was a hazy overcast.  However the forecast was for temps in the 60s and no rain until later or late in the afternoon.  After puttering around for about an hour I went and had breakfast which was quite excellent and provided by the motel.  Now to go forth and wonder through Teddy Roosevelt National Park – South.

The drive to the park was easy it was a beautiful day and traffic was light.  I first stopped at the Painted Canyon section of Teddy Roosevelt National Park.  I wanted to get a second stamp for my National Park Passport.  Which I had purchased yesterday.  I was also delayed due to my chatting with the attractive lady behind the counter.   The view was just a preview of the awesome landscape of the park.

To get to the park’s main entrance one drives through Medora.  The town looks like a set for a Western movie.  I went in and got money second stamp and might pass for the park.  It helps having an Olde Pharte’s pass for all the national parks.

The drive through the park was marvelous.  The drive is something like 35 miles long, and I stopped at all to turn offs state photos and even hiked up one he’ll do take a bunch of panoramic photos of the park.  One good thing about going to parks early in the season is that there is nobody there.  I would take photos, and there would be nothing but empty and very pretty landscape about me.  What I stood silently you they are all like it here was some birds and the winds blowing over the rolling hills and raw cliff faces.

The sky slowly clouded over, and by the time I was about three quarters of the way through the park the first drops of rain began to fall.  For a considerable time it was merely a sprinkle here and there but no serious rain.

Unless the park and headed down I-94 to Miles City, MT.  The drive was easy as there was little traffic on the highway.  However, in the rains began to fall as I pass through one band after another of pretty heavy showers.  Yet, by the time I reached Miles City, the sky was overcast but broken and no rain was falling.

Under these conditions I was able to have a very filling Hunan Chinese dinner.  I then returned to the room to putter about on the computer.  I did manage to book a room in Billings before the thunderstorms started.  Thunderstorms soon developed after our return to the room and lightning and thunder crashed around the area.  Then the noise intensified.  I went outside to see what was happening and found that we were in the midst of a hailstorm.  While I had seen hail before, this was a little bit special.  The hail came down as if it were snow.  I even got a photo of my car covered in the hail stones about the size of large peas.  The storm and hail raged about the motel and me for about an hour or so and also knocked out the Internet connection.  Enough was enough, and I went to bed.

I keep forgetting to note, as I headed north from Chicago this season seem to recede.  It wasn’t long before most of the trees barely had any green on them and most of the branches of trees and bushes were bare.

Oh yes, as I had breakfast, before I return to update yesterday’s, the 12^th, diary entry, I watch snowfall outside of the window of the restaurant.  Ahh, spring.

Even being screwed, the day was fine.

Monday, 11 May 2009.  After a fair night’s sleep, I did get this sleep rather early, I awoke to find a basically clear sky out my front window.  While it was a little chilly when I got up, the temps later in the day are supposed to be up around 70.  I can deal with this.  I got a few things done around the room including packing up and changing clothes and then headed out to a local restaurant for breakfast.  It was obvious lie and hang out for the locals.  This is always a good sign.  The breakfast wasn’t bad and the price was relatively decent.  I also took the time to gas up as now that I am not near cities I tend to fill up the tank much more frequently as a safety precaution.  It is quite easy to drive a hunter more miles without ever seeing a gas station. 

Now to tackle the north section of Teddy Roosevelt National Park.  After the visit I headed south for Dickinson which is just a little bit east of the north-south line through a Watford City.  However, I will now be on Mountain standard Time.  I enjoy a heading west as when I a cross into a new timed zone, I gain an extra hour.  Of course, heading east can be a real pain when I’m driving all day trying to make time and distance and losing that hour each day.

As of loaded up the car with the last bits and notice something shiny in my right front tire.  I thought it was a stone but it turned out to be screw of some sort.  This was not a good thing.  I was directed to a local gas station.  The chap said, as soon as the could open up a bay, he would take care of my tire.  As it turned out to screw had not completely penetrated the tired but the mechanic apply the patch to the inside for safety’s sake.  The whole thing took about 90 minutes to two hours and costs under $15.  Feeling much better at a little bit safer I headed down the road to Theodore Roosevelt National Park North. 

The rolling countryside in itself was quite pretty.  I couldn’t help but stop and take some pictures of the entry landscape to the park at a scenic overlook.  Unfortunately the road through the park ended only 6 miles into the park.  Part of the roadway was sliding off the side of the cliff and this was sort of poor to drive on. 

I did stop and take some pictures at the various turnoffs along the portion of the road that was open.  At the end of the open road there was a 1.5 mile nature walk.  As I had plenty of time and I’ve been sitting in the car for a while I thought a stroll along the path would be fun, and it was.  Of course, there was the warnings that buffaloes are dangerous and do not get close, and that there were Rocky Mountain rattlesnakes in the area to add to the excitement of the walk. 

In my own fashion I did the walk all along the path. Then as I came back along the path I took pictures of the various views noted in the brochure about the path.  I tried to include the number posts that coincided with points of interest. 

Today had become warm enough so that while I was happy I had long pants on I did take off my long sleeve shirt.  It was mostly sunny and actually beautiful with a nice breeze.  On my way out of the park I stopped by the ranger station which was now open and asked the ranger there what do you do if you run into a Buffalo along the path.  This suggestion coincided with what I thought one should do, which is to climb up the side of the hill or down as the case may be and let the Buffalo go by.  Of course, while doing this one should make sure you are not going to be stepping on a rattlesnake which would also ruin your whole day.  Afterwards, one can find a suitable location where one can change one’s underwear.   

The weather continued to be sunny as they drove into a new time zone down the road to Dickinson.  I found my hotel, that squared away and even got online with no real problem.  The question of dinner was solved by going over to KFC. 

As I drove into Dickinson, I noticed a nasty line of clouds approaching from the West.  Soon it became dark and thunder and lightning crashed around the town.  This was augmented by some heavy rain which ended a fairly quickly.  Soon the sun was shining again. 

Back at the motel and made arrangements for Tuesday night’s lodging in Miles City, MT, and also checked on road conditions beyond Billings.  It looks as if the road I would love to take into Yellowstone is still closed.  However there are still some very pretty roads to drive through if I come in via the north entrance.  Once I get to the Bozeman area, I’ll check and see if the road I wish to take through Glacier National Park is open. 

So for it had a chance to see some very pretty countryside.  I’m looking forward to now driving through some tall mountains.

But first some sleep.

Wide Open Spaces

Sunday, 10 May 2009.  Up at 7 a.m. sort myself and pack my car.  I got the car packed in an hour, which is about what I thought it would take, and then I joined Lee for some coffee and breakfast.  It was a beautiful sunny day. 

I took my leave of Lee, headed for a short jaunt up the interstate and then turned on to US 2 for my drive to Watford City.  I picked up some gas not too far along the way and basically had an easy ride all the way out to Minot.  Here I gassed up for the rest of the drive to Watford City. 

US 2 was four lanes the entire way and except for a couple towns was an uninterrupted drive at 70 miles an hour, well, 75 or 77.  I did stop in Rugby, North Dakota, in order to get a few pictures of the obelisk denoting the geographical center of North America.  How cool is that.  I also visited the local Pizza Hut for lunch.  I commented on the fact that it was cool outside to the waitress, who noted that the day before at the high school track meet it snowed.  Oh well, it is only the beginning of May. 

At my night I turn south on 83 for a short while and then turned on to SR 23.  Unfortunately, they were a little bit too far from the road for me to stop and go over to them, but at several locations I was delighted to see small or tiny windrows of snow still on the ground.  This is definitely going to be an interesting trip, and I’m glad I brought winter gear. 

Instead of saying on 23 I turned onto 22 and then 73 to head over to Watford City.  This allowed me to drive through some Badlands on a scenic byway.  It was a beautiful drive very little traffic and I still made it to Watford City well ahead of Google directions time estimate. 

While I occasionally drove, the sky for the most part was mostly sunny.  However, I did get a few sprinkles now and then but they were not a problem at all.  When I got to the motel, I found a note telling me which room I was in as the motel owner was off having a Mother’s Day dinner.  Looking out the window I could see rain a distance and hears thunder rolling across the rolling hills of Northwest North Dakota. 

I will able to get online and got caught up with a few things.  For dinner I was directed to a local restaurant just down the road which wasn’t too bad and had a filling dinner.  I came back and puttered around the room a little bit and then called my friend in LA and we chatted for about a hundred minutes.  Tomorrow night I’ll have to call a few more people and use up my minutes before I head into the wilds of Canada and the new phone plan for the next five weeks or so.

Lazing in Grand Forks

Saturday, 9 May 2009.  Lee let me sleep in a little bit which is really a good thing.  For some reason I had a heck of a time falling asleep and didn’t sleep much the entire night.  The weather outside was frightful being cloudy and cold. 

To get myself slowly moving, started doing laundry and began to attack the e-mail and bring my diary up to date.  I was making a good start at this when Lee returned.  She had been to a funeral.  

After a short while we headed out for breakfast.  We went to a local family restaurant and I had a buffalo cheeseburger for lunch.  It was excellent.  We then did a driving tour of the UND campus with a stop at the Field House which has the Fighting Sioux emblems and name all over it.  There’s a big controversy over whether that the use of the word Sioux was derogatory or not.  I personally don’t think so.  To me it has a positive connotation.  

We took a short drive through Grand Forks.  It is a pleasant town but as Lee says, nothing exciting.  We were both a little tired so we headed back to Lee’s place.  I finished up some more laundry Lee took a nap and I played around on the computer little bit. 

Later that evening we took a tour by the levees.  The Red River was still at flood stage but not threatening the city itself.  We drove through an area of Grand Forks that is now a park and used to be a bunch of houses.  They were totally flooded out and had to be destroyed.  We then headed over to a nice steak restaurant and had a very nice steak.  We also had a very funny and harried waitress.  By the time we were through with dinner things had quieted down and we chatted with her. 

When we got back a sorted laundry, did have a few bits on the computer and called it a night.  I had to be up early the next morning.

In Search of Bony

Friday, 8 May 2009. For I don’t do getting up at 6 a.m. very well.  It was sunny, but chilly.  As I headed west is clouded over a little bit more but no rain.  The only slow this on the drive to Fargo was around Minneapolis-St. Paul where the bypass interstate is about one or two lanes too narrow.  Once you free of the Twin Cities I was able to pick up the pace and keep one truck and to the west.  I stopped once for gas and let Lee Troutman and Thema and Chandice Johnson know that I was closing in on the great city of Fargo.

We met over it at the Saturn dealer in Fargo where was taking in my car for the 25,000 miles service.  It was great to meet Thema and Chandice.  I had been corresponding with Thema for the past 15 years concerning Arthur Upfield.  After I dropped my car off, we headed over to a nearby Denny’s for breakfast.  I was in need of coffee.  The Doritos and Pepsi I noshed gone during my drive to Fargo had not been enough.

After filling breakfast and very good conversation we headed over to the Fargo which was a cinema.  There we were to watch the documentary film In Search Of Bony.  A few folk associated with the Fargo over Festival were interested in seeing the documentary.  I gave a brief introduction and after the documentary I made some additional comments and answered questions.  It was neat to see the documentary film on the big screen again.  It is quite possible they will show the documentary at the upcoming Fargo Film Festival.  I later suggested to Thema on the possibility of a panel on Upfield and his books if she could find a few more knowledgeable people in the area.

After the showing we headed back to Grand Forks and to Johnson’s and I headed back to their place to continue our discussion on Upfield.  Early in the evening we headed out for dinner as the Fargo Marathon was being run the next day.  We finally found a place that they had not yet before and for which turned out to be a very nice find and excellent restaurant.  As the weather had turned quite chilly, about 41 Fahrenheit/5 Celsius, I happily dug out my parka and put it on.  Such is spring in North Dakota.  There’s a good chance of frost over the next couple of nights.  While it is only May 8^th.

After delightful dinner the Johnson’s took me back to my car, we made our goodbyes, and I headed north to Grand Forks.  Mean maps and my GPS systems I had very little problem in finding Lee’s place.

We got me stashed away in the basement into my delight her wireless worked fine for my computer once on a typed in the password.  Between checking e-mail and news and chatting with her while watching some TV the evening passed quickly.  I read some and then tried to fall asleep.

A Rider of Rohan I Ain’t!

Thursday, 7 May 2009. I sort of slept in.  It was a beautiful day both sunny and pleasantly warm.  A puttered about doing some e-mail.  As I wasn’t immediately driving off into the distance, I went across the way it had an actual breakfast.  After getting slightly organized I got my car and headed over to Robin’s horse farm.  It was an easy 30 minute drive.

The day continued to be warm and mostly sunny.  Robin and introduced me to her companion John and then showed me about the farm.  They have about 40 horses on their farm.  While we were walking about the farm John let the horses out of their winter grazing area and into a grassy paddock.  The horses were most happy to get out there.  They have about 90 minutes early for being herded back into their regular area.

Once the horses were back Robin cut Speckle from the herd and brought him into the stable.  I helped her brush the dust from his coat and gave would assistance I could as she put the saddle and other goodies on the horse.  As songs are not the best shoes to wear while riding a horse, I dug out my hiking boots which barely sufficed.

This was my first time on an English saddle not to mention riding a thoroughbred.  We then spent the next I’ll work with Robin trying to get me to do the proper things.  I worked up a good sweat, I didn’t fall off the horse and Robin didn’t scream.  Oh yes, the war seemed to have survived the episode uninjured mentally or physically.  I’m not sure I can say the same about myself. 

After turning the horse out with the other horses and Robin and I nattered away for a little bit longer.  I then headed back to my motel stopping off along the way to get gas for the car and some Pizza Hut pizza for me.  I also get into a discussion with the waitress with her life.

Back at the motel I sorted my stuff out so I could get on the road fairly quickly the next morning.  I had to be up at 6 a.m. and have a reasonably fast drive to Fargo.  A generic ambien tablet helped me sleep the night away.