Westward Ho!

Sunday and Monday we drove through North Dakota into Montana.   In No. Dakota, we found beautiful open prairie with cattail-bordered ponds scattered everywhere, obviously much appreciated by migrating waterfowl.  

We also encountered the winds that ND is famous for and were careful not to calculate our mpg!   We spent the night in Rugby, ND, of interest for being the geographic center of North America.

As we moved westward yesterday we saw more and more evidence of oil production activity centered in Williston.  Trainload after trainload of sand, oil wells pumping away, and really, really bleak-looking housing for the workers.   We thought it all rather gross, but Lily was licking her chops at the prospect of all that fuel to burn!

At the Montana border things changed very abruptly--oil production "out", beef production "in"!   The rolling hills of the enormous ranches and the huge blue sky above was quite striking.

We stopped last night at Fort Peck, MT, where there is a 4 mile long earthen dam (second largest in the world) of the Missouri River, constructed by the CCC during the 1930s depression.

They had a fabulous museum on site with dinosaur remains that were quite incredible, including a complete T. Rex skeleton, one of two ever found!   Apparently, Montana is noted for its archeological finds of dinosaur bones.

Peggy tries to scare T. Rex to no avail

We spent the night at a lovely campground near the dam, got to hike a nature trail there.

We have not been getting much exercise so far on this trip--gotta improve on that score!   Onward now ever west.  Should begin to see the Rocky Mountains tomorrow!