Jacqueline’s Jaunts

Today is a day of chores and a trip to the grocery store. Also, laundry and map out what we want to do at Glacier National Park. No rain today, sunny and cloudy all day with a high of 60°.  We had to make a trip to the local ACE Hardware for some items Barry needed to fix a few water fixtures. ACE had everything he needed. It was not only a hardware store, but it also sold knives made by a local person. They were beautiful, and Barry bought one,  Jody Martin -Montana Martin Knives. The one he purchased had an elk-horn handle. In addition to the knives, they sold guns and ammo—our kind of store.  Back to the RV for guacamole and chips, laundry, clean-up, and more planning for Glacier while listening to Bob Seeger.  There was police activity around the park, four cruisers up and down the park and road. Barry finally drove up the road and asked what was going on and if we should be concerned. Seems there is a men's prison up the road, and the police hang out to cat...

Woke up to rain and horrible wind. The wind was horrible. We sank about three inches overnight. It was muddy all around Julie, and Barry was not happy having to do all the hoses in the rain. I don’t blame him. We were on the road by 10:00 AM, and Barry was happy to be leaving Shady Rest. It was going to be a four-hour trek today—one of the longest travel days on the trip.   On our drive west on Highway 2, we passed beautiful fields of mustard plants that were in bloom. The yellow went on endlessly. Per Google, Montana leads the nation in mustard seed sales. I would have never guessed. The drive is through expansive fields of crops, and you can see as far as the horizon. All flat to rolling hills. I never thought of Montana as an agricultural state. Now and then, we would see herds of antelope scattered in the fields.  Before we came to a town called Havre, we saw these metal figures on the hillside along the road. As we got closer, we realized they were metal dinosaurs, mounta...

Today’s drive was three and a half hours. It was really windy the entire drive, a brutal drive per Barry. There was also a whistling noise the whole way. Both of these made for a very annoying drive. We also hit rain about 25 miles outside of  Glasgow . The scenery was green fields and rolling hills the whole way. Nothing but huge ranches, farms, and grain silos the entire drive. The outside temperature stayed between 55 and 60 degrees. Most of the little towns we drove through are run-down. I know I’ve mentioned this before in our travels, but it is so sad to see.  Whew! We made it around 2:00 PM. So glad to be not driving in that wind. It’s raining here at  Shady Rest RV Park . The owner said last week they had 90° weather, and this week there's been so much rain that the gravel on the driveways has washed down to the road. Our site is right by the road, but it will be easy to pull out in the morning.  It’s cold here, so I turned the heat on immediately. I made us ...

Our first stop today was at the visitor center. We wanted to see if any of the rangers checked on the Bison we saw stuck in the mud yesterday. We talked to two in the parking lot, and they got the call but did not have a chance to go check. They asked us to show them where on the map we saw it. They said they would check on it today, but from the description we gave them, it didn’t sound very good.  After our conversation with the rangers, we drove into town and toured the  North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame . Surprisingly, we enjoyed it. It has great exhibits. They are expanding the museum in the next few years. It’s going to be 10,000 square feet bigger. They are also going to redo the entire front. All funded by donors, very impressive. There was a display that featured a book I was interested in,  Land in Her Own Name  by H. Elaine Lindgren. I asked at the gift shop desk, and they are sold out. One of the volunteers even checked the back to make sure. She directed ...

Theodore Roosevelt National Park is the smallest of the National Parks in the United States. The first stop was the visitor center to watch the NP movie about the park and get Barry a t-shirt. We also walked through the displays since we didn't have time yesterday. Then we drove the 32-mile Scenic Loop  Drive. Again, we used GuideAlong and enjoyed the commentary about the park and Teddy Roosevelt.  Our first stop was Skyline Vista. Yesterday, we were informed we could see the new Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library from there. It’s on the other side of the freeway. Afterward, we made numerous stops at overlooks and pullouts. The views are vast and beautiful. The prairies are still green. It rained until about 2:00 PM, when we stopped for lunch at Boicourt Overlook. Great view while we ate our sandwiches. We did see lots of Bison and Prairie Dogs during our drive.  Another stop we made was at the Badlands Spur Trail. Barry saw a Bison in the dry river bed, and at ...