July 24, 2025

I started writing this blog in front of a campfire last night that proved the old saying “where there is smoke, there is fire” wrong. I did eventually get enough flame and charcoal to roast marshmallows – so there is that.  It’s muggy here in North Dakota. Last night’s storm didn’t materialize, but there are a lot of high fluffy clouds floating about up there now.

I’m sitting in a nice state park, Fort Abraham Lincoln State Parker in Mandan.  I’m finding that for a few days of camping (as much as you can call living in an RV camping), state parks are the best; state parks generally have good trails and nice campgrounds.  National parks are about seeing the sights, the wildlife but their hiking trails don’t allow dogs, and you are usually following the traffic on a scenic drive.

 So far, this has been a good trip.  Had three nights of thunderstorms, but not the worst I’ve seen since being in my RV.  The first was in Montana, then two more nights in North Dakota.  Can’t trust the weather forecasts anymore – even the radar doesn’t seem to be accurate anymore.  Just saying but predicted outcome with the funding cuts and staff reduction to critical services that we could once rely on.

Today has been a housecleaning day, even washed my sandals which are now sunbathing to dry off.  Here’s a bit about my trip to this point.

Gold Nugget RVP – St. Regis and travel to Glacier

After leaving my friend’s place in Northern Washington state, I spent a day at another delightful, rustic RVP in St. Regis Montana.  Had hiking paths, but they went into the woods, and since Montana is bearing country, I limited my excursions to those paths closest to the campground. Nice pool to escape the heat.   And played pool – found a deserted pool table in the community room, looked around – nobody was present, so I scratched balls, knock them off the table and generally followed the white ball around to do goofy angles. No big strategy involved, but after about a ½ hour I managed to get all the balls into the side pockets!  Don’t think I’m quite ready for the pros yet, since most of my successful shots were accidents, and generally not the ball I was aiming to hit.

My trip to Glacier NP took me through high level grass fields and then around Flat Head Lake which is HUGE!  Took about 45 minutes to clear the west side of it, and it was easy to tell it is a popular spot with the locals.  Looked like a fun place for all kinds of water sports, swimming and fishing.  My trip down the other side when leaving Glacier was just as amazing, I think it was close to an hour long. You could not see one end of the lake from the other, lengthwise.  And yet, it was crystal clear – I finally found a place to pull off and take pictures, looking down the approximately 1000 ft. to the lake I was surprised that I could see rocks on the bottom.     

Glacier NP – who took in the snow? And a rocking KOA resort

When booking my visit to Glacier National Park, my options for RVPs, campsites were limited – so my spot at the West Glacier KOA was more or less a forced splurge, a deluxe patio site. And after I arrived at this awesome RVP, I was glad I made the investment!  This place rocks!  Best dog park ever, Audy cared less about playing ball because there was so much to explore – including a tunnel.  And talk about fun and activities!  They had a “bear” garden, which was a wonderfully landscaped patio with fire pits, an airstream trailer converted to a bar and live music every night.  Great gift shop, 2 pools – one for adults only, which is where they kept the hot tubs😊 A fairly decent hiking path around the parameter, great playgrounds for the kids, all kinds of cabins and a well-stocked store/gift shop. Sad thing though, I mentioned to the bartender that I noticed a lot of vacant spots, particularly in the cheap seats – which I would have been happy with, and he said they’d had lots of cancellations – mostly from Canadians who’d been coming for years.

So yes, #47, your stupid international policies are hurting Americans.

So, for the two nights I was there, Audy and I went to the bar and listened to music.  While I’m not a big whiskey drinker, loved the “Montana Mule” made with huckleberry whiskey.  And, once again, Audy helped me order.

Due to heavy rain for most of my first night (after the bear garden thankfully) and into the early afternoon the next day, I postponed my trip into Glacier National Park to the day I would leave the area.  Perhaps I should have gone in the rain – the next day it was impossible to find parking within 3 miles of the visitor center.  Which was a bummer, since I couldn’t get my NP passport stamped☹ I did find the picnic area before others discovered it, on Lake McDonald, and was able to walk the water edge to take pictures. Second disappointment of my visit, no glaciers in sight!  The view I saw was the historic one, across the lake, which always were of mountains covered in glacier snow.  Now there is nothing visible but remember there is no global warming according to people who don’t believe in science.   And of course, didn’t drive the Going to the Sun Road – the Wandering Spirit is 24 ft, 3 ft over the maximum length allowed on the road.  However, rather than being totally bummed, I spent time in West Glacier Village where lunch and souvenir shopping lifted my spirits. 

Another gracious Harvest Host – Missoula

Spent the night at another gracious Harvest Host and bought some of her milder sauces, which she also sells at a farmer’s market.  Nice lady, and I had a good night’s sleep in her field.  She’s put up with a lot of grief from the county she lives in – her property is right outside of a suburban neighborhood that has encroached on farmland, and even though she has restricted the number of RVs that can stop on any given night, people complain about the RVs driving through the neighborhood.  As she put it, she finds it ironic that the city opened up the city park to homeless campers who leave trash and other unsanitary “gifts” all over the park, and she never once had to pick up trash left behind by us BoonDockers.

Random Stop -Big Timber KOA

I’m working on taking this trip at a slower pace with random one- or two-day layovers along the way. Such was my day at Big Timber, where I finished my puzzle I started in Leavenworth and Audy had a little brook to play in all afternoon behind the rig.  Meet more wonderful people here, a small group of older cousins who came to celebrate the 77th birthday of their cousin who has spent his entire life in group homes.  Not sure what his impairment was, but he was sweet natured and when I talked of going to Rhode Island, and one person said she’d like to go there someday, he said “me too!” very clearly – the rest of the time, he was sometimes hard to understand.

Upon their arrival in their trailers (side of one pictured below), I helped direct my closest neighbor into their spot – the driveways were narrow and close together, but the sites fanned out behind along the creek. I helped move the picnic table to make it easier.  For this, I was invited to dinner (had my chicken on the grill already) and was provided with a large portion of an egg bake for breakfast.  Nice, salt of the earth kind of people from Billings, MT.  Refreshes my belief in humanity.

Impromptu Cheese and Wine Party on the Tongue River

My visit to the Tongue River Winery, a Harvest Host location in eastern Montana, turned out to be one of those special impromptu occasions that make memories!  First, when I pulled in it was 95 degrees and I was thinking I’d need to go to an RV park so I could plug in and run the AC.  However, Bob, the host was ready and for $10 let me park on his concrete pad and plug in for the night – Perfect!   There was two other RVs that came in about the same time, and one couple was heading home to Missoula. 

The Missoula couple and I started our tasting their very unique and tasty wines, and learned a lot about Montana grapes, developed in the 1930s at the university of Montana to be hardy for the harsh climate -the vines can survive and be productive even after a winter of -40!  This family-owned winery also make or blend their wines with other fruits to create unique flavors.  I won’t talk about how good it was, but I bought 3 bottles of 3 different wines.

After the tasting, we all got glasses of wine, including our hosts, Bob and Melody, and sat down – the other couple went and got a whole bunch of munchies, crackers, salmon, dip and cheeses to share.  My offering was meager – pepper jelly and cream cheese with wheat thins – don’t carry a lot of foods in my rig.  This turned into a great evening of glasses of wine and great conversation. We sat through an out-of-the-blue thunderstorm that had the lights blinking on/off.  The woman in the other couple, a retired nurse, shared her experience during COVID, stated it angered her to hear some people now denying how bad it was.  At the beginning of the epidemic, she’d been a travelling nurse on her first assignment on a reservation.  She talked, emotionally, about watching people succumb all alone and the distrait community that couldn’t practice their native ritual for the dying or deceased at they had for generations.

I think the best story of the evening was from Bob, a practicing pastor who isn’t sure what he believes anymore. Except one thing he does believe is kindness, caring and compassion are required, and they are not proprietary to any one religion or faith.  Anyway, he shared a story of river canoeing that included skinny dipping, naked canoeing and surprises and a group of Amish children on the riverbank. He hoped he hadn’t created a moral dilemma for the parents of these astonished and wide-eyed children.  They had mistakenly believed they were in a more remote part of the river.   Not the religious type, but if I were, Bob would be my type of minister!

The connection was great, the type of evening that can only happen spontaneously – and I was happy to find, in this red state, people who are actively protesting the destruction of our democracy as I am.

Oh Give Me A Home Where The Buffalo Roam – Theodore Roosevelt National Park

I spent 2 days at the various units of this park.  The first day was at the south unit, where you can drive deep into the park in search of critters from prairie dogs to bison.  I was able to visit with the prairie dogs, active little boogers for sure.  Buffalo, well apparently, they put them in the barn during the day, because I did not see any of them on my drive into the interior. However, on my drive out – there he was, up on a ridge, a magnificent beast poising as if waiting for a call from his agent to be the next model for the new buffalo head nickel! And of course, when I spotted him, there was no place to turn out and there was a line of cars behind me.

My luck improved the next day when less than 2 miles into the park, I ran into a buffalo traffic jam.  Almost as if staged, for this is the money shot of buffalo crossings that you see in many parks.  BUT who cares!  It was my shot on my adventure, and there they were a small herd of cows and their calves of varied ages earning their grass by slowly moving, almost teasing the cars taking their time crossing the road.  I was pleased to see that everyone stayed in their cars for this experience, I think the buffalo have reached their quotas for tossing people at Yellowstone this year.  Ours were more into playing games, like the final cow and her older calf that played with each other in the middle of the road for our entertainment pleasure.  Made my day!

Later during my drive, I saw the old, lone bull rolling in a dusty wallow – obviously avoiding a DNA paternity test and child support for any of those wild children in the herd.  Typically, the father is off at the local wallowing hole while the mothers are tending to the young.  I would say the calves all looked like him, but then again, I think all buffalo pretty much look alike.

And I should mention, the park has some outstanding views of the Missouri River and other natural formations as well. Visited the little town of Medoro while I was there as well – Audy and I had lunch on the comfortable back patio of a bar.

Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park

At the confluence of the Heart and Missouri rivers, this park had a lot to do – but I loved it most as a quiet, green place to pass a few days – and clean the rig before my final ascent into Wisconsin.  Besides the campground, this park has a reconstructed Mandan village. “Village on a Slant” is the English translation for this home of the indigenous, farming people that lived here, described as one of the most peaceful tribes in the region.  And yet, they lost many lives to smallpox and were eventually relocated as were many native Americans under the cruelty of past governments. 

There is also the remains of a historic fort here, barracks and other buildings still intact. At one point, the infamous General Custer was in charge here.  The Mandan tribe were friendly neighbors who had been here for generations and shared the land with the white community.  For their hospitality, Custer’s campaign included their people in the push to put them on reservations.

And so, that covers a couple of weeks of meandering.  I am loving this trip as well, although it has taken on a slower pace and different feel from my first trip.  I’ve hit some weather but haven’t had to dodge any storms (knock on wood).  I’m just enjoying the scenery as I go.  And filling in my NP passport book I bought almost 2 years ago at the Painted Hills in central Oregon.  I’m looking forward to getting to Rice Lake in 2 more days, to see my family there.  Aunt Liz in my mom’s little sister and my only remaining aunt.  I have cousins that I have fun with, a warm, musically inclined group that reminds me of my immediate family.  Can’t wait to see each and every one of them – I haven’t booked any of my trip past Wisconsin.  Once I am there, I will figure out the next portion of the trip, after they have grown tired of me and evicted me (lol). 

I am excited that one of the hosts along the way suggested a different path for my journey to Niagara Falls, a route I hadn’t considered but now am excited to follow – it will take me along the Great Lakes where there are plenty of small towns and campgrounds to explore.  

Namaste