Twin cities wrap-up

We are still in the church parking lot in Uptown. Our conference ended Sunday evening, but it was exhausting, and it has taken us until now to recuperate and catch up. Part of our obligation as appointed delegates to the assembly is to produce a report, which we do in the form of a blog. It took each of us several hours to finish our reports, and we've also been wrapped up in Red Cross curriculum development over the last two days.

Speaking of which, one of the lead developers has been deployed to Texas (to the same city we were in for Dolly two years ago) in anticipation of Alex, so Louise has had to take on more of that work as well. She had a conference call yesterday afternoon while I rode downtown for an 80-minute massage (ahhhh), whereas my call is coming up in another hour and a half.

The massage was a direct result of an "80-minutes for the price of an hour" flyer that we picked up at the Pride Festival on Saturday. It was a great festival and I wished we could have spent more time there, but Saturday and Sunday were our two busiest days. We ended up at the festival by marching there from the convention center with some 3,000 of our fellow Unitarian Universalists to witness for marriage equality, as part of our Standing on the Side of Love campaign. Although witnessing for marriage equality at a Pride Festival is somewhat akin to preaching to the choir.

I generally don't pick up these sorts of flyers, but $75 for an 80-minute massage is a bargain in any major city, so I jumped on it. The joint was run by Aveda, and the therapist pitched products to me when she was done, the first time that's happened to me (although Louise gets the pitch more or less every time).

In addition to the often dry business of the association, the conference had a number of highlights for me, including the march. One was a surprise visit from Minnesota Senator Al Franken. Senator Franken is a very funny guy, and his speech was both amusing and moving. At one point he even choked up a bit, a side of Al that I'd never seen either in the comedian or in the distinguished gentleman from Minnesota. Earlier in the conference we met and heard from the Secretary of State, whose office had to deal with the fallout of Franken's hotly contested election.

As usual it was great to catch up with many dear friends. We had nearly perfect weather for most of our stay, having only had to run the air conditioner one day. Scooters are a perfect way to get around town here in the nice weather, and we saw hundreds of them, including perhaps the largest inventory of any scooter shop we've ever visited when we dropped by Scooterville so Louise could purchase the Go-Go Gear jacket she's been lusting after since they were first announced.

(This armored riding jacket is my birthday gift from my Mom last year. I'm so glad to finally have it! Thanks, Mom! -Louise)

Minneapolis also turned out to be the confluence of a number of blog readers. In addition to Craig whom we saw Wednesday and Brian and Hillary from Thursday, we also met a different Brian on Monday and fellow NüRVers Ben and Karen yesterday. It was great meeting with every one while we were in town.

Mostly due to the perfect weather, this has been a great stay for dining as well. We ate out nightly, with Porter and Frye, Ichiban (Teppanyaki), Skywaters (in the Hilton), and Loring Park Kitchen having been our choices in walking distance of the convention center. When not downtown, we ate here in Uptown or nearby Lynlake at Pizza Luce, El Meson (walking distance), and The View (on Lake Calhoun, which we later rode around). All our choices proved to be excellent, but then again there are so many restaurants here that we could afford to stick to the ones with good on-line reviews.

In fact, the neighborhoods here have been so attractive that we are a bit sad to be leaving, but we feel we need to vacate in consideration of the church, not wanting to overstay our welcome. So after today's conference call we will head out on the road. Absent any specific assignment from the Red Cross, we will mosey down the Mississippi on the Great River Road, and should be somewhere near Red Wing tonight.

Switching Channels

Just a quick note to let everyone know that we are alive and well and parked at the First Universalist Church of Minneapolis (map), who have generously agreed to host us here as we attend the General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations, being held this year at the Minneapolis Convention Center.

This is a great spot, because we are actually parked in a fenced yard, so it's somewhat private (even though we are surrounded by apartments), it's in a great neighborhood, known as Uptown, with lots of neat restaurants, and the staff is generally in the office all day while we are out at our meetings, so there is someone to keep an eye on things. There is also a 15-amp power outlet, so we've avoided running the generator and annoying the neighbors.

When we are at General Assembly we do not have any extra bandwidth for almost anything else, including posting here. We do keep a separate blog on our conference activities, which is actually our official report, as voting delegates, to the Board of Directors of our congregation.

Regular posts will resume here once we finish our conference. In the meantime I will mention that we arrived here fairly late Tuesday evening, after our long day at Camping World and dumping the tanks at Cabela's. After we got settled in, regular readers, fellow bus nuts, and now long time friends Brian and Hillary came over for a quick pre-conference visit, and brought with them a wonderful home-made dinner including fresh home-made bread -- yum. They also brought with them their new family, a pair of beautiful little girls they have adopted since the last time we saw them. I must say the girls, 8 and 10, were exceptionally well behaved and even had an interest in buses, and we very much enjoyed our visit with the whole family.

The Rogers shuffle

We are at the Camping World in Rogers, Minnesota (map). However, we spent last night down the street at the Cabela's store (map).

We got a very late start from Wadena yesterday, between setting up all the equipment and having to wait for printer paper -- the stuff they sent with the printer was too thick and kept jamming. So we rolled into Rogers fairly late. We decided to put off our Camping World shopping till today and headed right to Cabela's. We knew they had a restaurant, albeit with a limited deli/grill type menu, and we were expecting to meet reader and fellow bus enthusiast Craig.

After deploying the dish, still a very tweaking-intensive affair due to ongoing problems with the hardware, we did some quick research on other nearby dining alternatives, but none was in walking distance. As Craig arrived by motorcycle, that sealed the deal and we walked into the store, only to find the cafe already closed. Hmph. We had to pull a scooter out so we could ride the couple miles with Craig to nearby Maynard's, which was actually quite good and had some nice happy hour specials.

It was curious to us that the enormous truck and RV lot had only trucks, plus us, and no other RV's last night. That's because it turns out that Camping World actually has 30-amp power pedestals for its customers, and although we did not need them yesterday afternoon, in today's heat and humidity the power to run the air conditioners has been quite welcome. We both had Red Cross training development to do today, along with a one-hour conference call on the subject. After we wrapped up our call we went into the store and dropped $250, making this one of the most expensive 30-amp pedestals in our history. In addition to replacing the $90 folding step that I destroyed by running over it with the bus, we bought two new chairs for the roof deck and a fancy propane-fired campfire.

Shortly we will leave our "free" power behind and head into Minneapolis, where we need to be squared away for our conference tomorrow. First we will head back to Cabela's and use their free dump station; Camping World also has a dump, but it is one of the new coin-operated systems. I think they charge a dollar for it; this is the same system Flying-J is installing where a dump token will cost you $10, or $5 with fill-up.

Accidental relief workers

We are at the Elks lodge in Wadena, Minnesota (map). There is a lone electric pedestal here with two 20-amp circuits and a water spigot, and we took advantage of them to top up the batteries and the water tanks.

US-10, which passes through Wadena, has been on our route plan since we first decided to follow the Hi-Line. And we knew from news reports Friday that a tornado had touched down here and done some damage, but we did not really realize how bad it was until we pulled into town, and drove straight across the path of destruction.

The tornado turned out to be an EF-4, touching down three miles south of town, cutting through town from south to north like a buzz saw, and continuing for another seven miles before lifting, leaving behind a swath of destruction ten miles long and a quarter mile wide. It completely obliterated the high school, the bus garage, the Wellness Center, the municipal pool, the county fairgrounds, several businesses, some homes, and a church. Many more homes and businesses suffered less extensive damage. In all, over 230 homes were damaged, and from touring the area I would estimate that some 10% or so of those were completely destroyed. Luckily, no one in this town was killed, and there were only 34 injuries, mostly minor.

When we first arrived we had planned to spend two nights here, to get a few projects done. So we knew we had some time, and after seeing what happened, we made a few phone calls and learned that one of our Red Cross associates was handling technology for the Minnesota relief operations, but he was some 240 miles away, in Rochester. When we called him to let him know we were here in Wadena, he was thrilled, because he was already faced with figuring out how to get someone up here to survey sites and set up equipment. We pulled the scooters out and headed downtown to find the small handful of other Red Cross staff already on the ground.

We spent most of the afternoon yesterday doing a site survey and testing equipment connectivity; the equipment came up from Rochester with a courier. After we satisfied ourselves that the equipment was working we sent the courier back; it took him the whole day to make the round trip. We then attended the daily town meeting run by the mayor.

I have to say, for a small town in rural America, this place is well prepared. The mayor, wearing a lime-green safety vest, ran a well-organized meeting with a sense of humor, calling in sequence each department head and agency chief to provide the status of debris removal, restoration of utility service, progress on finding alternate classrooms for the upcoming school year, where to obtain assistance, and how to get trucks and heavy equipment to affected properties. The meeting was simultaneously broadcast on local radio station KWAD. The town is well on its way to recovery, and they have yet to see a dime of federal or state assistance. The city also has an excellent web site, complete with recovery information, and you can see some photos of the damage there.

This morning we've loaded up the scooters in anticipation of a hail storm later today, and shortly we will head down to the designated Red Cross facility in Odyssey to unpack and set up equipment. Once that's done, our job here is mostly finished, and we will continue east towards Minneapolis. Our coworkers in Rochester will support this site from there, and someone else will come up to tear down the equipment here when it is no longer needed.

While we were here, we did get to eat dinner at the "Uptown" restaurant which is, uhh, downtown, and was quite good. The place was packed on Saturday night, and I suspect the relief efforts have something to do with that. The tornado passed just two or three blocks west of the main street downtown, sparing the historic old buildings including two restaurants and a cinema, all with wonderful neon signs from circa 1930 or so. Last night we ate at the Nite Owl, a bar/burger/pizza joint on the east edge of town, and it, too, was packed. On our way there we discovered the city park across the street, complete with RV hookups, $24 per night.

Photo by jenniferrt66, used under a Creative Commons license.

Missile Away

We are parked at the Wal-Mart in Dilworth, Minnesota (map), an eastern suburb of Fargo, ND.

We had a fairly short drive yesterday, because we first made a couple hour detour to the Ronald Reagan Minuteman Missile Site, where we took the one-hour tour of the "Oscar-Zero" facility. This is one of only two decommissioned Launch Control Centers (LCCs) allowed under the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty to be preserved for historical purposes; the other one is operated by the National Park Service and is located near Wall, South Dakota.

We both really enjoyed the tour. Given that there are still 45 fully operational LCCs, substantially identical to this one, in control of 450 nuclear Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles, it's impossible to walk away from this tour without a mostly indescribable, somewhat disturbing feeling in the pit of your stomach. Also, it is remarkable just how boring and mundane is the job of ensuring mutual destruction and the annihilation of humanity.

One of the ten silos controlled by O-0 has been preserved just a couple miles east of Cooperstown, and we passed it as we drove away. There was really no place to park the bus, so we could not walk over to read the interpretive signs or view the silo blast door from outside the fence.

After leaving Cooperstown we had an uneventful but windy drive here. The wind was so fierce that when we were driving east, with virtually a direct tailwind, our fuel mileage went up by 60% or so. When we were driving south, I had to work hard with both hands on the wheel to stay on the road. To minimize the impact, from Page we drove east all the way to I-29 at Gardner, but then did the southbound portion on old US-81, where I could keep it to 45 or so. By the time we got here we decided to quit for the day and wait for less windy conditions, and we drove around the store until we found a nice spot partially in the lee of the building.

We needed a Wal-Mart stop anyway, because I was out of windshield repair kits, and they had none at our last Wal-Mart stop in Minot. We had taken a rock strike a few miles west of Plentywood, and I ended up using up both my kits on it, since the first kit I tried had a loose plunger and lost most of its resin without getting any in the chip. If you missed it, I described in great detail how we fix windshield damage in this post.

Now that winds are a bit calmer (but massive wind turbines in the distance tell us it is rarely still here), we will continue east. Our route from here will be on US-10, which will pick up the Mississippi River in Little Falls and follow it all the way to the twin cities. Tonight we might stay in Wadena, where our Elks guide says there is a lodge with parking, assuming it is still open after Thursday's tornadoes.

Photo of Ronald Reagan Minuteman Missile Site by joevare, used under a Creative Commons license.

Welcome to Tornado Alley

We are parked on a city street in Cooperstown, North Dakota, adjacent to the Coachman Inn steak house, lounge, and motel (map). We had dinner there, which was quite good, and asked about parking here. The main streets are posted no parking 2am-6am, but not these side streets, and we were undisturbed.

Our first stop in this town was actually the city park, a few blocks north, where our guide said there were several camp sites with hookups for $10. Sure enough, there were perhaps ten sites, but half of them had just been constructed and were a muddy mess -- I don't think you could have put a truck camper in them without getting stuck. The other half were mostly full of rigs that looked to be there long-term. There was one space we might have squeezed into with a great deal of effort, but our shoes made enough of an impression in the ground that we decided against even trying; we could just imagine our 12-ton drive axle sinking in several inches.

By the time we arrived here we were pretty much done. We had hoped for quarters at the free city park half an hour west, in Glenfield, but that place was also a muddy mess after yesterday's weather, and between that, the low trees and the narrow access road, we decided not to risk entry. Widespread flooding throughout the region pretty much meant we should stick to paved or well-graveled roads, at least until things dry out.

Even before we had left Minot, our weather radio had started alerting every fifteen minutes or so with severe thunderstorm warnings and tornado watches. We brought the radio down to the cockpit with us for the drive, and as we continued southeast, watches all around us were turning into warnings, meaning actual tornadoes were being spotted or picked up on radar. Every time the radio went off, Louise furiously pawed through the maps to see where we were in relation to the warnings, and while we did drive through the watch area, our presence in any given county never coincided with a warning there.

That said, as we drove merrily along, the crosswind suddenly picked up to 50-60 knots or so in driving rain, and a darkening sky in front of us with low descending and fast moving clouds had us scanning the roadside for tornado shelters. I had to slow to 45mph and fight the wheel with both hands to stay on the road, and we pulled off at the next gas station we found. Fifteen minutes later it was all over, and we pulled around to the pumps to fuel, realizing that, by chance, this station had the lowest diesel price we'd seen in many miles.

While inside paying I heard on the radio about damage in a town still ahead of us, and a couple that had been heading the other way mentioned an overturned grain silo. Sure enough, as we rolled past Fessenden, we spotted the silo, which looked to have been nearly brand new, almost upside down, and well crumpled. This was one of the short squat ones, perhaps 50' across and again as tall, with a conical top. By the time we passed the silo, the sun was shining and the wind had mostly abated.

Half an hour later we passed through the small town of Carrington, one of our stopping options. The county fair looked to be in full swing, and it seemed a bit early to stop, so instead of turning southeast on US-281 we continued east on ND-200, heading for Glenfield. Perhaps a mile out of town we rolled up to a sheriff's deputy standing in the road, his cruiser on the shoulder with lights blazing. After waving us to a stop he told us to proceeded slowly past the fire trucks.

As we approached the scene, we could see the power poles along both sides of the road had been pushed over toward the north; the lines south of the road were intact, but a pole on the north side had snapped and the lines were down. We figured the fire department was there for that reason. But as we got closer we could see that the roof of Wholesale AG Products had been ripped completely off, and pieces of the building and much of the inventory was spread out in a tight fan across the fields north of the building. That's when we knew that a tornado had touched down just south of the road, moved across the road from south to north, sliced through the middle of the building like a giant Dremel tool, deposited its evil spoils in the crops, and then dissipated.

Based on when we heard the warnings for that county, we surmised the tornado preceded us on this section of the road by perhaps 90 minutes. A sobering reminder that we are not only in Tornado Alley, but also in tornado season. All's well that ends well, and while the 60-knot sideways torrential rain drove some water into the bus, we dodged a bullet and were glad to stop for the night where we could get a nice meal and a glass of wine, and not have to be towed out of the mud in the morning by an enormous wrecker.

In a few minutes we will drive the three miles north to the decommissioned Minuteman silo (North Dakota is full of them) that is now a museum. We'll come right back through town and continue east on 200, then stair-step our way southeast to Fargo.

Why not Minot?

We are at the Wal-Mart in Minot, North Dakota (map). We were here in Minot almost exactly five years ago for the FMCA convention, back in the days when those rallies attracted several thousand coaches.

It's quite a change from the more serene and pastoral quarters we've enjoyed for the last few days, but we had many errands here in town. For one thing, we needed a UPS store to drop off one of our eBay sales, and for another we needed a laundromat, and we found both yesterday. We also had quite the shopping list; we did part of it last night as we walked back from dinner at Mi Mexico restaurant across the parking lot, so we'd at least have breakfast items this morning. In a few minutes we'll go back into the store for the rest of our list.

Today we will continue southeast, towards Fargo. Our conference in Minneapolis is now less than a week away, and I'd like to be in-area at least a full day ahead of time, to get settled. We also know some folks there, and have some things to pick up that are waiting on our arrival in a more major city.

Photo by Bjorn1101, used under a Creative Commons license.

Discovering America

We are at the municipal park campground in Columbus, North Dakota (map). There are three pedestals here, each with one 30-amp and two 20-amp receptacles and a water spigot, for $10 per night.

In addition to the "nine" sites, there is a 9-hole golf course, a ball field, a steam locomotive, a playground, a pair of tennis courts, and the veterans' memorial, all in this park. Apart from the crumbling tennis courts and the fact that the greens on the golf course are all rectangular astroturf, the place is nice and well maintained, in stark contrast to the town itself, which is slowly dying.

We walked the four blocks to the center of town last night, and the only two businesses that look to still be operating are a lone cafe and a bar. The place was ghostly empty. Even here at the park, we have been mostly alone. There are two travel trailers here, using the other two pedestals, and they've been here a while, having been mown around several times. I figured them to be mostly stored, as we did not see a soul all day, but last night around 11 two trucks drove up to them. The trucks were again gone this morning when we got up, so these must be a couple of oil workers living here in the park for the short term.

A couple of people came to use the golf course yesterday, bringing their own electric carts with them on trailers. The whole place is unstaffed, and there is a drop box for the camping and another for golf ($6 for nine holes, or $10 all day). Today the maintenance guy is mowing the grass, and it's hard to see how they are even collecting enough money to do that. Apart from one woman slowly bicycling through town, those are the only souls we've seen since arriving just after 5 yesterday.

Today we will continue east, where in a few miles we will connect with US-52 south of the border town of Portal. 52 will stair-step east and south a few times before heading southeast, taking us all the way to Minot. We need fuel, supplies, and a UPS drop, none of which we've seen in many miles, and Minot will seem positively cosmopolitan now.

Last day in Montana

We are at the Bolster Dam park and campground in the city of Plentywood, Montana (map). The campground is "free" with a requested donation of $10, and has water and 30-amp electrical service at the ten or so RV sites.

There does not seem to be any stay limit enforced, and the three rigs near us have been unoccupied since we arrived. Some rigs have heat tape on their water hoses, suggesting they are here year-round. It's a bit annoying that people are just storing their rigs here, presumably for use occasionally. They are taking up nice spaces that could be available for visitors. I would also guess that few of these rigs are donating $10 a night for the privilege.

We had a nice drive here Sunday from Glasgow. About 20 miles north of the city, on Montana 24, we were surprised to see what looked to be a residential subdivision appear on the horizon. As we got closer, we realized they were not houses but something higher-density, and as we got closer still, we could tell many were abandoned. We immediately thought: military housing. When we were nearly abreast of the place, we could see that some units were occupied, and, our curiosity piqued, we turned onto the little access road marked "St. Marie."

We drove a little over a mile into the "town," past the perhaps 8-plex residences and a sign that read "Welcome to St. Marie, Home of the Adventurous." We got as far as the gated entrance to the "Montana Aviation Research Company" (MARCO) with its enormous hangars and giant runway. Later research revealed this to be the former Glasgow Air Force Base, decommissioned in 1976, and the "subdivision" we had seen had indeed been base housing some 40 years ago. MARCO turns out to be a small test division of Boeing, and the town of St. Marie is billing itself as a "retirement haven" with the "condos" in the handful of buildings not slowly crumbling selling for anywhere from $15,000-$25,000. To even get gas or a quart of milk requires driving back to Glasgow.

After reaching the bustling metropolis of Opheim just a dozen miles or so from the border, we turned east onto Montana 248, which generally follows an old railroad grade. We could discern the graded roadbed, but there were no rails nor even ties until we reached the town of Scobey, where our guide said there was a free campground. Even here the tracks had been paved over at the lone grade crossing, though the campground was on "Railroad" street.

The campground was unappealing, with spaces cheek-by-jowl and nearly full. Again many folks looked to have been there long-term and we would guess few were making the requested $12 donation across the street at the sheriff's office. The ten spaces did have power and water, and there was a dump station, of which we availed ourselves. And I suppose we could easily have walked to the one or two eating establishments still operating in the tiny town. But "free" or not, this place was everything we detest about "RV parks," and we decided to keep moving.

A couple dozen miles east of Scobey the apparently abandoned railroad tracks started sporting empty rail cars, mostly piggyback carriers and double-stack container carriers. Soon we realized it was a nearly uninterrupted string of excess rolling stock stored here by the BNSF, and it extended for miles and miles. It was single-track line which dead-ended in Scobey, so the cars had to be pushed here in a single file from somewhere east, and the string was carefully broken apart at every grade crossing -- we could just imagine some really weary brakeman or car-knocker who had to walk the whole dozen miles setting brakes and uncoupling cars.

This campground in Plentywood was also in our guide, and being quite a bit further from town in a much more rustic setting, it was much more appealing. We don't have the drive-by lookey-loos here, and there are perhaps only two or three rigs, ours included, actually occupied in the whole park. The spaces are also more spread out to begin with. We had planned only to spend one night, soak our batteries, top up the water, and move along, but it has been so nice here we decided to just stay an extra day.

That gave us time to knock out some projects, including replacing the wireless router on the satellite system (which, I am sorry to say, did not fix our problem), finish the hot tub installation, dismantle the old hot tub pump box, and pack a whole raft of eBay items for shipment. We also got our Red Cross "homework" done -- updating the Disaster Communications training course materials and writing a technology Quick Start Guide for the upcoming season.

This afternoon we have a Red Cross conference call to discuss the updated training materials, after which we will again start rolling east. We should be somewhere along state route 5 in North Dakota this evening.

Satellite tribulations

We are at the Elks lodge in Glasgow, Montana. More precisely, we are in a parking lot across the street from the lodge (map), with which the lodge has some sort of lease. When we arrived, they suggested this might be easier for us to access than the diminutive lot behind the lodge; nevertheless we tried that first, because there was 15 amp power available there. While we would have fit without trouble after just some minor jockeying in tight quarters, as soon as I started backing in Louise noticed that Odyssey's 24 tons were damaging the asphalt, and we abandoned the effort. This lot is solid concrete.

Our UPS package was waiting for us and I was relieved to find the satellite electronics, which are hard to pack and ship, undamaged. It was too late in the day to work on the system, because I knew once I had it installed I would need to call in to tech support, which is only open until 7pm our time. We ended up walking to dinner at local icon Sam's Supper Club across the tracks, where both the walleye and the prime rib were excellent.

Yesterday I decided to tackle the satellite project. I had some concerns because of reports I had read that the newer style electronics I now had in my hand had various compatibility problems with our older dish hardware; I won't bore you with all the gory details of the issues, but the die-hard geeks (or RVers with HughesNet systems) can read about them in this thread I started. The bottom line, though, is that I spent six solid hours working on it, between physically replacing hardware and working with Mobil Satellite on the phone, and our problem is still with us.

At least now the ball is back in play between Mobil Satellite and HughesNet. We purchased and installed this hardware because we were basically told that what we had was so old and obsolete, they would not even troubleshoot the problem further until we upgraded, and now that we have, that excuse can no longer be used. The good news is that I bought this stuff used on eBay and spent a grand total of $85, shipping included, for it (they had wanted to sell me new parts for upwards of $350, plus shipping).

It was past 5:30 when I wrapped up, and even though we had planned to move on yesterday, we decided to just spend another night here. We had to drive back over to the lodge to put water in, and while we were out we swung by the Albertsons for provisions before parking back here. There is a nice restaurant inside the Elks lodge, Durum, open to the public, and we just stumbled over there for dinner, where Louise had walleye for the second night in a row (walleye is really fresh in Montana).

While this is a nice spot, right in the quaint little downtown and near the train station, we don't want to overstay our welcome and will be moving on today. Besides, the mosquitoes here are so big they have to file flight plans with air traffic control. We enjoy the sound, but those who are bothered by loud diesel chimes should probably not stay here; Glasgow appears to be a crew change stop on the Hi-Line, so every freight (and the Empire Builder) stops here. In addition to whistling for the lone grade crossing, they all whistle when they start up, too, just a few hundred feet from us.

Today we will head due north, leaving US-2 and the Hi-Line behind, to cross the rest of the state and much of North Dakota on an even more northerly route, in keeping with our "outermost route" theme that we have now nearly completed. We'd done all of US-2 between here and Minot, ND previously anyway, and it's always good to try a new alternative.

Image uploaded by anna!, used under a Creative Commons license.

Full Nelson

We are parked at a free Bureau of Reclamation camp site on Nelson Reservoir, west of Saco, Montana (map). There are about ten undesignated sites here along the shore line, accessed by a pair of well-graded dirt roads. A bit further from shore are a handful of vault toilets and covered picnic pavilions; all the camp sites and pavilions have picnic tables and grills or fire rings. We have our own private little beach right at our site.

When we arrived Wednesday afternoon after a short half-hour drive from Malta, we had planned for just one night here, since our package was slated to arrive in Glasgow yesterday. But when we arrived and saw how beautiful and uncrowded it was, we decided to make it two. Our package did arrive yesterday, according to UPS, so we'll leave here shortly to retrieve it. Besides, we need water.

Speaking of water, yesterday afternoon's weather was so nice, I decided to spend a few hours working on the new hot tub. I figured to get as far as mounting it, so it wouldn't be kicking around the bay any longer, but it turned out I was also able to get it plumbed in and hooked up, and after a bucket test we decided to deploy the tub and try it out for real. With the lake just a few feet away and actually overfull to the point of some trees being inundated, it only took one hose and one extension cord to pump 250 gallons of lake water to the tub.

The new pumps are stronger and quieter than the old ones, and all the controls work properly now. There seems to be some discrepancy between the controller's idea of the temperature and our spa thermometer's reading, but I would guess we can iron that out. I have a few more finishing touches like rerouting the power cables, connecting the fan, and installing the cover, but it is mostly done. At our next fair-weather stop (it is raining today), I'll disassemble the old box for disposal. We had a nice soak last night, although it feels a bit weird to us to be out there in broad daylight (it's light here till 10pm).

Here a panoramic video of our site. Pretty nice.



Tonight I expect we will be in Glasgow, staying at the Elks lodge. Installing the new satellite hardware will have to wait for clear weather, as most of it goes up on the roof.

The Maltese Truck Stop

We are at the Conoco West Side Truck Stop, in Malta, Montana (map). I was on the fence for today's title between what I chose and "West Side Story."

Yesterday was a busy day. We had conference call at 1pm, so we remained in place at Fresno Reservoir until that was over, then headed east into Havre, the largest town on the Montana Hi-Line, the moniker for the Great Northern (now BNSF) railroad line across the northern edge of the state.

We made four stops in Havre, including Wal-Mart for provisions, the post office to drop a couple of packages in the mail, the Salvation Army to drop off three bags of items we no longer need, and the veterinarian to pick up more special kidney diet for George. Next stop was Chinook, the next town east on the Hi-Line, where we drove south through town to the National Park Service visitor center for the Bear Paw Battlefield, where Chief Joseph famously said "I will fight no more forever." We sat through the 20-minute multimedia presentation, which wrapped up just as the museum was closing at 5pm, but opted not to then drive the 16 miles south to the battlefield.

East of Chinook we rolled onto the Fort Belknap native American reservation, and stopped briefly in the town of Fort Belknap Agency, where there was a rest area adjacent to a casino. The rest area, despite "open 24 hours" signage, was locked, and the casino was too tiny for an overnight stop, so we continued on to Malta, where our guide said there was a city park with overnight camping for $3.

The park, just east of here, is lovely, and we even saw one rig there. Unfortunately, when we rolled in around 6:30 or so, it seemed like the whole town was there, and the entire park was covered with cars. There was some kind of ball game, maybe Little League, at the adjacent ball field, for which half the town had come out, and the other half was at some kind of dinner party affair in one of the pavilions, perhaps the Lions' Club annual dinner or whatever.

In any case, threading Odyssey between all the parked cars to get to what was left of the clear space at the other end of the park would have been quite a challenge, and then there we would be, surrounded by the entire population of Malta. I don't think we could have handled the looky-loo factor.

We had passed this truck stop on our way to the park, and so we rolled back here, just across the river, and parked for the night. We had dinner in their little restaurant, which was passable and quite inexpensive. However, we have no need to linger, and will be leaving shortly for nicer digs east of here.

Photo by ruudb0y, used under a Creative Commons license.

Little stop on the prairie

We are at a free camping area overlooking the Fresno Reservoir, just west of Havre, Montana (map). The campground, provided and operated by the Fresno chapter of Walleyes Unlimited, is really just a dirt parking lot with a handful of picnic tables and grills, plus a vault toilet. Just down a flight of stairs is a pavilion with more tables and a large fireplace, and there are boat ramps on either side.

The reservoir, which impounds the Milk River, is operated by the Bureau of Reclamation, and right now in spring flood is cresting the spillway to a depth of two feet, quite impressive to watch. It has been very relaxing here, quiet and dark at night, with only an occasional neighbor or two, and even the power boats and ATVs during the day have been reasonable. With temperatures in the 60s and 70s, we've enjoyed sitting outside with a coffee or glass of wine, at least when the wind has not been whipping through at 20 knots. The view of the lake is quite serene, and the skies (which I'm told are big here in Montana) have been spectacular.

After we left the truck stop in Shelby, we noticed the coach was riding high on the left, and a quick check of the suspension at our provisioning stop in town confirmed my fears: occasionally, a check valve leading to the left front air bag starts leaking, causing the bag to overfill, even as the ride-height valve desperately tries to empty it. We can compensate for this while driving by setting the height at that wheel a bit lower with the leveling adjustment, but once this starts, the leakage will continue after we park, causing the electric air compressor to run nearly continuously to keep up.

We stopped again in Chester, at the local hardware store, where I picked up a few parts to install the new hot tub controller. Sometimes the leakage just fixes itself as we drive, and I was hoping for the best. No such luck this time, and we proceeded across town to the city park, where our guide said there would be water, which we would need for our stay here. That was a nice level parking spot, where I could try one of the tricks to free the stuck valve, which is to dump all the air out of the suspension, then refill. That did not do the trick either. We made one last stop in town, for diesel, then continued east, hoping more driving might cure it.

Unfortunately the leak was still with us when we arrived here, and so I spent an hour or so Friday evening crouched in the wheel well behind the tire, with all the air out of the system, to remove and rebuild the valve. We've gotten quite good at this, having done it now four or five times, but this time it took me two tries. I don't know how much longer I can keep the 25 year old rubber diaphragm inside the valve working. One of these days, we will need to find some kind of replacement for the three check valves.

I had planned to spend Saturday working on organizing the parts bays, and possibly working on the hot tub, but high winds thwarted my plans. There were white caps on the lake, and we had to batten everything down outside the bus just to keep things from blowing away; even walking the dog was a challenge. We ended up knocking some items off the indoor list, such as whittling down the stack of unfiled junk we retrieved from the storage locker, and giving the area behind the fridge, including the coils, a much-needed cleaning. I had some pork chops to grill, and it was so windy out at supper time that I could not even light the grill, so I ended up pan frying them.

Sunday turned out to be a gorgeous day and I spent most of it cleaning out and reorganizing one parts bay. What a mess. The generator panels are also in that bay, and as long as I was cleaning, I opened them up for inspection and tightened all the connections, having been burned, if you will pardon the pun, by loose connections there previously. We also hauled all the extra junk, most of it destined for eBay, out of the scooter bay.

Today ended up being eBay day, and I managed to get half a dozen items listed. It was a bit too windy most of the day for outside work, so I still have not gotten to the other parts bay or, for that matter, to the hot tub work. Nevertheless, we must move on tomorrow, because we are again out of provisions, having chosen not to get too loaded up until we've worked our way through the mysterious depths of the freezer and pantry.

I mentioned last week that we are having problems with our satellite equipment, and I located replacement hardware on eBay at a good price. It is en route to the Elks lodge in Glasgow, just a day's drive east of here, and scheduled to arrive on Thursday. After we restock the larder tomorrow, we'll try to find at least one intermediate stopover between here and there. I expect we will leave here sometime around midday tomorrow.

Crossroads of the West

We are at the Town Pump truck stop in Shelby, Montana (map), a city which bills itself as the "Crossroads of the West." I personally think that's a bit presumptuous, as the intersection of I-15 and US-2, the only two thoroughfares in town, while certainly a crossroads, hardly qualifies for top honors.

That said, we are thankful there is a truck stop here, which owes its presence to the Interstate. We had a quiet night, as the surrounding trucks uncharacteristically did not idle all night. The truck stop has its own restaurant, the Country Skillet, but we opted to eat next door at Ringside Ribs, which was quite tasty and was able to provide us with wine. We did make a purchase at the c-store, though.

After leaving East Glacier Park yesterday, we drove through the Blackfoot reservation and its central town, Browning, where we discovered in our guide a casino with overnight parking. We did stop there and got parked, and I walked in to the minuscule casino to check our the restaurant and see if we needed a pass or anything. It was a convenient stop and we had a beautiful view of the mountains from our parking spot, but there was no way we could spend any time in the place, including at the restaurant. There were no hard walls, and the entire joint was filled with cigarette smoke, plus the restaurant turned out to be a shabby counter affair with no appeal.

Not wanting to make ourselves at home in the lot of an establishment we could not possibly patronize, we chose to keep moving, believing there was parking at an Elks lodge just a bit further along, in Cut Bank. There was, indeed, a lodge there, but the parking lot was perhaps 40' square, with an iron pipe rail most of the way around it, and accessed from an alley barely 16' wide. After jockeying the bus around for twenty minutes, feeling the whole time like a cat in a room full of rocking chairs, we managed to squeeze in caddy-corner and sticking out into the alley an uncomfortable distance.

After all that work, I was nervous we could get blocked in, plus uncomfortable taking up the whole lot, and we decided to continue along. Actually, we were surprised to find no cars there whatsoever on a Thursday evening, when at least the bar should have been busy, and we wonder if that lodge is even still in business (the sign in front was still in place).

We found no other spots in Cut Bank, even though the city park there has a dump station. We did not need the dump, since we took advantage of the one at Apgar campground in Glacier National Park. After we left the park we realized that was the only facility we actually used while we were there, spending $80 for the privilege. Not really, of course -- it was just a matter of chance that our annual America the Beautiful pass had expired just two days before we arrived, and we ended up buying a new one from the ranger at the gate. When we pulled up, though, he had expected to be charging us for a tour bus.

Just east of Cut Bank we found Al's Diesel, an enormous facility with service for, among others, Detroit Diesel and Allison Transmission. It had a large empty dirt lot in front, and we seriously considered spending the night, then buying a gallon of tranny fluid or coolant test strips or something in the morning. We could predict how that might go, though, with a mechanic knocking on our door at 7am, which is the usual starting time for these sorts of places, while we were both still in bed.

With only another half hour to Shelby we just pressed on, knowing there was at least one truck stop here. It was the first thing we hit rolling into town, so we don't know what other options there might have been. While we are further from the beautiful snow-capped mountains here than I had wanted to be, at least it is warm and dry now. Daytime temperatures here are in the upper 60s to low 70s and its dropping just below 50 at night.

Now that we are in more temperate and dry conditions (it is still raining like crazy in the mountains) we are going to slow down and take a few days to catch up on projects. We found two options east of here, including some BLM campgrounds on the Upper Missouri Breaks National Monument. Unfortunately these are accessible only by gravel road and, more importantly, the closest one is listed in our guide as having a length limit of 24', even though the satellite image shows it should easily accommodate us.

Closer to our planned route are a couple of Bureau of Reclamation sites on the Fresno Reservoir, west of Havre. They are listed as being free with a 14 night limit and no length restrictions, and even though we are coming into the weekend, I expect them to be uncrowded this early in the season. So we will stop at the supermarket here in town to provision, then head off to the reservoir for a few days of downtime.

Photo of the crossroads by jimmywayne, used under a Creative Commons license.

When fate says "Move along"

We spent the night at what might best be described as a rest area, right at the summit of Marias Pass on the Continental Divide (map). It is actually a Forest Service facility (as opposed to a state-operated rest area, where overnight stays are prohibited) with parking for cars and larger vehicles, a pair of vault toilets, and a 60' obelisk. The obelisk marks the great divide and is a memorial to Theodore Roosevelt; it once stood between the travel lanes of US-2. A few feet away is a statue of Frank Stevens, who "discovered" the pass for the Great Northern Railway, just across the highway from our parking spot.

Immediately adjacent to this rest area is actually a Forest Service campground, fittingly called "Summit." Our directory said it would be open from April onwards, but it was closed by locked gates when we arrived. There was no signage explaining why, but a document buried deep within the Forest's web site said it was closed until June 6th for replacement of the picnic tables. The tables look fine to us when we walked the loops later on.

We had previously stopped about ten miles west of the summit at another Forest Service campground, Devil's Creek, which was open, and empty save for the camp host. After circling the loop, we concluded we'd never get on line there, and the view was not particularly appealing, so we had opted to press on to Summit, not realizing it would be closed. (We'd likely have had trouble getting the dish on-line at the Summit campground, too, due to trees, but had no trouble from the rest area.)

After circling the rest area and reading every sign, none of which prohibited overnight parking, we reasoned we'd be safe just parking for the night. We did have company, with a big rig already there when we arrived (he pulled out at first light this morning), and a travel trailer and a pickup camper joining us later in the evening. We had a spectacular view of the mountains past the monuments and the train tracks.

It did get cold at the summit, and last night the winds picked up to 30kt or so, gusting higher. The NWS actually issued high wind warnings for the whole region which did not expire until just an hour ago. We were cozy in Odyssey, but after she went to bed Louise informed me that the extra 8" of rubber rain gutter molding we had left in place at Infinity was going to either keep us awake or drive us crazy. (The last time we replaced the molding, we cut it "just right," and it shrank over the next few weeks until it was 6" too short, so this time we left extra to account for it.) So I ended up clambering onto the roof in ~35kt winds, in the rain, in the dark, scissors in hand, to trim the rubber.

Yesterday after traversing a new-to-us section of US-2 between Columbia Falls and West Glacier, we turned north into the park to check out the Apgar campground, for a possible night in the park complete with dinner at one of the restaurants in Apgar. The town is just as we remembered it from five years ago, and the campground was open, mostly empty, and would easily accommodate Odyssey, notwithstanding dire warnings on the web site that only 25 (of nearly 200) spaces could fit a 40' rig. But the weather was terrible -- cold and raining -- and the park's main attraction, the Going to the Sun Road, is still closed for the season. Coupled with the fact that we'd never get on-line there and the amenities in Apgar are not National Park Grand Lodge caliber, we opted to continue east.

After our night on the summit we had been debating whether to proceed from there to the Two Medicine campground at the east edge of the park, so we could spend at least another day in the beauty of the mountains before heading to the plains. The forecast, however, is for highs in the mid-50s and lows in the mid-30s for the next several days, with rain on and off the whole time, as well as intermittent winds. In that sort of weather we're unlikely to even leave the bus, let alone take the scooters out and ride the 13 miles back to the Glacier Park Lodge for a nice dinner. At least we'd get on line there, and the lake is supposed to be lovely.

We decided instead to drive down the hill to East Glacier Park in time for a 1pm Red Cross conference call, since neither of our phones had a decent signal on the summit. We found a parking spot in front of an abandoned business here in town, across the tracks from the lodge (map). We deployed the dish and dialed in to our call, which ran over an hour, and then we walked the three blocks to what the road signage indicated would be an RV park, confirmed by a map I downloaded from the lodge.

That, too, turned out to still be closed for the season, not that it was at all appealing even if it had been open. But we'd do it if the price was right, just so we could take the short walk to the lodge for a nice dinner at the Great Northern restaurant. By this time we're thinking that someone is trying to tell us something. After a brief consult with the map, we decided we could have an early dinner here at the lodge, then drive the hour or so to Cut Bank, where there is an Elks lodge with parking. Sunset here is 9:30, so we'd still be making the drive in plenty of daylight.

So we walked over to the lodge to walk the grounds and to see about reservations, since I had not been able to get through on the phone all day. As it turns out, there is a good reason for that: the power went out in East Glacier Park just after 8am this morning, and it does not look good for having it restored before sundown. The lodge is cooking some kind of dinner on a propane grill for its guests; most of the other restaurants here in town simply have "closed due to power outage" on their doors.

We did enjoy very much walking around the hotel, taking in the majestic great room, with many guests huddled around the massive fireplace (with no power, the hotel has no heat). The gift shop was open, courtesy of some flashlights and one of those old-fashioned manual credit-card imprinters, and we bought a souvenir pin and a pair of chocolate-covered huckleberries. But with no reason to believe the dining room would be open for dinner, we've decided to just move along. In a few minutes we will stow the dish and continue to Cut Bank.

A classic western town

We are at the Elks lodge in Kalispell, Montana (map). This lodge has actual back-in RV sites with 30 amp power and water hookups for $18 per night, which also gets you an access card for the athletic facilities, including the indoor hot tub and outdoor heated pool.

Our mail was waiting for us as we arrived; in fact, the mailman was just driving away as we pulled in -- perfect timing. We needed water and a good soak on the batteries, so this was an ideal stop. There was even a great restaurant two blocks away, Scotty's Winchester Steak House, where we walked for dinner. The steaks were great, rivaling many of the classic steak houses in major cities, but at a fraction of the price, and Louise had a $25 coupon from Restaurant.com to boot.

Kalispell is a classic western town, with a thriving old downtown area, which we drove through on our way to the lodge. It's the largest city for miles in any direction, so there are also all of the modern amenities on the outskirts. Louise rode her scooter up to the big-box stores yesterday and reports that there is a giant new Wal-Mart just about to open there. No word on whether overnight parking will be allowed.

In a few minutes we will continue east into Glacier National Park.

Photo of old Flathead County courthouse by jimmywayne, used under a Creative Commons license.

What a difference a day makes

We are at a Forest Service campground on McGregor Lake, off US2 just west of Kalispell, Montana (map). We are the only people here, not counting the camp hosts, whose site is actually over in the day use area.

When we arrived around 5pm yesterday, there were still two sites occupied, apparently by the same group, who were simply late in departing from their holiday outing. The hosts told us the place had been full, but uneventful, with only one ranger call-out. The ranger station is 70 miles away.

It's a lovely spot overlooking a clear blue lake, just a short distance east of the Thompson chain of lakes where we stayed five years ago. We thought we might go all the way to Kalispell yesterday, but stopped here just to check it out. While $12 for dry camping is normally a bit steep for us in such unpopulated territory, the spot was so idyllic we just had to stop. I've been marinating a nice tri-tip since we left the Wal-Mart, and the holiday crowd left so much firewood behind that I was able to grill it up over a nice bed of wood coals in short order.

In a few minutes we will head east to Kalispell, where our mail is due to arrive later today. I expect we will spend tonight there at the Elks lodge.