Arrival

Written mid-day Thursday, December 19
Remember when I said it was cold a day or so ago. I was so wrong. Now, it's cold. When hubby talked to his cousin, who was out on the tractor feeding the cows, it was -3. Yup. Negative numbers. When math started to get complicated...
Where does ice cream come from? All those cold cows huddled in the blowing snow out in the middle of the field.
Sunrise
We passed through Rugby, ND, the geographical center of North America. Cool, huh?
Trees against the hillside
There is a really stark and terrible beauty to these landscapes. The gently rolling hills, dotted with trees, stubble from crops and dried long grasses poking through the snow. Spare wire fences mark boundary lines for property whose residences may be miles, or at least acres away. Can you imagine the terror and anticipation of those first settlers coming across the prairies in their wagons, oxen trundling along, not knowing what to expect?
So, if you look closely at the center of the picture, there's a large hoofed animal, perhaps an elk, on the hillside.
Minot, ND shows the boom of the Bakken development, with oil and gas holding tanks and tanker cars everywhere. As you further west into North Dakota, you will see more and more drilling pads, wells and drilling activity. The train travel suffers because the tracks are owned by the BNSF (Burlington Northern Santa Fe) and their freight trains take precedence, so the Amtrak trains pull over and wait. And wait. And wait.

A line of tanker cars passes by...


We finally arrive at our final destination, Williston, ND only three hours late. The snow crunches underfoot as we make our way to the tiny station, collecting our big bags (which are dusted with snow...not sure why...perhaps Amtrak has an open baggage car?) The girls from the car rental place come to collect us and we are soon on our way to Sidney, MT and our motel. Haul bags in, unpack, collapse and sleep deeply.

A Montana hillside

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