almost back in Canada

We had planned to be back in Canada today but a national wildlife refuge (read; bird sanctuary) kept us busy until it was too late in the day.  Therefore, we are camped in Malta, Montana and will cross into Saskatchewan tomorrow morning.  We may be kept awake by trains tonight - all towns along Hwy 2 are close to train tracks but I am not used to night trains yet so am awakened by each train that passes by.  Tonight the train tracks are very near to us! 

 Northeastern Montana is an area of wide open spaces with a mix of large farms and untouched prairie, rolling hills and flat plateaus.  Dead skunk should be its state animal - we experienced many aromatic remains as we drove today!   We have stopped for coffee and Wifi at a couple of  interesting McD's - a native lady who refused her food because 'he touched it with his hands', an employee who asked if someone had ordered ' a large orange juice'; when no one answered ' anyone order a small orange juice'. When someone said yes, they got the large one.  Quite entertaining to sit at McD's and get the pulse of the town we are in!

I googled the Ojibwa license plate we had seen in Michigan and discovered there are a number of states that recognize license plates issued by native tribes.  Maybe this idea will spread to Canada to promote native pride in their heritage - if veterans can have their own plates, why not First Nations?

Fort Peck hydro generating plant with part of the earthen dam in the foreground.

Yesterday, we toured a hydro-electric power plant at Fort Peck Dam Interpretive Centre.  The earthen dam was one of the make-work projects by FDR in the 1930s and it is now the largest hydraulically filled earthen dam in the world - Shon figures they had to dig deep to figure out just what they could claim to be biggest at!  The tour was very interesting, though, and the dam is huge!  It dammed the Missouri River and created a huge lake behind it.

As we have crossed North Dakota and Montana, we have been following the trail of Lewis and Clark as they headed west to the Pacific Ocean.  Neat to feel a  part of history and to visualize what this land looked like before dams, farms, etc.

We are loving the fall colours, v-formations of geese and other signs of fall.  Our days have been full of sunshine and warm temperatures - 80F today means we were in shorts and warm!

Our campground last night in Glasgow, Montana, was interesting - 5 or 6 permanent mobile homes and a few overnight spots, with us plus two friendly bird hunters (with their bird dogs) from Seattle as the overnighters. At least 3 of the owner's children and their families lived in the mobile homes and were all celebrating a birthday for a 2 year old family member. We were welcomed by 8 and 11 year old girls who came to say hi as soon as we parked - we gave them some Okanagan apple growers' activity books and Vernon pins (gave them to Grandma then they came to thank us and ask if we had more for their 4 cousins - we did).  Not at all like state parks or big impersonal places we have been.  Free laundry, too, but don't expect toilet paper in the loo!

This afternoon, we followed a 15 mile (no metric here) gravel road through a National Wildlife Refuge - watched a northern harrier (hawk-like bird) circling a tree after a pheasant he was trying to catch hid under the tree; saw hundreds of white pelicans on their nesting grounds on an island in the lake; heard meadowlarks singing and watched them flying over the prairie; focused on a bald eagle sitting in a tree; used our binocs to watch northern shovelers (ducks) and eared grebes in the wetlands.  Not too exciting for those of you who are not interested in birds but a great afternoon for us.

Distant horizons here in Montana are very smoky.  We have yet to determine whether that is due to harvested crops being burned off or the forest fires in Washington. 

The signs at many towns through the States have been interesting.  Football and other sports are huge for small towns with high school sport schedules featured on highway signs and McD's newsletters. This small town typifies what is important to its citizens - hunting, fishing, wheat, oil, farming, wildlife and the football team.

The U.S. prairies - a beauty of their own  but, to us, never boring!  We feel the same about the Canadian prairies.

forgot to mention that, like Alberta, Montana has been the location of many dinosaur discoveries, including a T-Rex near the dam at Fort Peck.  This model was made from the Peck T-rex fossils.  One brochure featured 14 dinosaur museums in Montana!

 

We could happily spend more time here in the States (where the political election coverage has been interesting!) but it will feel good to return to Canada tomorrow.