Carson, ND - August 2019

Well, this should be our last night on the road.  Had a great drive over from Evanston.  Probably should have only been several hours, but we decided to skip around Salt Lake City and take a circuitous route to the south.  Took longer, but it was more picturesque.  Got off I-80 at US 40 and took it south for a little while and then some backroads through the mountains, ending up south of Salt Lake City.  It was beautiful traveling through Park City (there's a little bit of money in that area) and then around Deer Creek Reservoir through some beautiful mountain passes. Eventually we ended up in Toele and hit I-80 again across the Great Salt Lake into Nevada.  Fun trip and we saw some new territory which we had not traveled before.  We're staying at the Rainbow which is a Peppermill casino in West Wendover.  Got in early enough to play nine holes at Toana Vista Golf Course.  Just us and the deer on the course and the course was in surpris...

We never made it out of Wyoming today, but we went from the northeast corner to the southwest corner before calling it quits. It was a great journey across the state starting with lots of wildlife sightings - saw two deer with two fawns as we started out and then there were numerous pronghorn in the fields.  We had taken breakfast with us when we left the Hampton Inn and we enjoyed a picnic breakfast at the Powder River rest area.  Just us, our food and the flies.  We forgot how many flies, yellow jackets, crickets, etc. there are out here.  That's the nice thing about Reno - no bugs! We were on the interstate for a little while, but then went cross-country on Wyoming highways, US roads, etc.  As we climbed over the Big Horn Mountains, we saw some magnificent scenery.  We stopped to admire the cliffs at one point and couldn't figure how why we were a little lightheaded.  Then we saw the sign for the Powder River Pass at 9666' :-).  Cars parked...

No, that's not a "why", but a WY for Wyoming!  We left Carson, ND after the service and reception to head back home.  Thought you might like to see the entrance to Carson off ND Hwy 21. This morning we drove over to Elgin for breakfast - there is no cafe or restaurant in Carson - population approximately 300.  Good breakfast and then back to the motel.  We had decided to leave in the afternoon since there wasn't anything planned.  We helped set up the community center and then left for St Theresa's - originally there wasn't anything planned there; however, the priest held a small service at the church before going out to the cemetery.  At the cemetery, the priest again held a short service and then the urn was placed in the same area with her mother and father. Back to Carson where everyone gathered for a reception.  More food than you could shake a stick at and some really great desserts.  Fun talking to everyone and getting acquainted...

Well, we reached our destination around 1:00 this afternoon.  Carson is a small town just west of the time zone change, so we only have one hour difference between home and here.  More on Carson later. Started out from Miles City and stayed on US 12 across Montana and into North Dakota.  Nothing but wide open spaces with lots of range land and fields, interspersed with gas wells as we traveled east.  We were thinking of playing golf in either Baker, MT  or Bowman, ND, but the weather was not conducive.  We did check out both nine-hole courses and may play them some time in the future.  There certainly wasn't a lot of activity on either course.  As you can see below, it's wide open country. While we were in Bowman, we inquired about some family members; but didn't have much success there, either. As we continued eastward, we stopped in Burt where Vi's father was born.  Not much left of the town, a couple of farms and a few abandoned bu...

We thought it would be an easy drive from Billings to Miles City this morning.  However, we didn't bank on a fifteen mile construction project on US 12.  More on that later. Headed north out of Billings to Roundup so that we could take US 12 across Montana.  What we had found as the Yellowstone Trail was now called the Lewis and Clark Byway.  One of these days, I'm going to have to read an account of their travels from St Louis to the Pacific and back again.  We have encountered many of their historic travel signs in our travels to and from Seattle, as well as to North Dakota. Wide open spaces north of Billings, as well as when we turned east on US 12.  Then we hit a construction project which caused us at least a half hour delay as we waited for the pilot car to come from the opposite direction.  We could see why they needed the project.  US 12 for most of the way was just two lanes with no shoulder and steep drop-offs for most of the route. ...

Left Pocatello on a beautiful, sunny day.  Travelled north on I-15 through potato and corn fields.  I'm not sure which is the bigger draw in this area - the Museum of Clean in Pocatello or the Potato Museum in Blackfoot.  Guess I'll have to reserve judgement until we visit both of them; however, that's not to be on this trip. It's interesting to see the remnants of the lava flows in this part of Idaho.  Supposedly, the lava in the soil is what makes the area so fertile.  That, combined with the water from the Snake River.  In any event there were plenty of potato, alfalfa, and corn fields in various stages.  Got off I-15 and travelled northeast on US 20 (could have continued all the way east to see Tim in upstate New York).  You could see the Teton Mountain Range off to the east - impressive mountains.  Heading toward Yellowstone, the farmland changes as you enter the Targhee National Forest - all pine trees and alpine meadows. For some r...