Rainy Day

It's cold (38 degrees) and raining in North Dakota. Ughhhh! It's almost 10am and we are still hanging out. I just walked Ziggy and wore my raincoat with the polar fleece lining. My hands almost froze so I now have gloves in my pocket. They had predicted wet snow so I guess the rain is a good deal.

We finally packed up and drove to the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers. This is an important area due to fur trading and American history with the native Americans. There is a lovely visitor center and a terrific gal named Kim showed us around. Some guys were out fishing for Paddlefish which look prehistoric with a long paddle protruding from their mouth and can weigh around 100 pounds. There is a very short season to catch them – one week or 1000 fish. Seems to attract sportspeople from all over. You can eat the fish, but the eggs (caviar) can bring in good money. Along the road we spotted a ring necked pheasant and he put on quite a show running through a field to evade us.

We drove past the Army’s Fort Buford which was closed and continued to Fort Union which was built by the American Fur Trading Company owned by John Jacob Astor of the English Astors with later descendents in the USA. Despite the driving rain we found the fort impressive as it has been reconstructed. We especially liked the trading room which showed all the items that could be had for a buffalo, beaver or even a mouse pelt. Luxury items like cloth, coffee pots, jewelry, blankets, guns, tea and more were in great demand by the native Americans and in one year over 150,000 buffalo pelts were traded at the fort. Liquor and rifles were also traded for furs.
Lewis and Clark passed here on their way to the Pacific. James Audubon came to the fort to sketch the animals and other prominent people of the time came too including Crazy Horse, Chief Joseph and Sitting Bull. We got soaked walking from the parking lot and back, but it was worth it. Interestingly the fort is in North Dakota and the parking lot is in Montana.

Along the way we saw many workers on the train tracks. They had all types of work vehicles on the rails including tractors and one truck with a porta potty. All day we passed large farms with cattle. There are so many adorable calves and we call each one Norman for the wonderful little calf in the movie “City Slickers.”
Back on the road we headed through desolate country to the Canadian border in Saskachewan. We had lunch at the Wild West Diner just before crossing and continued north to Regina. We drove through the city and out the other side towards Saskatoon. We are now in Mountain Time and the days get longer and longer. It has finally stopped raining and the temperature is about 48 degrees. Scarily there are still some patches of snow along the median of the road. Finally arrived about 7:30 and found a WalMart that we had shopped in last year. Made dinner, listened to some good music on Sirius and now to bed.