Category: Places

7th-8th June: days 60 & 61

As of yesterday we have been on the road for 8 weeks, have covered about 3800 miles and are now travelling through our 7th state. Despite the close proximity living we are still talking to each other 99% of the time, and I have become inexplicably fond of doing my laundry in a laundromat. Our favourite times have been stopping in the very small towns, and meeting the locals.  There is usually a reciprocal fascination and after the common opening gambit of “Do I detect an accent there?” (Most people pick us as Australian initially) and “You folks are a long way from home” the follow up conversation usually involves the question “Why have you come here?”. Sometimes we have no answer for that.

Today’s drive took us northwards through North Dakota. This is a farming state with rolling prairie land as far as the eye can see.  More long straight roads with mostly poor quality tar seal. No danger of going too fast or dozing off. We had no planned destination for the night, just a few things we wanted to see.

We passed the geographical centre of the USA somewhere back in South Dakota, but Rugby, North Dakota is the geographical centre of North America. This is marked by an obelisk at a crossroads. We stopped there.

Mid afternoon saw us roll up to a very small town in the middle of nowhere called Munich. (Obviously North Dakota had a strong German representation by its original settlers.) It was beautifully kept with all the lawns and edges mown, all the houses newly painted and a sweet little municipal campground with an honesty box for payment. Perfect.  This is affluent farming country and the town is surrounded by grain elevators, silos and yards full of expensive looking machinery and tractors.

Having set up camp we walked into ‘town’, a grocery store and bar, bought something for dinner from the former and then called into the latter for a ‘quick drink’ and to meet some natives.  There is always a bite the bullet moment when entering a small town bar. Usually there is no way of peering in to check it out first and the locals are always sat up at the bar having a communal conversation with the bar person. So a grand entrance by a couple of preppy looking strangers usually turns heads and stops conversation. Nick sends me in slightly ahead as I am braver but, to be honest, we have not yet met with anything but sincere friendliness.

After 2 hours we were buddies with the owner (from Oregon), the barmaid (a South African) and a local farmer, and I managed to extract Nick who, in his lubricated state, was starting to think that it would be a great idea to buy the bar and move to Munich.

On the way out in the morning we visited another bizarre spot, a decommissioned nuclear missile site just outside Necoma.  It was part of the Stanley R Mickelsen Safeguard Complex built to defend the Minuteman Missiles down the road. Its most recognisable feature is a large pyramidal structure.  It cost $6bn to build in the 70s and was only in active operation for 3 months.  It was put up for sale in 2012 and was bought by a Hutterite community (ironically a religious pacifist sect) for $530,000. They have done nothing with it, except fence it off and block anyone from visiting. Shame. We drove up as close as we could get and took some photos from the road.

 

After our sightseeing stop we continued eastwards and to our 8th state, Minnesota.

 

 

4th-7th June: Days 57-60

This stop was really just to sort out the water heater and we had no great expectations for the campground or the town.  We pulled into the camp at lunchtime and it was beautiful. Clean, large sites, lots of trees and quiet. As a completely unexpected bonus it also had a lovely swimming pool and as the temperature was in the 90s again we were into that like excited otters. I left Bob, the mechanic, a message to let him know we had arrived and asked him to call with an approximate time for the morning.  When we hadn’t heard from him by 9am I called again and he answered from his hospital bed, to which he had been transported by ambulance the day before…Bad luck for both of us.  With the help of our very helpful campground owner we spent the rest of the morning trying to secure the services of another mobile RV mechanic.  Happily we found one that could come the evening of the next day.

We made the most of the pool whilst the weather was still hot and were generally lazy until the evening when we took an Uber into town for a drink and dinner.  Downtown Bismarck, named after the 19th century German chancellor, has some great old buildings and an active railway line running right through the middle of it. We found a brewpub and sat outside watching the world go by. The evening had that lovely comfortable heat that you only get after a stinking hot day. We then walked a slow mile up to a recommended restaurant. It was in a small strip mall and looked mediocre from outside, but was very good.

Interesting that very little ‘walking as a form of transport’ happens here. We are told all the time ‘Oh no, it’s too far to walk’, or ‘you’ll need the car/a taxi/an Uber to get to there’.  The same people are probably lacing up their hiking boots at the weekends, or dressing in lycra and going for power walks with their girlfriends in their lunch breaks. There are obviously lots of non-walkers too. The car is king and fuel is cheap.

The next day was cooler and we explored the town’s network of cycle paths. There was a very pretty river trail with lots of historical info signs along the way. Bismarck is on the Missouri River and was an important port for the Lewis and Clark expedition as they headed up the river on their travels. By the time we got home we had done about 17 miles and were a little saddle sore.

The mechanic arrived at about 7pm, and eventually found the fault: a fried relay that he didn’t have a replacement for. He did a McGyver fix, and recommended we find a place further on our travels that could get the part and fit it.  Not a perfect solution, but it would have to do. Unfortunately the heater now seemed to heat fine, but in retrospect has no thermostat or functioning off switch. This meant that 1 hour later we had near boiling water spewing from the pressure release valve on the outside of the camper, and we couldn’t make it stop without turning it off at the fuse.

Some things are never simple. Our next civilisation is Daluth in about 2 weeks. We will need another mobile mechanic.

Next stop somewhere north of here.

 

 

 

3rd-4th June: Days 56 & 57

At some point over the previous 3-4 days our water heater stopped working. This is more of an irritation than a major disaster but there was no easy ‘Hampson Fix’ by reading the manuals.  All the RV service centres are booked weeks in advance at this time of year so we arranged a mobile mechanic to come out to us at our next big town, Bismarck in North Dakota. This left us with a day in hand which we decided to fill by knocking another item off The List. A night’s stay in an Indian reservation casino resort hotel, one of which happened to be on the way from Lemmon to Bismarck.

A walk-around king sized bed, a bath, full wifi, 700 pokie machines…what more could a girl ask for?? We were definitely ready for our next night on dry land, so to speak.

For those who may not be aware of the broad concept of Indian reservation casino resorts they are situated on tribal land, owned and run by the tribe with seemingly a different set of rules than normal state or federal ones.  To describe this one (for the kiwis): think a chimera of Sky City (minus the tower) and a 4 star hotel in the middle of nowhere on the west coast of Northland or the East Cape. A bit incongruous.

We rocked up and happily secured a room without having made a reservation. Next small hurdle, how to get into the Tin Can without being plugged into power.  The camper has 2 ‘slides’ which push out with motors to increase the living space when we are stopped. We can’t actually get inside when they are pulled in and we needed to pack overnight bags.  The solution was to start the LPG generator in the casino carpark, fairly destroying the peace and quiet for 10 minutes or so, whilst enjoying a car picnic.  Problem solved and overnight bags packed, (for overnight bags read reusable supermarket shopping bags-all class, Hampsons, all class.) We installed ourselves in our room and spent all afternoon watching movies on the massive high def TV. I had a long blissful bath and dressed a teensy bit smarter than usual, we ‘hit the floor’.

The main room was full of slot/pokie machines and marinated in a haze of cigarette smoke. The bar was seemingly overstaffed but it still strangely took 20 mins to get our first drinks which were served in disposable plastic cups and we had to wait 2 hours before there was availability in the ‘fine dining restaurant’ (as opposed to the ‘all you can eat buffet restaurant’). But having said that we had a fun evening. We broke even on the slot machines and had some of the best steaks we have ever had. The best bit, however, was the opportunity to observe a particular group of people in their very skewed natural environment… A woman on a portable oxygen supply, with her credit card plugged into a machine, smoking… There was a lot of money being spent.  At one point a lady on the machine next to us won a jackpot of several thousand dollars. After the excitement of the win died down it transpired that she was still significantly down overall on the evening.

The next morning we emerged back into the daylight of the real world and headed the short distance up to Bismarck.

 

 

 

 

2nd-3rd June: Days 55-56

We bade farewell to the Badlands after a slow-motion pack up. Very hot again today. 90 degrees by 11am, and 95 by mid afternoon.

Today we headed to the northern edge of South Dakota where it meets North Dakota and had no booked site for the night. Our destination was Lemmon, a small town surrounded by nothing.  We were fairly sure it had a small RV park in town, but we could only find one mention of it on a 7 year old forum post.  Fortune favours the brave, so we headed off.

To say that the roads are straight here is an understatement. We drove approx 200 miles and only encountered 6 or 7 corners all day. Our route took us through rolling prairies and we saw almost no-one, just a few truckers going the other way. All waved. Not sure if this was just ‘the country way’ or if we were a particularly unusual sight.  We are really off the standard tourist route now and there were no other RVs to be seen.  We have no 3G, barely have cell reception, and are paying close attention to our range and the distance between petrol stations. Big D needs feeding on quite a regular schedule.

We arrived in Lemmon mid-afternoon, to the darkening skies of a summer thunder storm, and no idea where the RV park may be.  (Having neither Google maps or a paper map of town. Like original explorers of sorts.)

After a few laps of town, which didn’t take long, we found it. Hmmm.  A more realistic description would be a ‘small area of scrubland between the Napa auto parts shop and the aggregate yard with 5 or 6 RV hook ups’.  There were unusable toilets in a shed, overflowing bins, and an honesty box for the fee. But we are brave, remember.  We gritted our teeth, found the only hook-up site with the functioning power and water, set up camp, and then realised that it was fine.  We had the place to ourselves (unsurprisingly) and it was a stones throw from the main street of town.

Now Lemmon is a moderately interesting place. Our hook for heading this way was another entry in the Atlas Obscura. The Petrified Wood Park. In the centre of town is a crazy sculpture garden made entirely from chunks of petrified wood.  This was the idea of chap called O.S. Quammen. He was so interested in these local fossils that he personally designed the park as a showcase for them and employed 30-40 unemployed men from the town to build it in the early 30s.

Just south of Lemmon is the area where a local man Hugh Glass had his adventures with a bear. This was the true story behind the Leo DeCaprio movie The Revenant. This area also has lots of dinosaur fossils, most notably ‘Sue’. This is the most complete T-Rex skeleton ever found and is now on display in a museum in Illinois.

The town also has a rather strange museum which showcases lots of other dinosaur fossil finds from the area including the large part of a triceratops skeleton. There is significant space given over to a Creationist Theory explanation for the fossils, citing a catastrophic flood and a scale model of the Noah’s Ark.

We are definitely in middle America and not just geographically.

Another amusing fact about Lemon relates to alcohol. Originally the town spanned the border between North and South Dakota, the border being the railway line that ran east to west. North Dakota was a dry state and South Dakota was not, so you could only drink alcohol south of the railway tracks. Needless to say the southern half of town prospered and there is no Lemmon in North Dakota any more.

 

30th May-2nd June: Days 52-55

The Badlands just sounds cool. Even if you know nothing about it. In reality it is a bizarre and otherworldly place that deserves all its accolades.

Named ‘Mako Sica’ (Literally ‘bad land’) by the Lakota tribe it was poor farming land that challenged the very disillusioned original homesteaders. The large prairie lands were formed on top of a variety of different layers of fragile sedimentary rock that in time have eroded in wind and rain to form colourful striped humps, lumps, pinnacles, sharp spires and canyons. The whole area is a national park and there is a fantastic road that runs right through the middle of it all.

We booked into the descriptively named Badlands Motel and RV Campground for 3 nights and arrived after a short 60 mile hop from the Black Hills area. This was just outside the park area in a small town called Interior, and had a fantastic view of the hills.

Interior itself is a small farming town, tired but alive, with a population of somewhere between 63 and 97 depending on which sign at which end of town that you believe. Even the locals are not sure. It has a gas station, a shop, a church, a small school and 2 bars, only one of which, The Waggon wheel, came with a recommendation. This was a leisurely 10 minute walk from camp and was a small perfect slice of Mid West life.

We drank beer and ate burgers whilst some light rock played on the jukebox and then I demonstrated my lack of pool playing abilities. The walls and ceiling were lined with dollar bills signed by locals and visitors alike and the remaining wall space was filled with a variety of neon signs advertising beers and motorbikes (For motorbikes read Harley Davidsons. There are no others in this neck of the woods.)  We struck up conversation with the bar owner, Jerry. He was in his 70s, in the local uniform of boots, jeans, checked shirt and cowboy hat.  It transpired that he has a collection of classic American cars and pick up trucks and offered to give us the guided tour whilst we were around. We did not need to be asked twice and arranged to come back in a couple of days.

The next day we drove up into the park, picnic packed and walking shoes on. We stopped in the visitors centre for some information on trails and headed off to do a 4 mile loop walk.  It was much warmer, but not unbearable with a hat on. The trail took us right through some of the formations, which up close felt more like movie set props than real things.  We ate our sandwiches (fairly quickly) sat on a grassy knoll, conscious of the danger of rattle snakes. Another creature that can try and kill you in the US of A.

 

The next day was scorchio. The weather seems to have moved from winter straight to summer without a significant amount of spring. We set off in the truck, first stop Jerry’s car collection. This was housed in an enormous shed just opposite the bar. He had a Gran Torino, an old Plymouth, a 20s Chevy, an 30s Ford pick up, a Lincon Continental Givenchy mark V and a host of other cool pick ups. After an hour of drooling over them all we continued our day’s trundles.

 

Next stop was the Minuteman Missile Visitor Centre. This area of South Dakota was one of the main sites for hundreds and hundreds of silos that housed a large proportion of the nuclear missiles that were pointed at Russia during the cold war. Just dotted around the fields, mostly unmanned, highly secure and primed to be launched within a minute after the final command was given. They could have been landing on target in Russia 30 minutes later. The visitors centre had some really good displays on the arms race, Cold War and the few scary ‘near misses’. Next we drove up to Delta 9. This is one of the unmanned silos. It is surrounded by chainlink fence with a gap in it. You just duck under a chain to get in (this keeps the cows out) and do a self guided tour by cell phone. Genius. The whole thing was quite sobering. We were just a bit young to fully appreciate the tensions of the cold war, but I can imaging it was scary stuff living through it.

Next stop on the roadie was Wall and Wall Drug Store. This started as a small drug store that gained fame by giving out free chilled water to all who passed, to get them to stop. Business boomed, and continues. Now the ongoing family business has expanded to fill a whole block selling mostly tourist tat. We were moderately underwhelmed.

Our trip home took us down the scenic drive through the Badlands. This is a fantastic road with countless view points. Difficult to describe really.

We arrived home hot and dusty, showered and headed back to the Wagon Wheel for a carbon copy evening of 2 days previous. At the end of the evening we added our doodled dollar note to the collection on the wall and  rolled home. Onward bound in the morning.

 

 

24-30th May: days 46 to 52

A sedate few days with no photographic evidence…

We moved campsite after 4 days in this area. Our next camp called Crooked Creek was a whole 4 miles from the one in the hills, much closer to town, and right on the cycle trail.  Moving day was a nice warm and sunny day so we decided to do not much else once we were installed. We had a brief foray into Hill City for coffee and got chatting to a very helpful gallery assistant called Lindsay . She had some great recommendations for eating and sight seeing which were duly noted. Then we loafed around in the sun all afternoon. At last a hint of summer.

One of the eating recommendations was an independent burger restaurant, Blackhills Burger and Bun in the next town, Custer. This has won national awards for its burgers and in the land of the burger, that must mean it is likely to be pretty darn good.  The aforementioned cycle trail is along an old railway line and links Hill City to Custer. A plan was hatched. We would earn our lunchtime burger feast by cycling there. The distance was estimated at about 9 miles by my travel companion, but was nearer 12 miles. This was an imperceptible climb for 8 miles during which we were toasty warm and exhausted, then a 4 mile freewheel downhill to Custer. By the time we arrived we were borderline hypothermic. (Not so summery today.) Lunch was worth it though. Truely spectacular burgers, with bottomless coffees to warm us up. The return trip was aided by full bellies and caffeine, and the 8/4 mile switcheroo on the incline/decline was much appreciated.

Our second eating recommendation was for another restaurant in Custer called Skogen. This has very recently been opened by friends of our gallery food advisor and is a bit different from the usual Mid-West fayre. This time we drove to Custer and had brunch in this small and charming place. Decked out more in the Kiwi style doing high end bistro/cafe food. Delicious and nutritious.

After brunch we drove out to an area called Jewel Cave National Monument. This is an enormous complex of caves, which despite only being about 4-5% mapped is already about the third largest in the world. We did a 1.5 hour cave tour which was pretty good but not a patch on the Lewis and Clark Caverns outside Butte.

The next day was pretty low key again. We cycled the 3 miles into Hill City and sat outside a restaurant with a never-ending pot of coffee watching the world go by. Wired, we got home for lunch before the rain started. That was pretty much it for the day, save for a brief foray out for a walk along the bike trail before dinner.

Sunday we drove into Custer State Park and drove the ‘wildlife loop’. A bit scanty on the wildlife to be honest, but there was some great scenery. The sky threw some thunder, lightening and rain at us again, and after travelling one wet unpaved road Big Dave was impressively/embarrassingly dirty. Between weather events we managed to squeeze in a 3 mile walk dubbed ‘Lovers Leap’. This did include a rocky precipice, where legend has it that 2 star crossed lovers leapt to their deaths. Seems a bit extreme. Just run away together. I managed to entice my Nick partway up the rock. No fear of him getting anywhere near enough the edge to be in danger of leaping to his end. His sweaty soles would have acted like gecko feet anyway. We stopped at at carwash on the way home, and returned Big Dave to a vague black colour.

The sun graced us with its presence for the whole the next day. Hoorah.  It was Memorial Day, a public holiday Monday. We avoided the crowds by doing nothing much but being sedately busy all day. Camping and boating: always something to be doing.

We left the next day via the camp site ‘dump station’. Not much needs to be elaborated here, but just to say that this is universally the recurring low point of the RV experience. This visit was particularly low. Enough said.

Next stop The Badlands…

20-24th May: Days 42-46

Our first stop for 4 nights in this area was up in the hills in a quiet forested park called Horsethief. It had views of the rocky hillsides and every now and then a deer skipped through. It is just outside Custer State Park and near an area called Sylvan Lake which has some good hiking. Our first full day here we packed a rucksack with: clothes for all weathers (luckily), water, nut bars and a handful of Werthers Originals (the survival food of champions…) and set off to climb Black Elk Peak. This is at 7242 ft, and has a forest fire watch tower at the top. The day was cool, but sunny and it was a pleasant 1hr 45min yomp to the top, the knob in the photo below

Factoid: Formerly known as Harney Peak, this is the highest point in the USA to the east of the Rockies and the next highest point to the west of the Pyrenees.  As an additional personal fact: this is probably the furthest from the ocean that we have ever been with our feet on the ground. The geographical centre of the country is close to here.

 

We started on our return journey down the hill, trying to ignore the gathering dark clouds. Unfortunately this policy did not prevent the weather turning to custard. Sunshine turned to light hail, turned to heavy hail with thunder claps, and then the snow came. Hello? 2nd half of May over here. Happily we were well prepared and managed to maintain high spirits just long enough so that sun came back out before we got too cold and wet.

 

By the time we got back to camp it was a lovely sunny evening, and we sat out with a campfire until we ran out of wood and it got brass monkeys cold.

The next day was a definite car day as it was cold and wet. We headed south. First stop Crazy Horse. Now this is quite thing. A project of such epic proportions that it is almost unfathomable.

In 1939, as the Mount Rushmore carvings were nearing completion, a sculptor called Korczak Ziolkowski (who had been involved with Mount Rushmore) was asked by a local chieftain, Standing Bear, to create a memorial to show that ‘…the red man has great heroes, also.’

A hero was chosen: Crazy Horse having been a warrior involved in the Little Bighorn Battle and killed a while later by a US soldier. A hillside of rock was identified, a scale model sculpture designed, and the first blast was 3rd June 1942. Below is a stock photo, with the scale model. To put it into context, Crazy Horse’s face is 87ft tall.

75 years later, only the face of Crazy Horse is finished.  Ziolkowski died in the 80s, but his family are continuing the project and are now working on the pointing arm and the horse’s head. I feel a weird pang of regret that there is a very high probability that the sculpture will be nowhere finished in our lifetime. It will be a modern World Wonder.

From here we drove south through a dark monsoon to a town called Hot Springs. This does have a thermal area, and we did have our togs with us, but it was shut. We consoled ourselves with lunch, then went to other other tourist trap in town: The Mammoth Site. Now this is cool. More than a few years ago, in the days when mammoths were still common in these parts, a geological accident opened up a hole in the earth and filled it with warmish water.  This looked like a lush oasis of green in a harsh ice age environment, and the lone male mammoths would come to eat and drink from it. Unfortunately for them it had very steep sides, and they kept falling in and then couldn’t get back out. The sinkhole slowly filled up with strata of dead beasts, set in a drying out sludge which eventually solidified. Over the millennia the surrounding softer rocks eroded away turning the hole into a hump. A veritable paleontological Kinder Surprise. Millions of years later a property developer started to level the site and the digger uncovered a skeleton. Luckily the developer recognised a mammoth bone when he saw one, luckily he had contacts with a world renowned mammoth expert who was working at another site a mere 100 miles away. Luckily he didn’t feel the need to gain financially from his find.  Now the site is owned by a non-profit organisation, has had a massive roof constructed over it, and it is being slowly dug out in situ.

To date they have found the remains of 62 mammoths, all male. (It could be argued that the lady mammoths were too intelligent to walk too close to the edge of a steep sided pit of despair-however inviting). Our tour guide was a very competent 13 yr old called Michael (not sure why he wasn’t at school) and it was all very interesting. We drove home via Wind Cave National Park, and the adjoining Custer State Park.

The next day we decided to visit to Mount Rushmore. This is small compared to Crazy Horse but because it is finished and you are able to get much closer to it, it is equally as impressive. Quite an honour to have your ugly mug carved 60ft high into a rock. Most presidents fail to attain this level of respect, as we know. The Mount Rushmore project was completed between 1927 and 1941 by over 400 men. Unfortunately the sculptor Gutzon Borglum died just before the last head was dedicated. Nice work though, Gutzon.

You can drive right up to the monument, but we decided to stretch the legs again. There was a vaguely marked trail of about 3.5 miles from a nearby lake. The weather was far more clement, and with more Werthers Originals packed we walked the 2 hours each way.  Very pretty and almost deserted. The monument seems quite a pilgrimage for the Americans, and the solitude of the trail was not perpetuated once we emerged from the foliage and joined the hoards.

The weather stayed good into the evening, so we sat out around a fire again until bedtime.  Dinner was campfire cooked bacon butties. 2 of my favourite things.

The next day we moved to another camp site nearby which is right on an excellent cycle trail and close to town.

 

15-16th May: Days 37 & 38

Somewhere along the line Nick discovered that there is a lounge bar in Great Falls, MT that was a little different from the usual bars. A bar that he needed to visit.  A bar that combined drinking, eating, & lounging with some unusual entertainment.

The Sip and Dip Lounge Bar is attached to a large motel. The motel pool has viewing windows to the bar and is is open for guests to use in the daytime, but in the evening it is the fantastical realm of the resident mermaids (and mermen on a Tuesday)

So we planned a night’s stay in Great Falls around an evening in this fine watering hole. We booked into an RV park in town and drove the short 45 miles from Prewett Creek.  As it was a little early to start drinking at 1pm, we broke out the bikes and explored the riverside trail.  This was a bit more industrial chic than previous trails, but quite interesting as it wound downriver to one of the 3 small hydroelectric dams that helps power the town. (Hence its nickname ‘Electric City’)

Eventually the exciting time had arrived and an Uber took us to our hallowed destination.

It was a place that you never would have found, or wandered into, and was suitably kitch, decorated in the style of a retro Tiki Bar.

But. Unfortunately. The mermaid-on-duty had called in sick. For crying out loud.

We were more than a trifle disappointed. But as one of our co-customers pointed out. “No-one wants to watch a mermaid with diarrhoea”. Wise words, my friend, wise words.

We availed ourselves of some cocktails and burgers, and were less disappointed by the end of the evening.

Here is a stock photo of the place with mermaids installed.

11th-15th May: Days 33-37

Another item on our List is ‘learn to fly fish’. Montana is a trout fishing mecca and the Missouri River quite literally runs through it (For all you ladies of a certain age who had a Robert Redford and Brad Pitt crush like me, the 1992 movie ‘A River Runs Through It’ was set in Montana. Yes. Fly fishing can be cool and sexy. Allegedly.)

So anyway. We selected an out-of-the way RV park, right on the river, and  headed off. We stopped off at Helena, the state capital, for lunch and provisions for 4 nights and made our way to Prewett Creek. This is an amazing spot nestled amongst some deep sided rocky cliffs through which the river runs. The chosen method of fishing here is ‘floating’. The locals have small double ended boats big enough for 3 people. They launch about 8 miles up river, dash back with a second car to leave the trailer at the ramp, then spend a few hours floating back to it. The middle guy steers with oars and the other 2 fly fish. Looks like a very pleasant way to spend an afternoon.

The only other establishment at Prewett Creek is a small Fly Fishing shop run by a local legend called Phil Camera. An East Coast native, he is a world expert on trout fishing and fly making. We called in to see what we could organise. About an hour later we came out with a plan to get licences the next day, an agreement to rent some rods, a brain full of fishing tips and a new friend. We decided to stick to spin casting rather than learn to fly cast. Much easier and still quite a valid method of fly fishing apparently.

The next 2 days were freezing. Wearing all our clothes, with a thermos of coffee and chairs in hand we made our way down to the river. I fished. Nick got his teeth into John Steinbeck. (We only got one licence and rod in the end). We moved several times, even got on our bikes and went up-river a few miles.

My casting was splendiferous.

I put in the hours.

I did everything that the guru, Phil Camera, had told me.

But. Not. Even. A. Nibble.

Not. Even. A. One.

Never mind. The river was beautiful, it was peaceful. We saw an otter, lots of Canada geese and lots of boats floating past serenely. And do you know what? I didn’t see a single other person catch a fish either. So I won’t be too upset about my lack of success. (Although I can’t catch fish for toffee in NZ either…) Phil commiserated with us during our debrief. Apparently this is the time of the caddis fly hatch, which means the trout are well fed and not so hungry for flies. (Contrast this with warmer weather, and the popular activity of tube-floating down the river, in what Phil amusingly termed the ‘bikini-hatch‘)

Perhaps we will have better luck on another river, another time, but Prewett Creek was a little gem. And no trout were harmed in the making of this post.

8th-11th May: Days 30-33

Firstly, before you all start guffawing at the idea of a place named after your backside, it is pronounced ‘beaut’, as in ‘beautiful’. Still pretty funny though.

Secondly, it seems most people pass through rather than stay 3 nights. The lady at the RV park desk had to double check that she heard us right. (We are definitely on a ‘go-slow’ by now.)

Thirdly, it’s a pretty interesting spot, and another beautiful drive through the American Wilderness to get there from Yellowstone

Butte exists because they found copper ore on a hillside, and then proceeded to dig it out. They dug and dug and dug and created an enormous hole in the world. The Berkley Pit. Whilst they were mining they pumped the water out of the hole, but since the mine was abandoned it has filled with a rather beautiful, horrendously toxic, watery green soupy lake. Yum. So toxic that last year a flock of 10,000 Canada Geese landed on the lake and 4,000 died.  So it’s not a candidate for conversion into a recreation facility.

The town got rich on the proceeds of the mining and dubs itself ‘The Richest Hill On Earth’. There are lots of enormous fancy buildings in the old district of the town and it was obviously quite a dandy spot in the day.

We had a morning wandering around, and even managed to procure haircuts from a fancy salon.

The Continental divide also runs through this area. In 1985 a statue called ‘Our Lady Of The Rockies’ was completed. This is a 90 foot likeness of Mary, Mother of Jesus, built atop the mountainside on the divide overlooking the town. Impressive but a bit bizarre, given that it is quite catholic thing and they are at pains to emphasise it is not a catholic thing. No photo, sorry. Here is a fluttering flag instead. The photo doesn’t quite show how enormous it was.

About 30 miles from Butte are some caves called The Lewis and Clark Caverns. (These guys had nothing to do with their discovery but they are so important to the history of the Western USA that they have a whole heap of stuff named after them.) We drove over and did the guided tour, which was very, very good. It was a 2 hour tour through the cave system, with an amusing guide. Lots of impressive structures and rooms. Interesting enough that I didn’t freak out once. (I don’t particularly like being underground) Despite being underground, this cave system is at an altitude of 1 mile. Fact.

No photos of this either. Here is a cool old car instead.

 

Butte saw us achieve another item of The List, which was to eat in one of the Man vs Food establishments.  For those of you in the know about this TV show, this will need no explanation. For those who have never seen it, then this will mean nothing to you.

http://www.travelchannel.com/shows/man-v-food/episodes/butte

Butte’s speciality dish is the deep fried pork chop sandwich. “Delicious and nutritious!”, I hear you cry… The Freeway Tavern, a short walk from our campsite is home of The Wop Chop (named for its Italian owner). The Tavern looked like a fight pit from the outside, with no windows to look into the inside. A deep breath saw us push open the door and inside was a small, locals bar. No fighting at all. A pitcher of beer and 2 sandwiches was only $20, and it was delightful. The highlight of the evening was the barmaid insisting 2 of the locals put down their drinks and get behind the bar to fix the 2 sliding doors of the big chiller cabinet. This provided 20 minutes of entertainment to the entire place and their success was met with a rousing round of applause from all patrons.

The weather really warmed up when were in Butte. So much so that one evening we even broke out the BBQ and had dinner outside. Who’d have thought…A taste of life to come, we hope. It was a trifle windy, hence me using Big Dave as a windbreak.

 

The sunshine also made us realise that we are in need of hats, and after a bit of searching we are now the proud owners of slightly cowboy looking ones. When in Rome… (This should also guarantee a break in the weather).  Sunshine was also responsible for our minor low-point of the trip so far.  Up til now, we have not considered rolling out our awning, it being so darn cold n’all. But a sudden increase in temperature by 20 deg C and no wind made us curious as to how it worked. It easily deployed, then got inexplicably stuck out. No amount of jiggling and fiddling with it would change the situation. We searched the internet for hints, we enlisted the help of a few other more experienced RV’ers, but to no avail. The general opinion was that it was stuffed.  Luckily we managed to find a mobile RV mechanic who said he would come and look at it the following morning. He did (eventually), and happily all it took to fix it was some more aggressive jiggling. And a $40 call out fee. Cheap at half the price, methinks.

Butte’s final crowning glory was The Chicken Shack. A fried chicken takeaway known statewide. And it is located at the RV park. We pleasure-delayed this until the last night, partially earned the calories with a long walk, then had a dinner twice the size than we really needed.

Next stop, somewhere in the middle of nowhere.