Fall 2018, Day 6 - North Dakota

Thursday, August 30, 2018 - North Dakota - 469 miles today:



Because it was closed yesterday evening, I visited the Annunciation Monastery, the "Jewel of the Prairie" this morning:


I arrived at the tail-end of Communion/Worship Service, and sat in the back. When it was over, one of the Sisters (she has been there 53 years) showed me around:



And then it was 134 miles west:

to vist Theodore Roosevelt National Park:


I did the Scenic Loop Drive (counterclockwise):

Because of road paving in the beginning, you follow a "Guide Truck":

but, like hiking, everyone pretty soon hits their own pace:





I went up the side-road to Buck Hill, and hiked to get some great views:




and then back down to "The Loop":


WAIT - What's he doing on "my road"??!?


Boy, out here these Stop Signs are EVERYWHERE:

Can I be like the Hudson River School artists, and just "paint out" the cell tower (and cars)?


Mailed postcards (they really like their "Western thing" out here):


I LOVE their license plates!!!!!:


Then back east to their Painted Canyon Visitor Center:




Then north to their "North Unit":


It is a beautiful, windy (it winds back-and-forth, not windy with gusts of wind) [English can be so tricky sometimes] road to get out to Oxbow Overlook. Sometimes you are all alone on the road:

Sometimes you're not:




Not many people in the Oxbow Overlook parking area:


The "oxbow" was created when the Little Missouri River was blocked (from flowing north) by glaciers, causing it to turn hard to the east:

On my way back I stopped at the "River Bend Overlook":



After leaving the Park, I zigzagged up-over-and-down to get to Montana Route 16 South:

These "High Plains":

remind me of my favorite Clint Eastwood movie - "High Plains Drifter":


Is that one of these "Early Warning Radar Stations"??:


Route 16, and then I-94, go alongside the Yellowstone River (yes, that "Yellowstone"):

checked into the Super 8 at 7:15


WOW. Thank you God for this great adventure day!

Started the morning with quiet music: Dionne Warwick - An Introduction to ...


then driving Music for today I kept moving up the "R" albums:

The Police - Reggatta de Blanc, 1979 second album

I really like this album!

various artists - Reggae Around the World, 1998


various artists - Red Hot + Rio, 1996


various artists - Red Hot + Dance, 1992


Patty Larkin - Red = Luck, 2003


then because I've been driving through some wide-open, desolate country:

Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska, 1982

The characters/stories speak for themselves, so maybe I'll move to something a little more upbeat.

Bruce Springsteen - Tunnel of Love, 1987


lyrice to "Valentine's Day":

I'm driving a big, lazy car, rushin' up the highway in the dark
I got one hand steady on the wheel and one hand's tremblin' over my heart
It's pounding, baby, like it's gonna bust right on through
And it ain't gonna stop 'til I'm alone again with you

...

They say he travels fastest who travels alone
But tonight I miss my girl, mister
Tonight I miss my home

Counting Crows - Recovering the Satellites, 1996 second album


Grateful Dead - Reckoning, 1981 acoustic album


R.E.M. - Reckoning [Deluxe Edition], Live at the Aragon Ballroom, Chicago, Illinois, July 7, 1984