Following the Missouri across North Dakota

8/6/2019

We left Fort Buford behind shortly after a beautiful sunrise.

We were traveling atop the Bakken Formation, the largest contiguous  deposit of oil and natural gas in the United States and parts of Canada. Yellow flames marked extraction points along the route.

At 0940 we stopped in Watford City at Jack and Jill Grocery. Shopping is  expensive here for oil workers. A quart of milk was $5.

Sedimentary rocks form layered hills that were very different from other landscapes we've found on this trip.

Mid-morning found us at the 3 Tribes Museum in New Village. Elders were meeting in a part of the museum, but we were welcome to explore the remainder, as long as we didn't shoot any photos. In addition to a collection of art and artifacts, it told the story of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara people. We were saddened to learn how the US gave them the reservation, then built the reservoir and flooded them out. The museum is just before this modern Four Bears Bridge.

While in North Dakota, we had to look up the location of a small town to see if it is nearby.  Hoople is home to the fictional University of Southern North Dakota, well known to musicalologists studying the work of PDQ Bach. The silliness associated with his music contributed a lot to the fun of my high school and college years. Unfortunately, Hoople was four hours out of our way, so that will have to wait for another trip. If you have never listened to New Horizons in Music Appreciation, it might make you smile.

Not just petroleum oil is produced here. We passed miles of sunflower fields along the way.

By 1430 we were checked in at Beulah Bay Campground.

Electric is included, but the water here is not potable. That's a reason we always carry some fresh water in our on-board tanks. The fee here was $27 per night.

Thunderstorms rolled by, thankfully, on the other side of the lake.

If you are looking for a good travel book, try "River Horse" by William Least Heat-Moon. The author shares his log of traveling, by boat, across America from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

Lake Audubon is a section of the Missouri River where the vessel River Horse traveled.

Once again, we landed a spot on our own little peninsula. I really didn't expect to have this much privacy in the middle of summer.

One more view across the lake as late afternoon sun illuminated green topped earthen cliffs.

Easting across North Dakota on today's map.