How to Ruin a Small Town
Tonight we're at the Downstream COE campground at Ft. Peck Dam in Montana. We were here something like 5 or 6 years ago with the bushouse and remember enjoying our stay. We knocked off over 400 miles of exciting North Dakota geography on our drive today.
The low-light of the day was the hot oil producing region around Williston. We've been to Williston at least three other times and the town continues to slide into a prosperous and busy, but dusty dirty and disorganized garbage pit. I don't know how else to put it. The little RV park we stayed in twice before is gone... sold to some developer who's project failed. There are cheap buildings thrown up all over town, temporary dormitories for migrant workers, too much traffic, and just a slimy feel to everything. The only reason someone would come here is to make money. I can find no other reason. In 20 years (or before) when all the activity is long gone, this will be an archaeological curiosity... that's all. What a pit. I'll bet little Williston wasn't such a bad little town 20 years ago. What a shame.
The rest of the day was marvelous. Good Ole' US-2 is a generally good road... almost all divided 4 lane across North Dakota. Very little traffic, but a few small towns to go through. They can be interesting if one stops, perhaps has a cup of coffee and a piece of pie, and talks with the locals. We're certainly in no rush.
We actually had a tailwind today. Took us three days to find one.
Tomorrow we press on toward Shelby. We'll have to have at least one more night on this side of the border to deal with our "too much wine" issue. I'll include a couple photos from the past two days to keep things a little more interesting.
Happy Birthday Sweetie.
The low-light of the day was the hot oil producing region around Williston. We've been to Williston at least three other times and the town continues to slide into a prosperous and busy, but dusty dirty and disorganized garbage pit. I don't know how else to put it. The little RV park we stayed in twice before is gone... sold to some developer who's project failed. There are cheap buildings thrown up all over town, temporary dormitories for migrant workers, too much traffic, and just a slimy feel to everything. The only reason someone would come here is to make money. I can find no other reason. In 20 years (or before) when all the activity is long gone, this will be an archaeological curiosity... that's all. What a pit. I'll bet little Williston wasn't such a bad little town 20 years ago. What a shame.
The rest of the day was marvelous. Good Ole' US-2 is a generally good road... almost all divided 4 lane across North Dakota. Very little traffic, but a few small towns to go through. They can be interesting if one stops, perhaps has a cup of coffee and a piece of pie, and talks with the locals. We're certainly in no rush.
We actually had a tailwind today. Took us three days to find one.
Tomorrow we press on toward Shelby. We'll have to have at least one more night on this side of the border to deal with our "too much wine" issue. I'll include a couple photos from the past two days to keep things a little more interesting.
Happy Birthday Sweetie.
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