Lewis & Clark State Park ~ Revisited

Yesterday blog ended with our stay at the campground. I must say a few words about this campground before moving on with today’s journey. The campground sites were full and the park ranger let us park at a beautiful overlook of the Missouri River by ourselves. We did take a short two mile ride over to the main campsite area to use the showers, it was the first time on the trip that we didn’t shower in the camper. A family was walking there dog and I started talking to the man, he was about my age, he worked in this area all his life and chatted a long time about the oil boom. He said the oil industry has been here since the 50’s but nothing like it is now. Workers coming from all parts of the world are showing up expecting to get rich. So many are here that they don’t have a place to stay, some are staying in cars, some bought shipping containers and converting them into so-called living quarters. The lucky ones do work and make between 60 and 90 thousand dollars a year. The oil business is a 24-7 operation, they work all kinds of shifts and as much as they want. He explained the difference between sweet and sour crude oil, I enjoyed the conversation.

The night was quite ~ no trains~ Sunday morning we had made arrangements to call our Dunkin Donuts “coffee crew” and give them an update but Helen noticed that she didn’t have a strong cell signal, we were in a basin, lower elevation at the river. We buttoned up the camper and headed for higher ground. Five minutes later the cell rang and it was Claire at DDs’.  We were about 16 miles from Williston, I need gas as the gauge said 30 miles to empty. OK don’t  worry we made it.

Missouri-Yellowstone Confluence

Two great rivers meet here and make the Missouri larger and broader. The Interpretive Center has a museum and a gentleman who portrays Capt. William Clark wagon train leader. He gave a short Sunday service like it would have been during the day. Many artifacts were on display. Two nearby Forts were our next stops. Fort Buford was partially restored I found it interesting and took a lot of pictures. Fort Union just a few miles away was having a reenactment and several tee pees were up and venders sold their wares. The weather was warm, breezy and sunny.

Thats what we saw and did

The Regiment RifleTeam~ Memories....



The good old days